Embedding Service Design to create user-centred organisational cultures

Case study: Embedding Service Design to create user-centred organisational cultures: improving customer experience, efficiency, and funding generation in the UK voluntary sector 

Staff: Laura Warwick, Matthew Lievesley, Robert Young, Neil Smith 

Service Design (SD), where services are designed in collaboration with the people who will use them, can create more effective, efficient, and desirable services. More than a decade of funding decline for UK voluntary organisations means they need to deliver more, with less, to provide services for people experiencing a multitude of challenges. Research led by Dr Laura Warwick with colleagues at Northumbria University explored, for the first time, the use of SD in voluntary organisations. Warwick worked with 2 large national voluntary organisations - Mind (plus its affiliated 105 local Minds) and Girlguiding UK to embed SD as their core approach to developing services. New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), the UK’s leading charity and philanthropy consultants, also used Warwick and colleagues' findings to develop sector-specific SD guidance for 144 charities. The use of SD resulted in more user-centred organisational cultures, improved services for users, led to job creation and secured income worth GBP 8,200,000 for Mind. Find out more