Thought leadership
Communicating design
One of my passions is spreading and championing the potential of design and user research. I was inspired to do this work based on my experience working in fields that rely on quantitative research and have the perception that design is purely visual. I have chosen to focus on describing Service Design, rather than Interaction Design, as I view interaction design to fit within the process of service design. Through my experiences of working with non-designers, Service Design is more abstract and challenging for people to recognise in their daily lives.
Talks
Magnify: Inclusive Design and Research Conference - Conference Opener
I founded and delivered an independent, virtual conference in October 2021. The conference included 16 speakers, 3 panelists and 3 workshops to over 130 attendees. In the Conference Opener, I describe why I think inclusive design is crucial.
Health inequities and Inclusive Design
Soh-yon Park and I delivered a talk to the Masters of Healthcare and Design students in March 2022. Since then, we have been invited to deliver the talk to many other audiences.
In the talk, we share:
- Health inequity examples and where they stem from
- What inclusive design is and is not
- Problems with current models of patient engagement and extractive research
- Building reciprocal relationships with communities
- Activity identifying barriers + excluded groups
Tedx Talk - You can be a service designer in your community
The goal of this talk was to describe to people beyond the Emily Carr University of Art + Design community and beyond what Service Design is, and make the concept more accessible. An emphasis was using plain language and common experiences so the message resonated with audience members and seeing a potential for the design process in combating those experiences.
Quality Forum Health Talks - Putting Patient Care First with Service Design
Based on my experience working in challenging health care projects where there was often a misalignment of the designers’ potential role, I submitted my essay to the British Columbia’s Patient Safety and Quality Council, and was selected to deliver a Pechakucha talk on my dream for health care. A talk can be challenging enough, but Pechakutcha adds a further constraint the talk is delivered with 20 images that change every 20 seconds automatically. It was wonderful to be given this opportunity and spread Service Design in this sector.
Talks to Masters Students
Mentorship and guiding the next generation is really important to me. Since moving to London, I have had the pleasure of delivering two talks to local university students.
- Remote Design and User Research Practices” for the Masters of Service Design class at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.
In responding to the challenges of COVID-19 and working remotely, a colleague and I delivered a session on tips and tools to a class.
- Human-Centred Design in Healthcare. Masters of Public Health, Imperial College.
While working at Public Health England, colleagues and I led an interactive session on the design process and how it fits into delivering public health interventions.
Writing
Challenges and opportunities: Using the GOV.UK Prototype Kit for Back Office systems
Featured on the Unboxed Consulting Blog
Although the GOV.UK prototype kit is designed and built for public facing, transactional services, it is often used to build back-end systems for civil servants. Based on my experience using it to create a Back Office Planning System, I shared my challenges and how I overcome them through this blog post.
Demystifying Service Design
Featured on the Ontario Digital Service blog and used as teaching material for The Canada School of Public Service Digital Academy (CSPS Digital Academy)
Service design as a process can be quite challenging to grasp. Through this blog post, I work to make the concept and process more accessible.
