Introduction

Service Design

Choreograph multiple interactions over time to create the outcomes you intend.

40 Lessons / Coming soon

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Overview

Service design is the practice of choreographing multiple interactions over time to create the outcomes you intend. A product can be designed as an object. A service cannot — it exists across touchpoints, channels, staff, systems and time, and it is only as good as the joins.

This course covers the core service design toolkit — journey maps, systems maps, service blueprints, service concepts, co-creation, and service evidence — and then spends a substantial part of its length on real projects, because service design is a practice you learn by seeing it done.

The case studies are drawn from healthcare, criminal justice, aviation, hospitality and the public sector, including work with Mayo Clinic, Guy's & St Thomas', Mercy Healthcare, Virgin Atlantic and Airbnb.

Details

40 Lessons / Coming soon

AnytimeVirtual

★★★★★

96% of students rate our courses 5 Stars

100% of our past participants would recommend this course to others. (Seriously, it's true!)

You will leave with

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A clear definition of service design and where it came from

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The core toolkit: journey maps, systems maps, and service blueprints

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The ability to develop and communicate a service concept

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Co-creation and alignment methods for working with stakeholders

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An eye for service evidence — the touchpoints that carry the whole experience

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A habit of looking for the smallest tweak that changes the largest outcome

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Lifetime access to the material

What’s included

Seasonal cohort with peers from around the world
Live tutorials with the SOCD team
1:1 sessions with the founders (J. Paul Neeley + Gemma Jones)

Course Outline

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Basics _ The definition and history of service design, its relationship to adjacent practices, why organisations adopted it, and what outcomes it produces.

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Tools & Methods _ Design thinking foundations, user and systems research, journey mapping, systems mapping, service blueprints, service concepts, storytelling, co-creation, communication and alignment, service evidence, the smallest tweak, and consider everything.

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Case Studies _ InHouse Records (Judah Armani), SH:24 at Guy's & St Thomas' Hospital, the DNR/DNI redesign at Mayo Clinic, the world's first virtual hospital at Mercy Healthcare, radiology services at Teton Radiology, Virgin Atlantic (Joe Ferry), and Airbnb's end-to-end hospitality system.

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Sectors _ How service design plays out in financial services, government policy, retail, education, and public services.

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Pep Talks _ Perspectives from Joe Ferry, Nick de Leon, Hanna Kops, and Maggie Breslin.

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Creating Value _ How service design earns its place inside an organisation.

Course Format

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Self-paced and online. Enrol once and work through the material on your own schedule.

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Lifetime access to the course, including future updates.

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Short lessons designed to be taken one at a time, with exercises you apply to your own work.

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Community forum access alongside other students and the SOCD team.

This course is for

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Service and experience designers

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Product and UX designers whose work spans more than one touchpoint

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Healthcare, government, and public-sector teams

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Operations and customer experience leads

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Strategists responsible for experiences that unfold over time

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No prior service design experience required

Your Teacher

J. Paul Neeley - Speculative Designer & Researcher

J. Paul studied Speculative Design with Dunne & Raby on the Design Interactions course at the Royal College of Art, and has spent the years since applying these methods with organisations from start-ups to multinationals to the United Nations. He founded the School of Critical Design with Gemma Jones in 2017.

For Companies

‍For team licences, multiple seats, or to discuss a bespoke workshop for your organisation, email hello@critical.design.

Want to see how we run this work end to end? Read The Speculative Design Methodology: A Practitioner’s Workflow.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Service Design course?

Service Design is a 40-lesson self-paced online course from the School of Critical Design covering the core service design toolkit — journey maps, systems maps, service blueprints, service concepts, co-creation and service evidence — alongside real case studies from healthcare, government, retail, education, and financial services.

What case studies does the course cover?

The course works through real projects including InHouse Records (Judah Armani), SH:24 at Guy's & St Thomas', the DNR/DNI redesign at Mayo Clinic, the world's first virtual hospital at Mercy Healthcare, Virgin Atlantic (Joe Ferry), and Airbnb's end-to-end hospitality system.

Who is the Service Design course for?

Service and experience designers, product teams, healthcare and public-sector practitioners, operations leads, and anyone responsible for an experience that plays out over multiple interactions and channels.

Do I need design experience to take it?

No. The course starts from the definition and history of service design and builds the toolkit from there. If you want a broader grounding in design process first, take Design Thinking alongside it.