The Glasgow School of Art

The transformation from a manufacturing to an experience economy has led to the emergence of a design discipline focused on the systems and services that define many of our everyday interactions. Service Design puts human experience and aspiration at the heart of the design process by ensuring that experiences are meaningful and targeted towards people’s needs and abilities.

At the School of Innovation and Technology, Service Design is taught as a means of applying design processes to complex problems, combining artefacts and interactions to produce services that exist, unfold and evolve in both space and time. The MDes in Design Innovation & Service Design focuses on the social value of service design, as well as its economic importance. It is about addressing real problems that affect real people, by understanding them from each stakeholder’s point of view.

The programme seeks to equip students with the thinking, tools and processes required to practice Service Design, so they can drive innovation in the conception, design and delivery of services and experiences. Live projects provide a rich experience of design innovation through collaborations with private and public sector organisations. The learning experience is further enhanced by direct input from leading Service Design professionals.

You will also have the opportunity to engage with peers from international schools as part of the annual Winter School held at the campus in Forres. This seasonal event brings together students and faculty from leading institutions around the world for a two-week programme of lectures, workshops and networking opportunities that offers an insight into what a career in design as a global activity looks like.