Service Design course participants conduct field research

The Service Design course taught by Prof. Yuriko Sawatani implements design research methods to guide innovative minds in developing futuristic concepts meant to target defined personas. In order to develop these personas, the course participants ventured into the field to conduct interviews. The research site selected was Arimatsu, where teams gathered data by interviewing residents.

The overwhelming majority of the 25 participants having only first entered Japan a month or so prior to the course, the project trip was an opportunity to experience the culture of Japan more intimately, and to meet local people with whom they would otherwise not have the chance to interact.

After summarizing, discussing, and analyzing the gathered data in order to find gaps between the present and ideal vision of the future, teams could create a strategy and a road map to develop concepts simply by bridging these gaps. Their findings were developed into concepts which were then proposed and further refined in the latter half of Day 3 and on Day 4.

By using innovative means to teach innovation, courses such as Service Design offer unique opportunities to put theory into practice over four days and draw lessons from the immediate results.