Service Design Challenge

Teams from London College of Communication were awarded first and third place for their concepts which aimed to transform traditional healthcare into truly human-centred services.

The Student Service Design Challenge celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of designers to find people-centred and future-oriented healthcare solutions. Supported by Philips Experience Design, teams are encouraged to develop new, playful and disruptive approaches which provide the right care to the right people in timely, affordable and accessible ways, in response to the brief: ‘How can we improve the heart health of people in Europe who are ‘invisible’, neglected, underserved, forgotten or overlooked?’

Unanimously, the Jury chose the ‘WomenToHeart’ concept as the 2020 winner. Developed by a team of LCC students on the MA Service Design course, I <3 Women, is an online service which helps women to identify and communicate cardiac symptoms via metaphors rather than a traditional pain scale. This approach ultimately helps them to understand early warning signs and encourages them to seek help sooner.

Judges praised ‘WomenToHeart’ for the clarity of its concept, the fact its research was guided by a deep sense of empathy, its great storytelling and its potential for high impact.

The winners were joined in their success by fellow LCC team, London Arts 1, who were awarded third place. Their ‘Heartsease’ concept was designed to improve communication between elderly patients and medical staff through a ‘cardiac passport’ and a personalised planning experience for medical procedures.

Winners announcement and link to the projects: https://servicedesignchallenge.com/winner-announcement-2020

The winning students on the experience: https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/london-college-of-communication/stories/ma-service-design-students-commended-at-the-2020-student-service-design-challenge

Interview with Philips: https://www.philips.nl/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/about/news/articles/2020/20200831-grote-problemen-in-hapklare-brokken-zo-kan-design-de-wereld-veranderen.html