Focussing on the topic of housing and accommodation, this three week investigation started with service-oriented research. The students identified pain points, needs, and opportunities, then generated ideas for future services for different groups: Families and Children, Students, Public and Shared Housing, Refugees/Immigrants and Tourists.
They created maps to better understand how stakeholders, organisations, technical systems, and various touchpoints come together to shape an experience. Prototyping elements of the proposed services enabled them to conduct research with their specific audience and stakeholders.
Throughout, they looked at how service design operates in the real world, how business and incentives influence decisions, how power dynamics impact the work of designers, and strategies for driving change in complex organisations.
Marzia Aricò is a design leadership consultant, coach, author, and speaker dedicated to driving meaningful business transformation through design. Her career has included collaborations with major global companies, including Adidas, JPMorgan Chase, Xero, and Gucci. She brings deep expertise across more than twenty industries.
Marzia holds a PhD in Organisational Studies from Copenhagen Business School and is a strong advocate for bridging industry and academia. She is the author of Design Leadership Chronicles and shares her insights on design, leadership, and transformation through her biweekly publication on designmavericks.substack.com.
To explore her work further, visit marzia.studio.
Working at the intersection of design research, interaction design, and the craft of envisioning the future, Mayo Nissen brings clarity to organizations grappling with complex and ambiguous challenges. Across his work for cities, corporations, and startups, he aims to improve the human experience and leave the world in better shape than he found it. He is an associate creative director in frog’s New York studio, and was previously principal designer at Urbanscale and a consultant at ReD Associates and Radarstation.His design work has been exhibited at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Milan’s Salone Internazionale del Mobile, and Stockholm’s National Center for Architecture and Design, and regularly guest-lectures, advises, and teaches in the US and Denmark.He likes big cities, hard questions, and shades of black.
Manali Mohanty is an interaction designer, strategist, and yoga teacher. A seasoned design leader, she helps public and private sector organisations navigate transformation through the lens of customer-centricity. She has over two decades of experience working at the intersection of fashion and technology, partnering with industry leaders such as LVMH and Google. With a deep-seated entrepreneurial spirit, she co-founded a startup incubator and led an innovation lab within a Fortune 500 company. More recently, she has focused on service design in the healthcare and civic space.
Hailing from India and having worked in North America, Europe and Asia, she believes that a diversity of perspectives and experience add value to the practice of design. Manali is passionate about improving the communities she lives in, and co-founded DreamBig, an education nonprofit, and advised startups with Rev-Tech Ventures and Silicon Vikings. She has spoken at TEDx on applying design thinking to personal transformation, and teaches at her alma maters, Parsons School of Design and the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design.
