This article is an original contribution from WDO Professional Member Service Design Network. To learn more about their work, visit their website or follow them on LinkedIn.
Today’s designers work in complex systems, often tackling wicked problems. This kind of work – often achieved through service design – necessarily requires an interdisciplinary approach. As Abraham A. Maslow wrote in The Psychology of Science in 1966, “I think it’s tempting, when the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” We need to break down the boundaries between silos within organizations, as well as between design disciplines. Organizations typically look at problems through the lens of their often-disconnected departments, leading to choppy user experiences that fail to seamlessly cross multiple channels.
The same is true for designers, who need to overcome the limitations that design disciplines place on a truly holistic approach. A graphic designer will always try to solve a problem through visual solutions, while a product designer will look for physical improvements or innovation. What we truly need are service designers who can orchestrate different design competencies as well as bring a deep understanding of the organizational systems and the requirements for transformations. Our aims can rarely be achieved without bringing those diverse roles around the table, both physically and metaphorically.
In the latest issue of Touchpoint, the international journal for service design published by the Service Design Network, we focus on interdisciplinarity itself. What does success achieved through interdisciplinary approaches look like, and what are the tried and tested methods to achieve it?
Service design provides some very robust methods and tools to achieve interdisciplinarity. System maps, stakeholder maps, journey maps, causal loop visualizations, storyboards, prototypes – these are just some of the standard tools within the service design process. But the success of interdisciplinary work is not achieved by tools alone. The tools must be embedded in a process that requires interdisciplinary teams, co-creation, and iteration. And this process requires good facilitation – an art that service design has developed beyond the classical standards of facilitating.
In the issue of Touchpoint titled ‘Achieving Interdisciplinarity’, the global service design community showcases how interdisciplinarity is achieved in different contexts:
- In ‘Service Designing Together for Better International Employee Experiences’, Milla Mäkinen shows how an interdisciplinary approach can improve nurses’ working experience, thereby addressing the healthcare labor shortage in Finland.
- In ‘The Importance of a Shared Vocabulary’, Jessica Wyler and Frederico di Fresco Paganini show that “… the lack of a shared vocabulary can lead to misunderstandings, communication struggles, delays and inefficiencies. This can foster frustration and conflict. It can also hinder trust and the integration of different perspectives, ultimately reducing the quality of a project’s outcomes”.
- An MSc thesis project from Aalborg University’s Service Systems Design Program in Copenhagen, Denmark, illustrates how creating a shared vocabulary was an important factor in bridging communication gaps in an interdisciplinary team.
- Rodrigo Gajardo, Deputy Director of Development at the Innovation and Interdisciplinarity Institute of the Universidad del Desarrollo (iCubo UDD) in Chile, shows the value of scenario techniques within the multi-stakeholder challenge of developing a new public service.
- Martin Jordan, Head of Design & User Research at the German government’s Digital Service, gives insights into the benefits of embedding a multidisciplinary approach in policymaking in ‘Multidisciplinarity as per Service Standard’.
These are just a few examples of many insights shared within the issue that are helping the service design community embrace interdisciplinarity and successfully break boundaries. Join the conversation by exploring the full issue here.
