Abstract
The emergence of digital public services in Australia is evidencing a techno-colonisation of service design imaginaries. This paper considers how design tools are mediating this process. A workshop with seven designers experimented with four speculative and decolonising design tools to interrogate three areas of public services. The resulting maps and design fictions suggest just public service futures might be envisioned through design tools that make socio-political tensions more visible.
Keywords
digital public services, decolonising design, design tools
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/servdes2020.31
Citation
Hardie, P.(2021) Experimenting with design tools for just public services, in Akama, Y., Fennessy, L., Harrington, S., & Farago, A. (eds.), ServDes 2020: Tensions, Paradoxes and Plurality, 2–5 February 2021, Melbourne, Australia. https://doi.org/10.21606/servdes2020.31
Creative Commons License
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Conference Track
Research Papers
Experimenting with design tools for just public services
The emergence of digital public services in Australia is evidencing a techno-colonisation of service design imaginaries. This paper considers how design tools are mediating this process. A workshop with seven designers experimented with four speculative and decolonising design tools to interrogate three areas of public services. The resulting maps and design fictions suggest just public service futures might be envisioned through design tools that make socio-political tensions more visible.