Topic outline

  • Basics of Service Design course is an online course. The course material is uploaded regularly before and during the educational process, so please follow this space regularly. 


    AMUO-C3006 - Basics of Service Design 

    Responsible teacher: Dr Helena Sustar, Aalto University, Learning Services, helena.sustar@aalto.fi   

    Where: each Wednesday from 18:00 to 20:00 via Microsoft Teams, Helsinki Time 

    Attending the first introduction course lecture is mandatory.

    Good to know: Lectures are not recorded as they are participatory, engaging course participants. 

    Recording of lectures by the participants is not allowed.  


    Course term: 9 lectures (Lectures 6, 7, and 8 are Workshop sessions)

    Workload: 54 hours (online lectures, group work and independent study)

    Grading: Pass/Fail

    Course Language: English 

    Twitter: #AaltoOpenSD  


    The link to the 10th of January lecture and all others in Microsoft Teams. 

    Please log into Microsoft Teams via your Aalto University email, which you can access at http://outlook.office.comto ensure a fully functioning Microsoft Teams.  

    Find instructions on how to do it at the bottom of this page. 


    The link to Saturday's workshop on 17th of February.   


    Note! Course grades and certificates 

    The course grades will be published in Sisu 30 days after the last lecture 

    or https://www.aalto.fi/en/aalto-university-open-university/results-certificates-and-transcripts-of-records

    For any other questions, get in touch with avoin@aalto.fi.

    Please do not send me emails regarding certificates unless the issues are related to the grade itself.

     

    Course description

    A redesign of sustainability services is a red thread of this service design (SD) course. Due to limited recourses, climate change, and the urgency to reduce consumption, I selected the sustainability theme. This course starts with discussing SD and its possible future developments. Secondly, it presents the essential SD tools and stages of the design process to utilise these tools. Then, the course studies meanings, user experiences, and co-creation value. Lastly, different SD tools are adopted and tested in the online co-design workshop.


    Content and course structure

    The course runs online. The classes are delivered via a weekly two-hour lecture, concluding with a discussion. Each lecture combines two components: theoretical and practical. The theoretical part will familiarise you with relevant SD theory and terminology via lessons, homework and assigned readings. Course participants will employ the practical part via a circular services case analysis, different assignments, exercises, tasks completed individually and in a group, and a one-day practical co-design workshop.


    Learning outcomes

    • to understand different service design components and dimensions

    • to get familiar with service design terminology

    • to distinguish the most common service design tools and when and how to use them

    • to practice how to prototype service design concepts


    Assessments

    • Practical assignments: completed every week and submitted on MyCourses (each Saturday at 23:00) 

    • Readings: read while also answering related questions, weekly submissions on MyCourses (each Monday at 23:00) 

    • Participation in the SD workshop and completed the final assignment


    Week 1 Put your service design lenses on 

    The lecture introduces products, service(s), service design, and different fields where service design is used in practice. The class answers questions about what service design is and what SD principles are and presents examples of current services. The lesson concludes with examples of domains where SD is utilised.


    Week 2 Systemic and holistic understanding of contexts with SD tools 

    The lecture starts with the Double Diamond, the design process, SD-related terminologies and several elementary SD tools like interviews, circular business models, future scanning tools, Persona, a workshop, customer service journey and Blueprint.


    Week 3 Designing meaningful services     

    The lecture discusses different aspects of meanings in services, the role of meaning, service moments, service experience, and reflection on existing services. Finally, the class touches upon strategic design and sustainable development goals. 


    Week 4 Rethinking value in a changing landscape 

    The class starts with value evolution and new value emerging paradigms in the Anthropocene. Furthermore, we discuss collaboration and facilitation in the co-design cases following co-creation, co-production and empathic design explanation. 


    Week 5 Personalised customer experiences                                                  

    A lecture differentiates between meaning and experiences, the anatomy of designing for customer experiences and the typology of experiences. The lesson concludes with six dimensions of experiences and implications in the organisational context.


    Week 6, 7 & 8 Service experimentation workshop 

    We will use results from analysing selected circular services to experiment and develop transformative services that resist unexpected events we are facing.   


    Week 9 Service design learning ecology

    The last lecture concentrates on the final course assignments presentations, feedback and critical discussion of the assignments and the entire course. 

     

     


    • How to sign in to Teams

      You sign in to Teams using your Microsoft ID. It is an ID specific to Microsoft environments, and it is created when you activate your Aalto user ID. 

      Note: It is not the same as your Aalto ID. 

      Usually, it is in the form of firstname.lastname@aalto.fi (mail address). The password to use is the same as you use for any other Aalto service.

      You can check your Microsoft ID by opening the Microsoft Authenticator App, which will display it as the App opens.  

      (that is the App you need to have installed on your mobile phone to access MyCourses when you are outside Aalto's internal network. More info at Multifactor Authentication at Aalto Services | Aalto University)

       I hope this helps. 


    • How to log in with Aalto email to your teams:

      1. Get your @aalto email address from your inbox sent by its-accounts@aalto.fi. Just use the most recent account sent to you. 

      2. Reset your password at   https://password.aalto.fi 

      Configure your security settings for signing in. You can choose the text message security code option, which makes it easy. 

      3. Try to log in to Microsoft Office www.office.com with your Aalto account. If it works, use the same account and your password to log into Teams. 

      4. Download the latest Teams application for desktop use at https://www.microsoft.com/fi-fi/microsoft-teams/download-app

      If you use a Mac, things might not be that easy. Try to find the right version suitable for your machine. Use Google if you need to find all the information. 

      Always use the latest version of the app. 

      5. Sing in the Teams app with your Aalto email. Your Aalto email qualifies as the office email. It’s the same.