It doesn’t take designing an entire ecosystem to make an impact in the world of service design—singling out individual issues can be more manageable and realistic than attempting tackling an entire industry or product category at once. And each of the honorees in the Service category of this year’s Core77 Design Awards prove it. From efforts to help women better understand their financial systems to a punchcard for ordering pizza, the projects illustrate the breadth and depth of service design.
Take some time to peruse the 11 entries the jury chose as honorees from the 2014 program. Read on to see what the team—led by Tennyson Pinheiro of Livework Studio—said about the projects that stood out most to them:
Professional Winner: The damda, by M&M
Facing our mortality as humans is practically inconceivable, not to mention something that not many people voluntarily likes to discuss. The damda, designed by M&M, is a toolkit for those facing their own or a family member’s death, enabling the user to better cope with his or her loss and live out the rest of their days in a meaningful manner. The kit itself consists of tools that will help the user record their past and present activities—a printer, paper and a compact note scanner. The jury called the work “to cry for." They continue: “The designer brilliantly spotted a delicate time span in people’s lives that is priceless and designed a service to make sure it can be experienced as it should be. Great empathetic eye."
Student Winner: Kandu, by Bahareh Shahriari
Information on reproductive health and family planning is a resource that is often lacking even in the first world, to say nothing of the developing world. In countries where the discussing the topic publicly isn’t socially acceptable, it can be hard to unite women in a way that’s both safe to them, informative and unifying as a community. Kandu was designed by CIID student Bahareh Shahriari specifically for women in Iran. The jury’s thoughts: “A simple and easy to implement service, relying lightly on technology, with the potential to deliver maximum social impact."
Professional Runner Up: PillPack—Pharmacy Simplified, by PillPack
Through intuitive and appealing packaging and a delivery service, PillPack is making it easier than ever to take your daily dose without worrying about taking the wrong medication or amount. Each individually packaged dose lists when to take the medication and the specific pills housed inside. While there are other subscription services for drugs already out there, the jury thought there was one aspect that put this work above the rest: “The breakthrough in my opinion is on the ‘right-dose’ package. This is a clever and well executed one that addresses a huge known problem. Difficult model, with an incredible difficult ecosystem."
Professional Runner Up: Care Maps: Transforming Diabetes Care with Peer-to-Peer Support, by CIID Consulting
Tracking diabetes is a constant job. CIID Consulting designed app that facilitates a peer-to-peer community of those living with Type II Diabetes for Novo Nordisk. The app tracks personal progress and disease monitoring, while location-based features cultivate local community services and activities for users. Even though the jury had some reservations about the actual involvement the app would see, they applaud the work: “A peer-to-peer service that can be extended to the community and physicians. It is unclear about the sustainability of this P2P user+physical relation as those professionals tend to have a busy frantic schedule. Overall, I believe the solution has its place."
Student Runner Up: The Library Compass—A Strategy for Public Libraries in Times of Digitalization, by Andreas Schuster
The transition to fully digital libraries has been a slow one, much to the chagrin of millenials looking to find a reference or light reading, and find it fast. TU Munich Industrial Design student Andreas Schuster has introduced a system that will make the digitizing transition easier on both ends. The Library Compass consists of a navigation app and iBeacon-enabled bookshelves for easy finding. “Loved the simple prototyping sessions and to see how the design team advanced the concept with users via those prototypes," says the jury. “Also the student showed a good service design maturity level by choosing not to focus too much on showcasing tools but, instead, kept both eyes on the user the whole time."
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