Service Design pedagogy and effective student engagement: Generative Tools and Methods

Abstract

This practice-led investigation evaluates three generative design tools for active and tacit student engagement with postgraduate Service Design students, and their impact on the students’ approach to complex design projects. In Service Design education generative design tools have a robust pedagogical role for efficient knowledge creation and student engagement, yet are still under-explored academically.The Learn ’n’ link method delineates learning as an interactive dialogic practice for creative idea conceptualisation. The Zine Method is a visual ethnography approach that can be applied holistically to frame the problem area, propose a way forward, and prototype the solution. The Narrative Toolkit enables students to discuss and critique the narrative properties of existing designs and envision design outcomes. The students then use the Zine Method to qualitatively evaluate the methods’ contribution to their understanding of complex design problems and service user experience, and their function in bridging the gap between user research and generative design processes.