Service Innovation & Design

  • A beginner’s guide to Design Thinking

    by Jenny Kurjenniemi Simply put, Design Thinking is a process for creative problem-solving. This means solving any kind of problem, from how to secure clean water supply in developing countries, to how to create the kind of service that people will be interested in and gain financial value for the innovation. It’s good to understand…

  • Should design thinking really be human-centred?

    While reading Tim Brown’s “Change by Design”, I was touched by the story of the ORAL B toothbrush found among the rubbish deposited on the beach. Through this story Tim Brown asked himself and us about the responsibility of designers and design thinkers when designing. That resonates with me. We’re responsible for creating sustainable, eco-friendly…

  • Utopia or Dystopia? How is the Future Looking like in Service Design?

    Utopia or Dystopia? How is the Future Looking like in Service Design?

    By Salla Kuuluvainen I recently attended two events which made me think about futures thinking and it’s relation to service design and innovation. Innovation, by definition, is an act that reaches towards the future, and and engages the innovator in creating a future that may be something they wish for.. or not. How can we…

  • We Should All Be Interested in Ethical Questions Related to AI

    We Should All Be Interested in Ethical Questions Related to AI

    by Miikka Paakkinen This post is the second of a two-part blog series on design topics related to artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Click here to read part one on trust. Note: I will not go deeper in to explaining the concepts of AI and robotics in this post. For a summary on the technologies…

  • Show, don’t tell! – How prototyping influences the design process

    Post-its, Legos, markers and posters in the hands of over 20 overly-excited students can be the makings of a chaos. But with an experienced teacher or a facilitator it can actually turn into many nice service ideas or concepts. As part of the study unit of ‘Design Thinking’ we got to learn that a lot…

  • Nokia at Helsinki Design Week: Innovation in an enterprise

    As part of Helsinki Design Week this year, Nokia spoke about the role innovation plays in Nokia’s present and future. It was exciting to learn how Design Thinking can have a big impact on the whole organisation. In this blog post, I share my favourite takeaways from the talk.   A small design team can…

  • Palmu Society: 10+10 – The Future of Service Design

    Event: Palmu Society: 10+10 Time: 20.9.2018 klo 8.30-13 Place: Tennispalatsi, Helsinki The service design agency Palmu, now part of Solita, celebrated their 10th anniversary with an inspiring event that brought Palmu’s talented professionals on stage to discuss the next 10 years of service design and related topics from various angles. Designing things is natural for…

  • 7 Things to Consider When Designing for Trust in AI and Robotics

    7 Things to Consider When Designing for Trust in AI and Robotics

    by Miikka Paakkinen This post belongs to a two-part blog series on design topics related to artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. You can read part two on ethics by clicking here. Note: I will not go deeper in to explaining the concepts of AI and robotics in this post. For a summary on the technologies…

  • From nobody to creative designer

    One Friday morning 28 students from different backgrounds sat down in a classroom at Laurea. At least as I know, majority of these people, had no or just little experience on designing, rather the opposite. The journey from nobody to be a designer had begun. For long we have lived in a world where we…

  • Using Design Thinking to Build a VR Study Experience

    What do you get when you put together a group of Laurea MBA in Service Innovation and Design students and Mindshake’s Katja Tschimmel and task the group to innovate a service for international students as part of the Design Thinking course? A crazy lot of innovation, creativity, collaboration, and learnings. In this blog post, I…