Sarah Drummond is already convinced of the direction of her job as a designer. Drummond, a trained product designer, is part of the GetGo Glasgow team at the Glasgow School of Fine Arts in Glasgow, holding in hand social transformation projects.
Drummond and other young designers use their expertise in service design to make social changes. The service design can work with end-users to identify what they need.
The social innovation approach has been pioneered in Germany by Professor Birgit Mager of Sedes Research at the Cologne International School of Design. She conducted projects to establish the Gulliver Survival Station for the Homeless in Cologne, and a unit for prostitutes addicted to drugs in Eindhoven.
The project is part of a design committee mentoring program for managers of public services called public services by design. The priority was to understand the customer's needs by having the staff photograph the customer's needs before and after the visit.
"It's really important not to design for people, but to design with them," Drummond says. Through interviews and workshops with Windford residents, Drummond and Gatgo teams have established the need for a framework for all forms of community events and groups.
For more information:
https://www.theguardian.com/service-design/social-innovation