I'm learning
Learning service design usually means a mix of reading, doing and talking to people. Here are the books people keep recommending, the courses and programmes with a track record, and communities where beginners are welcome.
Start with these
The practical companion to service design, covering research, ideation, prototyping and implementation with a large method library. Widely used as a course text.
A clear account of what service design is and how it is done, from research through to measuring the results, by three practitioners from Livework.
The Service Design Network's training arm, offering online and in-person courses from introductory to advanced, taught by accredited trainers.
Short courses on designing and leading services, run by Lou Downe and Sarah Drummond and grounded in public-sector experience.
The UK chapter of the Service Design Network, running talks, socials and an annual chapter conference for practitioners across the country.
A volunteer-run weekend where people in cities around the world prototype new services around a shared theme. No experience needed.
Questions you might have
Then keep going
Fifteen principles of good service design, drawn from Lou Downe's time leading design across the UK government. Short, plain and opinionated.
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.
International organisation supporting the development of service design practice, with local chapters, an academy, a journal and an annual conference.
Step-by-step guidance for eleven systems thinking tools, including systems mapping, feedback loops and leverage points.
A 2021 paper proposing a power literacy framework for service designers, covering privilege, access, goals, roles and rules. Open access copy from TU Delft.
An Ethics and Information Technology article examining dark patterns through four dimensions of autonomy: agency, freedom of choice, control and independence.
A Design Management Academy 2017 paper exploring cultural analysis and semiotics as ways to understand expectations, identity and symbolic meaning in services.
The UK's national strategic body for design, home of the Double Diamond and the Systemic Design Framework.
A community-authored set of principles that put the people affected by design at the centre, foregrounding lived experience and community-controlled outcomes.
The Ministry of Justice design system's introduction to ethical considerations for service teams, including harm, vulnerability, discrimination, trust and automated decisions.
The Ministry of Justice's principles for ethical services, including minimising harm, balancing power, inclusion, honesty and responsibility.
A Design and Culture article reviewing the concept of autonomy and exploring its use in service design through case studies of services for older people.
GOV.UK Service Manual guidance on informed, voluntary participation: participant information, consent records and the right to withdraw.
Ten principles for designing government services, starting with 'start with user needs'. Short enough to read in five minutes and widely borrowed outside government.
Nielsen Norman Group on what interviews can and cannot reveal, including fallible memory and rationalised accounts of past behaviour, and why they pair with observation.
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 school in Cologne where service design was first taught as a discipline in Europe, under Birgit Mager.
GOV.UK Service Manual guidance on learning about user needs through existing evidence, interviews, observation and the people who support users.
Author of Good Services and co-founder of the School of Good Services. Formerly Director of Design for the UK government.
A two-year postgraduate programme in service design at the RCA in London, with a strong link to live public and commercial projects.
A thorough guide to the whole family of alignment diagrams: journey maps, service blueprints, experience maps and mental model diagrams.
Co-author of This is Service Design Thinking and This is Service Design Doing, and co-founder of the software company behind Smaply.
A one-year master's at the Glasgow School of Art's Innovation School, combining service design with design innovation and research.
An English-language master's in Milan that treats products, services and systems as one design problem. One of the longest-running programmes of its kind.
Design principles, components and guidance for building health services in England, with a strong focus on accessibility and content.
On designing experiences that unfold across channels and over time, with a strong emphasis on mapping and on the language of experience design.
A chapter in Doing Good Qualitative Research examining how power in the researcher and participant relationship shapes what is learned, and proposing a power-conscious approach.
GOV.UK Service Manual guidance on reconstructing a service experience by exploring what people did, thought and felt over time.
Occasional evening meetups in Manchester run by the Service Design Network UK chapter, usually hosted by a local studio or public sector team.
A free early-morning meetup in Brighton for people from Sussex and the South East, hosted by Clearleft every two months. Networking over breakfast, sometimes with a guest speaker.
Informal evening meetup for the Amsterdam service design community, hosted by a rotating set of studios.
Long-running informal monthly meetup for service designers in Berlin, with short talks followed by conversation.
A volunteer-run festival of talks, workshops and open studios in London, running alongside the London Design Festival each September.
Marc Fonteijn's long-running video series and podcast of conversations with service design practitioners, aimed squarely at people doing the work.
An open collection of communication tools and methods for designing services, started by Roberta Tassi and maintained as a shared library.
A self-paced online course from the Interaction Design Foundation covering the fundamentals of service design.
London's long-running service design meetup, going since 2015, with roughly monthly talks for experienced practitioners, newcomers and the curious alike. Also a podcast and a YouTube channel of recorded talks.
Recordings of talks from the Service Lab London meetup on YouTube, going back several years. A good way to hear practitioners describe real work.
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 Government Office for Science's introduction to systems thinking for complex public sector problems, bringing together guidance, tools and case studies.
The Scottish Government's framework and community for designing public services with the people who use them, with a shared method bank.
Gerry Scullion's podcast network on human-centred design, with a dedicated strand of conversations about service design and public services.
The free online companion to the book: over fifty methods for research, ideation, prototyping and facilitation, each with a step-by-step description.
The Service Design Network's journal, published since 2009. Each issue takes a theme and mixes practitioner and academic writing.
GOV.UK Service Manual guidance on planning and running interviews to understand people's circumstances, experiences, problems and needs.