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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14 resources · Method
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.
GOV.UK Service Manual guidance on informed, voluntary participation: participant information, consent records and the right to withdraw.
Department for Education user research guidance on gathering, confirming and recording consent, including checking that people still agree as a session goes on.
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.
GOV.UK Service Manual guidance on learning about user needs through existing evidence, interviews, observation and the people who support users.
Department for Education guidance on the ethics of researching colleagues: pressure to take part, voluntary participation, authority and confidentiality.
Department for Education guidance on research across languages: working with interpreters, cultural sensitivities and accessible consent materials.
UKRI and ESRC research ethics guidance on contextual vulnerability and actively given, informed consent, including the problem of passive or gatekeeper assent.
GOV.UK Service Manual guidance on reconstructing a service experience by exploring what people did, thought and felt over time.
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.
An applied guide connecting systems thinking principles to defining goals, understanding a system, designing collaboratively and evaluating change.
The free online companion to the book: over fifty methods for research, ideation, prototyping and facilitation, each with a step-by-step description.
GOV.UK Service Manual guidance on planning and running interviews to understand people's circumstances, experiences, problems and needs.