AHRC Challenges of the Future: Public Services

This report addresses the state of UK university-led design research in the context of public services. It identifies centres of excellence and their supporting infrastructure and maps the research landscape through a review of projects and research centres. It presents salient themes, questions and approaches within practice and details the role that design research may play in the future of public service research and innovation. Reviewing the innovative capacity of design research undertaken in the public service context, it looks at the methods, strategies and skills that afford this capacity. It identifies developmental opportunities to support further work in this context andprovides insight into future collaborations, partnerships and consortia to support activity and drive co-investment between academia, government and industry. The report aims to: •Increase awareness of how design creates high-level societal and economic benefit in the public service context. •Understand how academic design research functions strategically and how it is operationalised within this context. •Understand how university collaborations are critically important in supporting innovationwithin this context. •Understand how collaborations are initiated and sustained to add social and economic value. The research was conducted from March to June 2020 and complements five other AHRC fellowships focused on design research for place, future mobility,artificial intelligence, clean growth and policy. Reflecting its long-standing support of design research, AHRC appointed 5 Design Research Fellows. These short-term, intensive Fellowships were aimed at assessing the value of UK university-led design research to the UK’s industrial strategy

Design and Policy:Current debates and future directions for research in the UK

I have a one page overview offering a perspective on design policy within a new report produced by the Design|Policy Research Network led by University of the Arts London and University of Manchester, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), showcases the significant role of design in shaping public policy and proposes an agenda for the future direction of research in the UK.The UK is a leader in the use of design in government and policy and there is a growing range of practice and research connecting design and public policymaking – such as service design, interaction design, communication design, urban design, and strategic design and the emerging fields of policy design and ‘design for policy’.Over an 18-month period, the collaborative, cross-disciplinary research network organised workshops and engagement sessions to consolidate and better articulate the emerging relations between research and practice in design and public policy processes producing a novel, evidence-based and contextual understanding of the potential for design in relation to policy. Network leads Professor Lucy Kimbell (Central Saint Martins, UAL) and Professor Liz Richardson (Department of Politics, University of Manchester) worked closely with the cross-government Policy Design Community, which includes over 75 local and central government organisations and over 500 individual members, to engage officials in the network’s activities.The organisers engaged several hundred people including policy makers in central and local government, design consultants alongside academics and doctoral students working across design and policy studies, including setting up a new LinkedIn group with over 700 members.The report outlines directions for future research and makes recommendations for those involved in research, knowledge exchange and policy ecosystems including UKRI and the Civil Service, to advance knowledge at the intersection between design and policymaking. It also includes the voices of 10 early career and established researchers whose practice and research engages across the contexts of policy making, including UAL doctoral student Daniella Jenkins (Central Saint Martins), developing feminist pensions policy, and Dr Lara Salinas (London College of Communication), who works with local government to support collaboration to address net zero.Co-authored by Professor Kimbell and Professor Richardson with Catherine Durose, Professor of Public Policy and Co-Director of the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place at the University of Liverpool and Ramia Mazé, Professor of Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability at London College of Communication, this report sets out a clear vision to underpin the further development of design in government and public policy.full citation: Kimbell, L., Durose, C., Mazé, R. and Richardson, L. (2023) Design and Policy: Current Debates and Future Directions for Research in the UK: Report of the AHRC Design|Policy Research Network. London: University of the Arts LondonISBN: 978-1-3999-7069-

Design and Policy:Current debates and future directions for research in the UK

I have a one page overview offering a perspective on design policy within a new report produced by the Design|Policy Research Network led by University of the Arts London and University of Manchester, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), showcases the significant role of design in shaping public policy and proposes an agenda for the future direction of research in the UK.The UK is a leader in the use of design in government and policy and there is a growing range of practice and research connecting design and public policymaking – such as service design, interaction design, communication design, urban design, and strategic design and the emerging fields of policy design and ‘design for policy’.Over an 18-month period, the collaborative, cross-disciplinary research network organised workshops and engagement sessions to consolidate and better articulate the emerging relations between research and practice in design and public policy processes producing a novel, evidence-based and contextual understanding of the potential for design in relation to policy. Network leads Professor Lucy Kimbell (Central Saint Martins, UAL) and Professor Liz Richardson (Department of Politics, University of Manchester) worked closely with the cross-government Policy Design Community, which includes over 75 local and central government organisations and over 500 individual members, to engage officials in the network’s activities.The organisers engaged several hundred people including policy makers in central and local government, design consultants alongside academics and doctoral students working across design and policy studies, including setting up a new LinkedIn group with over 700 members.The report outlines directions for future research and makes recommendations for those involved in research, knowledge exchange and policy ecosystems including UKRI and the Civil Service, to advance knowledge at the intersection between design and policymaking. It also includes the voices of 10 early career and established researchers whose practice and research engages across the contexts of policy making, including UAL doctoral student Daniella Jenkins (Central Saint Martins), developing feminist pensions policy, and Dr Lara Salinas (London College of Communication), who works with local government to support collaboration to address net zero.Co-authored by Professor Kimbell and Professor Richardson with Catherine Durose, Professor of Public Policy and Co-Director of the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place at the University of Liverpool and Ramia Mazé, Professor of Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability at London College of Communication, this report sets out a clear vision to underpin the further development of design in government and public policy.full citation: Kimbell, L., Durose, C., Mazé, R. and Richardson, L. (2023) Design and Policy: Current Debates and Future Directions for Research in the UK: Report of the AHRC Design|Policy Research Network. London: University of the Arts LondonISBN: 978-1-3999-7069-

Prototyping and the New Spirit of Policy-Making

This conceptual paper discusses the use of co-design approaches in the public realm by examining the emergence of a design practice, prototyping, in public policy-making. We argue that changes in approaches to management and organisation over recent decades have led towards greater flexibility, provisionality and anticipation in responding to public issues. These developments have co-emerged with growing interest in prototyping. Synthesising literatures in design, management and computing, and informed by our participant observation of teams inside government, we propose the defining characteristics of prototyping in policymaking and review the implications of using this approach. We suggest that such activities engender a ‘new spirit’ of policymaking. However this development is accompanied by the further encroachment of market logics into government, with the danger of absorbing critiques of capitalism and resulting in reinforced power structures

Reexamining E-participation : Systematic Literature Review on Citizen Participation in E-government Service Delivery

E-government is becoming a mature research field thanks to the proliferation of papers about this changing paradigm. Among this research, the participation of citizens in e-government is a topic that has particularly stimulated numerous discussions. This participation (referred to as “e-participation”) is often reduced to the democratic participation of citizens in decision-making and policy design (or “e-democracy”). However, this paper aims at reexamining the scope of e-participation by considering the under-investigated field of citizen participation in e-government service delivery. This participation can take place as the co-design and co-execution of these services. In order to examine the existing body of knowledge of the field, we conduct a Systematic Literature Review followed by a template analysis of the selected papers. This analysis allows us determining avenues for further research in this area about the following research themes: stakeholders involved, organizational and motivational pre-conditions, participation methods and outcomes of participation

Design for public policy: Embracing uncertainty and hybridity in mapping future research

Addressing contemporary public policy challenges requires new thinking and new practice. Therefore, there is a renewed sense of urgency to critically assess the potential of the emerging field of ‘design for policy’. On the one hand, design ap- proaches are seen as bringing new capacities for problem-solving to public policy de- velopment. On the other, the attendant risks posed to effective and democratic policy making are unclear, partly because of a limited evidence base. The paper synthesises recent contributions in design research, policy studies, political science and democratic theory which have examined the uses of design for public policy making. Mapping out areas of debate building on studies of design from policy studies and from within de- sign research, we suggest promising directions for future crossdisciplinary research in a context of uncertainty

Government to citizens E-Service Co-Design

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University Londone-Government services are typically developed by internal service providers, often neglecting the service end user. Subsequent delivery of services can be jeopardised without due consideration of the service user, lacking in consideration of their needs and expectations in the design process. However, the service provider when designing e-services for varied users, find it is hard to meet the prospective users’ expectations and needs and involve them in an iterative design processes. To address this issue; a Co-design approach has been applied and focuses on Jordanian Government to Citizens (G2C) e-services. Co-design tools/methods maximize opportunities and provide new possibilities for communicating and collaborating with varied and diverse users. The main aim of this research is to improve the quality and efficiency of G2C e-services by adopting the Co-design approach including its tools/methods to support user participation throughout design process, and how these tools/methods pretend the features of user participation. A novel G2C e-Service Co-Design Framework (G2C-SCOF) is constructed with mechanisms for understanding the stakeholders’ requirements, and granting them an active role throughout design process of G2C e-service design. A wiki-based Co-design prototype (WCP) is developed and introduced as a response to and evaluation of the developed G2C-SCOF. This research also presents results from the case study in Jordan and used to evaluate WCP effectiveness regarding users’ participation role(s) throughout the Co-design process based on standard service design phases. Interestingly, involvement throughout design process as such can be an enriching experience for the users. Offering a channel to uncover their own creativity and provide enjoyment for them as they see their contributions evolve into a viable service. A robust method for uncovering domain concepts is derived that bridges the requirements’ gap between service provider and service user within a G2C e-service design context. A first iteration evaluates the adoption and acceptance of Jordan Government Portal (JGP) based on a model titled Methodology for e-Government Service Adoption and Acceptance Measurement (MEGA-M). MEGA-M is then used to design a survey and subsequently investigate how citizens perceive the quality of the JGP. RepGrid methodology with semi-structured interviews are deployed in the second iteration – with 24 participants from diverse backgrounds contributing to a synthesised cognitive model titled Stakeholder’s requirements map for G2C Service Design’ (SRM-G2C). Finally, a prototype WCP is developed as the third iteration for evaluation purposes. WCP is a platform for facilitating the sharing and expression of ideas and/or assumptions used to improve the effectiveness of G2C e-service design. The conclusions and contributions drawn from this research are expected to benefit researchers, providing insights for future research in the field of e-Government service design, and practitioners, providing a systematic framework for supporting the collaboration among stakeholders in designing G2C e-services

My boy builds coffins. Future memories of your loved ones

The research is focus on the concept of storytelling associated with product design, trying to investigate new ways of designing and a possible future scenario related to the concept of death. MY BOY BUILDS COFFINS is a gravestone made using a combination of cremation’s ashes and resin. It is composed by a series of holes in which the user can stitch a text, in order to remember the loved one. The stitching need of a particular yarn produced in Switzerland using some parts of human body. Project also provides another version which uses LED lights instead of the yarn. The LEDs - thanks to an inductive coupling - will light when It will be posed in the hole. The gravestone can be placed where you want, as if it would create a little altar staff at home. In this way, there is a real connection between the user and the dearly departed