This year I was pleased to collaborate with the Royal College of Art to act as an Expert Witness in the field of Education for a final year design project.
I was approached to provide review and videotaped interviews for an MA Service Design student. I hadn’t heard much about the discipline of Service Design before, and was pleased to be able to provide an input on such an interesting project.
Service Design involves an integrated approach to the design of human experiences and the socio-cultural, economic and technological systems in which the services are experienced. Service designers needs to be able to integrate multiple design disciplines to create a systems-based solution that resolves the often complex needs of many different stakeholders in addition to the human experience of receiving or delivering a service.
The project was looking at ways to introduce off-site thematic, experiential learning into the mainstream curriculum of schools, and to produce an interactive platform to support the administration and promotion of such a service.
The student had little experience of the politics, regulation and administration of education – in terms of either the curriculum or the organisation of schools, but had a passion for finding ways to enrich the experience of students. It was very interesting to hear his fresh perspective and approach to innovating mainstream education.
After several exploratory designs, including a classroom in a bus that could educate students en-route to different experiences, a web-based platform was developed to present a curated selection of experiences to make it easier for schools and teachers to identify appropriate educational excursions to pursue. The platform would provide practical information – such as the location, duration and practical requirements of the experience (number of students accommodated, required equipment or experience…) as well as the educational benefits and alignment with the curriculum.
More information about the final project ‘Nomad Labs’ can be found on the student’s personal website.
Image courtesy of Mattia Gobo (2018): http://www.mattiagobbo.com