Methods & practice
The working methods of service design, and the toolkits and service manuals that explain them well. We point to established explanations rather than rewriting the methods here.
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10 resources
The UK government's manual for designing and running public services: the Service Standard, guidance on discovery, alpha, beta and live, and on user research and service design.
A method for mapping a service end to end, showing what the user experiences alongside the frontstage and backstage work that makes it happen. Explained clearly by Nielsen Norman Group.
Ten principles for designing government services, starting with 'start with user needs'. Short enough to read in five minutes and widely borrowed outside government.
Mapping what a person does, thinks and feels as they try to get something done across a service. Nielsen Norman Group's introduction covers the anatomy and the pitfalls.
Design principles, components and guidance for building health services in England, with a strong focus on accessibility and content.
An open collection of communication tools and methods for designing services, started by Roberta Tassi and maintained as a shared library.
Identifying the people and organisations involved in a service and drawing out how they relate to it and to each other. Explained in the Service Design Tools library.
The Design Council's evolution of the Double Diamond for problems that span organisations and systems, with a set of design principles and roles.
The Scottish Government's framework and community for designing public services with the people who use them, with a shared method bank.
The free online companion to the book: over fifty methods for research, ideation, prototyping and facilitation, each with a step-by-step description.