Service Design Fundamentals

Course

At present, the service sector accounts for the largest share of the global economy and holds particular importance in the most advanced economies, employing the largest number of people.

To compete in innovative and competitive terms, but also to achieve greater resilience, public and private organizations increasingly need professionals capable of understanding, developing, and managing service processes and experiences within a fluid socio-economic context of constant transformation.

The Executive Course in Service Design Fundamentals was created specifically to address the growing need for designers focused on confronting complex service scenarios and meeting new development and innovation challenges through an integrated, multidiscipline design approach.

Didactics

Headquarters

Training objectives

This Course is intended to provide a set of general skills in Service Design which can support professionals in the design and development of services centered on user needs through the adoption of design thinking and an innovation-driven strategic approach.

Over the Course, the necessary tools for knowing and analyzing the users’ point of view, devising service solutions, and integrating service into organizational offerings will be introduced through practical-exercise activities supported by theoretical-methodological content.

The ultimate goal of the course is to broaden participants’ design and creative skills to enable their human-centered innovative and entrepreneurial capacity.

Didactic Plan

The teaching content will be structured in four 7-hour modules (28 hours total), each devoted to different approaches and tools related to specific process stages of developing service design, from user research, concept generation, rapid prototyping, to service idea development.

Classes will be held in-person on Friday afternoons from 2:30 to 6 p.m. and Saturday mornings from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Didactic Modules

The new course has an education plan integrating methodological skills with both core-subject and extra-discipline insights. Teaching activities will follow the following structure:

LECTURE 1 – Service design process and tools – March 1 and 2, 2024
The first lecture is an introduction to the service design and design thinking approach and the main tools useful in designing the various elements of the service system.

LECTURE 2 – User research – March 8 and 9, 2024
The second lecture focuses on ethnographic research, or the qualitative user research required to understand the needs, behaviors, expectations, and perceptions that accompany people in choosing and using a particular service.

LECTURE 3 – Concept generation and service idea development – March 15 and 16, 2024
The third lecture delves into techniques and tools for developing innovative service concepts and facilitating co-design sessions that can be helpful at different stages of the service development process.

LECTURE 4 – Rapid Prototyping – March 22 and 23, 2024
The fourth lecture explores techniques for validating service concepts through rapid prototyping tools for service experience and interactions.

Title Released

At the end of the Course, an open badge will be issued to the Course in Service Design Fundamentals by POLI.design.

Admission

Requirements

The course is meant for students, recent graduates, or young professionals who, as a complement to their professional or educational background, in the field of design, management, social sciences, or other areas for which service design can offer added value, intend to enrich their skills with a human-centered approach to design and with useful tools for participatory design of processes and experiences.

The course is intended for candidates with a high school diploma or bachelor’s degree in Design, Architecture or Engineering, or in non-polytechnic disciplines such as Economics, Communication Sciences and Social Sciences for whom the polytechnic fields can provide a significant addition to their prior work experience.

Admission to the course is subject to prior selection.

Applicants should submit selection documents by connecting at the following LINK:

• Course admission application form
• a copy of current ID and Tax Code
• resume briefly describing the applicant’s professional profile

Deadline to submit application: February 27, 2024

Price

The total cost of the Course is € 1,300 + VAT 22 % for each student. This sum will be paid in one lump sum upon signing the relevant agreement.

Discounts for joint purchase of multiple courses in the Cluster: Service Design and Innovation

The following discounts are provided against enrollment in multiple courses by the same participant:

• Buying 2 Courses: 15% to be applied on the participation fee of the least expensive Course
• Buying 3 Courses: 15% to be applied on the participation fee of the two least expensive Courses

Valid discount only for concurrent non-subsequent purchase.

The following fee reductions are also envisaged:

• 2 partial exemptions of 50% of the participation fee for the first two candidates who submit an application to enrol in the course. Payment must be made within 10 days of receiving notice of admission to the course, under penalty of forfeiture of the exemption. Valid only for those enrolling in one of the three courses included in the cluster;

• 15% reduction of the participation fee for 2023 and 2014 Architecta members. Valid only for those enrolling in one of the three courses included in the cluster, upon proof of enrolment;

• 15% reduction of the participation fee for members of associations for design professionals. Valid only for those enrolling in one of the three courses included in the cluster;

• 15% reduction of the participation fee for members of professional associations relating to the sector. Valid only for those enrolling in one of the three courses included in the cluster, upon proof of enrolment;

• 15% reduction of the participation fee for former POLI.design students, students enrolled at the Politecnico di Milano and graduates from the Politecnico di Milano. Valid only for those enrolling in one of the three courses included in the cluster, subject to CV check.

If I have purchased a course 1 with the 50% discount or with the 15% discount (ie, member architecta, project professionals, professional order, alumni and polidesign and polimi students) and I decide later that I also want to attend the other two courses my package will be two courses where the course with the higher cost will be full fee while the course with the lower cost will be reduced by 15%.

For companies that enrol two or more employees in the Course, the cost will be:

€ 1.300,00 + VAT for the first employee
€ 1.170,00 + VAT for the second employee
€ 950,00 + VAT for the third or subsequent employees.The fee reductions listed above are not cumulative.

Faculty