Inspired by the Scottish Approach to Service Design, the council has adopted a Service Design-led approach to improvement activities. The following information will help you understand what service design is and how you use the associated tools to improve activities.
Why, when and how to use this resource
There are two main ways you can use this resource:
- As a resource for service design.
- To find tools to help solve problems.
Resource for service design
The resources we have put together include an introduction to service design thinking, and you can use it to guide you through the process of designing a new service (or adjusting an existing one) from beginning to end.
- The Introduction to Service Design pages explain more about service design methodology and its stages.
- Tools have been grouped so you can see which ones are relevant to each stage.
You are not expected to use every tool for every service design activity you carry out. The toolkit provides you with options so you can pick and mix across your service design journey.
Tools to help solve problems
You can also use this resource as a something to dip in and out of. The tools can be used in other contexts beyond service design activities.
For example:
- You may want to find tools to help you complete a particular task or perhaps you have noticed errors cropping up in one of your processes. In that case, you may wish to look at the section on identifying root causes to find tools and resources that will help you find out why.
- If you are tired of using the same tools over and over again in workshop situations, you may want to have a look to see if there is something else which will bring variety to the way you gather information, generate ideas, or reach consensus.
- If you want to assess the viability of a potential project, you might need to focus on the first ‘diamond’ (understand the problem) of the service design journey and then use the Discover and Design stages to assess its viability.
Introduction to service design
If you are new to service design, please read this introductory section first, where you will learn about what service design does and introduces the double diamond model which is at the heart of how you would perform a service improvement activity.