Victoria India Service Design Jam 2011

Detail

Service Design

Service Design is an emerging discipline that is seeing increasing prominence in the design curriculum today. Many management schools across the world have started embracing design and innovation as a core offering to serve societal needs. In India, this trend has also been evolving gradually.

The Victoria India Service Design Jam

The inaugural Victoria India Service Design Jam was conceptualized to promote the concept of “Service Design” in India. The Jam was conceived and co-organized by Eureka Moment Design Company—a multidisciplinary design company in Mumbai, and Design Providence – a multidisciplinary design practice based in Victoria, with support from the Victorian Government through the Trade Engagement Program, Spice Mobility, and Assocham National Design Committee.

The primary charter of the Jam was to enable participants to design a service to address a social need that can then be created by manufacturers.

Format of the workshop

The Victoria India Design Jam was a three-day online workshop between July 20 – 22rd 2011, inviting design professionals and students to utilize service design strategies in social innovation to design a service to address a social need. The Jam brought together Mumbai designers organized by Eureka Moment Design Company, the Melbourne Service Design Network, and design students at the Indian National Institute of Design (NID).

The event was held at the Royal Exhibition Buildings, Carlton, Victoria, Fariyas Hotel, Mumbai, and NID, Ahmedabad. 75 designers from India, (the National Institute of Design Ahmedabad and professional designers from Mumbai) were connected to 20 workshop participants in Melbourne through Skype.

What subject area did the Jam address?

A common brief was provided to both Victorian and Indian participants, seeking creative solutions to a topic common to both locales. The brief was only announced at the launch of the Jam over live video conference—Design for Growth, with a subtext of social innovation. All designers had 48 hours to work with their local and overseas counterparts to design a solution. The most promising solution will be announced as the winner.

What was the outcome of the Jam?

The teams approached the topic of Growth from several different angles, creating service design solutions that ranged from facilitating opportunities for growth, to rural growth, to education and personal growth. Some of the concepts included creating an online portal linking young entrepreneurs to resources for starting their own businesses, a mobile application for finding friends to share a car pool with, and creating a food hub as a centre for community building.