Service Design

The first Specializing Master in Service Design at the Politecnico di Milano
VIII Edizione
Ottobre 2020

Settori

Servizi

Management

The contemporary society has changed a lot in the last decade, accompanied by a substantial technological empowerment and important societal and economic transformations.

Throughout our daily lives, we increasingly get in touch with a huge variety of services provided to different users and contexts, which involve different types of innovation in many fields: mobility, health, finance, insurance, tourism, hospitality, and education, just to mention few. These experiences and performances need to be designed to create value for citizens, firms, not for profit organisations, public administrations as well as governments.

The Specializing Master in Service Design was especially created in response to the growing demand for professionals specifically able to handle the complexity of designing a service. To achieve this purpose, the Specializing Master programme integrates general theory with methodology and hands-on experience aimed at the creation of systemic, complex solutions that blend material and immaterial components.

Goals

The Master in Service Design is an international training programme – taught entirely in English – focused on a user-centred approach, and the development of service ideas from contextual research to prototyping.

The overall idea behind the Master stems from the awareness of the significant changes that have occurred in the development and delivery of services and products by companies and public-sector organizations, and the radical impact that these changes are producing on professional skills and corporate capabilities.

It is thus essential to train professionals who can build and manage new physical and virtual patterns of service experience and interaction.

The complexity of conceiving, developing, and delivering a service requires innovation culture, creative thinking, and cultural exchange.

In order to strengthen the student's abilities, the Master program relies on an educational model that merges the acquisition of broad and multifaceted methodological knowledge and a learning-by-doing approach through:

multidisciplinary modules
experimental projects with real companies coordinated by international academics and professionals
service prototyping

The objectives of the Specializing Master are:

to provide the specific training required to refine the design skills of students who have already acquired experience in the design sector;
to enhance the basic skills of students with a background in other disciplines by furnishing them with theoretical knowledge and practical experience in service design;
to furnish the means necessary to enhance the professional experience of students already in employment.

Job description and final assessment

The Specializing Master in Service Design trains specialists in the design of services for firms and publicsector organizations.

The programme’s overall objectives are to produce experts and consultants with a solid design culture, vision, and the ability to design, manage, and organize the conception and implementation of a service. It also aims to develop innovation and entrepreneurship.

On conclusion of the programme, the participants will be able to:

		Devise systemic innovation models for services
		Deploy theoretical skills to operate with complex system
		Use specific service design tools and manage redesign
		Observe & Analyse user experience to construct a user-centred vision of complex interactions
		Manage service conception, design and development
		Foster entrepreneurship

Numerous employment opportunities are available to graduates from the Specializing Master in Service Design.

Potential roles include:

service designer as a specialized consultant at a design agency;
service designer as a consultant or employee of public-sector organizations, research centres, enterprises and authorities;
service designer as a consultant or employee of private-sector organizations, research centres, companies and organizations;
service designer as a freelance or self-employednprofessional (start-up).