Service Design Ph.D. Education as a Springboard for Social Innovations: Facilitators and Challenges

Abstract

Service design Ph.D. education can act as a springboard for social innovations. This paper proposes five educational emphases that facilitate this goal and discusses their challenges. The Ph.D. education journey starts with a vision focused on social sustainability. The relational dimension in design is explored as critical knowledge that informs the Ph.D. research. Collaborations with communities or organizations need to be incorporated in the research methods. Ideally, research outcomes can involve proposing a service system or service improvements supported by hybrid touchpoints, and the potential for social impact should be part of the Ph.D. research’s contributions. This paper contributes to the discussion of design education and social innovation by explaining social driving forces for this educational approach, the five educational emphases, their relationship to elements of Ph.D. research, their challenges, and current Ph.D. research topics.

Keywords:

• service design
• social innovation
• Ph.D. education
• relational messages in design
• hybrid touchpoint

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kathy Pui Ying Lo

Dr Kathy Pui Ying Lo is the Academic Lead of the Service Design Mini Centre for Doctoral Training and Lecturer in Visual Communication at Loughborough University. She is an internationally published design scholar and educator. Her research interests include service design, experience design, design and emotions, and visual communication. [email protected]