OVERVIEW
POLI.design, founded by Politecnico di Milano, devotes a specialized upper-level training programme to Service Design. Created ten years ago in response to the growing demand for professionals capable of handling the complexity of services, the Specializing Master in Service Design by POLI.design - Politecnico di Milano is maintaining the pace with the evolution of the discipline. Following the changes that invest in business and the society, the Master program, since its birth, is endowed with the mission of training professionals in the fascinating process of conceiving, developing, and delivering a service, fostering at the same time innovation culture, creative thinking, and cultural exchange.
The Specializing Master delivers an English teaching programme on service design employing a practical and learning-by-doing approach, based on modules that underline the design discipline, and on applied and cutting-edge contents. Students will acquire the fundamental competencies to understand people’s needs and behaviors, interpret changes within contemporary society, and design effective and efficient solutions, processes, and experiences. The Master is supported by outstanding partners belonging both to the public and the private sector.
A RENEWED PROGRAMME
The Specializing Master in Service Design is an international training programme focused on a user-centred approach, and the development of service ideas from contextual research to prototyping. Thanks to a proven and sound methodology that mixes theoretical knowledge with hands-on experiences that are renovated every year, and that are enriched by always new lectures on topics at the forefront, each Master edition awards a new generation of designers that soon go feeding the ranks of renown design agencies, consultancies, companies, as well as public organizations and research centers.
The complexity of conceiving, developing, and delivering a service requires innovation culture, creative thinking, and cultural exchange. In order to strengthen the student’s abilities, the Master program relies on an educational model that merges the acquisition of broad and multifaceted methodological knowledge and a learning-by-doing approach through:
- – multidisciplinary modules;
- – experimental projects with real companies coordinated by international academics and professionals;
- – service prototyping.
PROFESSIONAL OUTCOMES/FUTURE EMPLOYMENT
The Specializing Master in Service Design trains specialists in the design of services for firms and public sector organizations.
The programme’s overall objectives are to produce experts and consultants with a solid design culture, vision, and the ability to design, manage, and organize the conception and implementation of a service. It also aims to develop innovation and entrepreneurship.
On conclusion of the programme, the participants will be able to:
Devise systemic innovation models for services
Observe and Analyse user experience to construct a user-centred vision of complex interaction
Deploy theoretical skills to operate within complex systems
Manage service conception, design and development
Use specific service design tools
Foster entrepreneurship
Numerous employment opportunities are available to graduates from the Specializing Master in Service Design. Potential roles include:
- – service designer as a specialized consultant at a design agency;
- – service designer as a consultant or employee of public-sector organizations, research centres, enterprises and authorities;
- – service designer as a consultant or employee of private-sector organizations, research centres, companies and organizations;
- – service designer as a freelance or self-employed professional (start-up).
COURSE PROGRAMME AND TEACHING METHOD
The Specializing Master programme grants 60 CFU (Formative University Credits) equivalent to 60 ECTS.
The capability to manage complexity and act upon different design levels, and the capacity for creativity and vision are the main features of a service design professional.
These skills will be acquired through a highly experimental approach based on learning modules divided into lectures and design activities – called Service Design Pills, Service Design Masterclasses, Service Design Workshops – each one led by a different faculty member and focusing on a different topic.
The Master is now starting its tenth edition with a renewed program that includes more than thirty learning modules, clustered into the following categories:
– Service Design Basics & Tools
– User Research, Concept Generation And Concept Development
– Emerging Service Culture
– Service Business & Management
– Future Studies, Systems Thinking & Sustainable Design
– Human-Centered Innovation & Participatory Futures
– Emerging Technologies & Digital Services
The didactic path is composed by different kinds of learning modules:
Lectures
Theoretical lessons aimed at providing the disciplinary background and introducing extra-disciplinary knowledge.
Service Design Pills
Short design sessions aimed at putting into practice methods and tools on a simulated design challenge.
Service Design Masterclasses
Advanced lectures provided by renown experts on cutting-edge topics emerging in the service design community.
Service Design Workshops
Biweekly design labs that cover all the phases of the service design process, from research to prototyping, experimenting on a real brief proposed by a partner company.
Internships
475 hours of training experience in a partner company of the Specializing Master or other companies suggested by participants.
TIMELINE
STUDENT AMBASSADOR
MASTER BOARD
Stefano Maffei
DIRECTOR
Beatrice Villari
CO-DIRECTOR
Raffaela Scognamiglio
COORDINATOR AND EXTERNAL RELATIONS
Francesca Foglieni
SENIOR CONSULTANT
