At wonnd, learning is what moves us forward, keeps our curiosity active and helps us better understand the changing environment we live in. And what we like most about teaching is that we learn with, and from, our students during the process.
That’s why we’re so thrilled that for the second year, our co-founder, Luciana Leveratto, is tutoring students on their Final Projects for the Master’s Degree in Service Design at BAU, Centre Universitari d’Arts i Disseny in Barcelona.
And what makes us particularly proud about these students is their commitment to using service design as an agent for change to achieve positive social impact. With the freedom to choose the topic for their Final Project, all of them decided to dedicate their time and effort to projects that could benefit society. Their projects bring inclusion and empowerment to disadvantaged social groups, support and promote sustainable mobility, and connect artists with their audience while ensuring they keep control of their creative work.
Service design, as a human-centered design discipline, proves to be very powerful when we need to tackle social challenges. Why? From wonnd’s perspective, it’s because successful service design happens at the intersection of 3 key areas: people, context and business. And at wonnd, this intersection is where we work when looking for new and meaningful opportunities:
- UNDERSTAND PEOPLE, meaning all the people involved. When we’re designing a service to tackle a social need, it’s not only about “users” – it’s about all the stakeholders involved, at all levels, to be sure that every one of them is benefiting from the service we’re designing.
- UNDERSTAND CONTEXT, because we need to understand the capabilities of the particular context that will condition the service, and the capacity of the service itself to create new, meaningful relationships and develop new assets and competencies that bring valuable solutions to society.
- UNDERSTAND BUSINESS to create a sustainable service that can achieve its purposes, be economically sustainable, generate the expected results and be maintained over time.
We are very proud about the committed journey of the students to create social impact through service design. That’s why we wanted to share some of their projects here.
Take note! If you’re part of an institution, company or organization, can also see the amazing potential of these projects, and want to learn more, or could help with moving these great initiatives forward, let us know and we can put you in touch with the courageous minds behind them.
Music Universe interaction by Cristina Checa & Paula Sancho / A mobile application that combines cutting-edge technology with experience design to generate new creative interactions that blur the barriers between musicians and their audiences.
Urban bike: building new futures by Guilherme Maglio & Valentina Artigas / A service that advises public administrations on the implementation of sustainable mobility solutions. It connects the voices of citizens and cyclists with the City Council for more inclusive, integrated, sustainable, safe and efficient cities.
YoungBridges by Mafalda Folques & Daniel Aguilera / An integration program that fosters a culture of collaboration between public libraries in Barcelona, young people, and social entities in neighborhoods with social conflicts, to create experiences that bring young people back to the libraries.
Plaza Escuela by Valentina Foresti, Julíán Rojas & Camila Salazar / A system to improve an existing volunteer program management model at public libraries. In the program, volunteers support the work of school teachers helping young students who have difficulties learning to read so as to improve their learning curve. It’s also an important support for families.
And there are more to come! We are now working with other exciting projects in this edition of the Master’s Degree:
Menstrual cups and women’s empowerment by Maria Lorena Pozo, Diego Delgado & Silvana Pacheco
Redefinition of soup kitchens as a social space open to the city of Barcelona by Alejandra Limón & Valeria Lucatelli, and Karen Gushiken & Juliana Romero.
Stay tuned! As we always say: Not everything is done!
