Empowered by Design

Everyday experiences—ordering coffee, checking in at a hospital, borrowing a library book—can be seamless and empowering, or frustrating and confusing. This course introduces students to the mindset, methods, and tools of service design to analyze real-world services and propose innovative solutions that improve people’s lives.

In this course, you will:

• Use empathy-driven research to understand how people actually experience services.

• Explore complex socio-cultural issues through fieldwork and hands-on activities.

• Step into the shoes of different user groups to uncover needs, challenges, and opportunities.

• Design creative, realistic, and impactful service solutions that serve the common good.

From mapping how children access free meal services at libraries to imagining safer, more welcoming public spaces, you’ll gain skills to design with purpose—preparing you to be a thoughtful, future decision-maker.

Service design is the practice of creating smooth, meaningful, and user-centered service experiences. It asks why some spaces feel welcoming while others do not, why one system reduces stress while another creates it, and how design can empower people to thrive.

This course emphasizes citizen-centered innovation, focusing on public and nonprofit services. Students will begin with an exploration of service design solutions through field trips, readings, and team activities. By learning to observe and analyze services from others’ perspectives, students will develop empathy and sharpen their ability to identify what works—and what doesn’t—across different points of interaction.

Working in collaborative teams, students will create service design proposals aimed at reimagining everyday experiences for greater impact. These projects will be presented to experts in the public sector and design fields, giving students direct feedback on their ideas and solutions.

By the end of the semester, students will understand how to use service design not only to innovate but also to empower communities, strengthen organizations, and contribute to the common good.