r/servicedesign

Hi! I’m a Service Designer currently working in the UK public sector. I have almost 6 years of experience overall, around 3 years in the private sector in Colombia and 3 years in UK government.

Lately, I’ve been having a bit of a career crisis and questioning whether I actually want to continue as a Service Designer.

I’d really like to hear from people working in Service Design in the private sector in the UK. What has your experience been like? How different is it from the public sector? What are the culture, pace, responsibilities and day-to-day work like in other industries?

I think I’m mainly trying to understand whether I’m tired of Service Design itself, or whether it’s more about the organisation/environment I’m currently in.
Would really appreciate hearing about other people’s experiences!!!

Hi all

I’ve been a service designer at a consultancy for 4 yrs and prior to that, did 2yrs as a digital designer after graduating in product design (though the course was more of a product/service/experience combo)

Service Design was what I thought, the ultimate goal - I thought it would be a great creative job where you get to create genuine positive user impact. From my experience, it’s pretty much the opposite. It’s not that creative; a lot of the work is taking data or research findings and creating blueprints or journey maps for the sake of creating an artefact as opposed to something a client will actually implement. Not once have I seen a SD output be implemented in real life (I appreciate that may just be my experience though)

Essentially I have come to realise that I don’t want to be a service designer anymore, I’d love a job where you have real impact, are more creative and there’s less complexity, to be quite honest (turns out adhd and complex systems are not a good combo for me!)

I’m just unsure of where to go from here. I don’t really have enough experience as a product designer to land a PD role but equally the skills I have gained as a service designer eg mapping complex systems and synthesising research in to opportunities etc etc are not skills I enjoy using so I don’t really want to move into a role where they’re required.

Has anyone else pivoted from SD into something less complex and a bit more creative? I’d love to hear!

Self-explanatory title: been working as a brand designer for the past four years but now with the evil conquest of AI (ew) I’ve been seriously considering diversifying into a field that is more human, hands on and (what I hope is) “future proof”.

I majored in graphic design in uni, but dabbled in a bit of everything (UX, UI, research) before finding my niche in branding and visual identity and I truuly enjoy what I do. I have a little bit of UI in my portfolio but mostly visual identity and brand strategy work.

Please tell me —

How can I break into this field? How do I gain a footing? I’ve been considering doing my masters in Service Design, to gain more hands on experience and to make connections (I’m thinking of the programmes at UAL and RCA at the moment). Is this truly necessary? Or can I get away with doing one of their short courses, considering I do have a tiny bit of knowledge in user research?

Any advice is truly appreciated, thank you! :)