Start Date
6-10-2025 9:00 AM
End Date
8-10-2025 7:00 PM
Description
Service designers often encounter power dynamics that shape their role in enabling change. This study explores how and why designers experience power in practice, drawing on ecological systems theory (EST) to map experiences gathered through a case study of five focus groups with international practitioners. Leverage analysis is then used to conceptualise these insights. By intersecting these two frameworks, we developed the Power Compass - a project-centred template that visualises how social, political, and ecological forces converge in design projects, revealing power as both a source of agency and a constraint. The template aims to support designers in identifying, analysing, and navigating power structures throughout a project’s life cycle. The Power Compass serves as a boundary object and inquiry tool used among the various actors involved in the project, offering potential application beyond service design. We therefore invite further evaluation and contextual adaptation of the tool, concept, and its application.
Citation
Fidos, M., Suoheimo, M., Pan, S.,and Jones, P.H.(2025) Power Compass: a template for navigating power in service design.. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/servdes/servdes2025/researchpapers/28
Power Compass: a template for navigating power in service design
Service designers often encounter power dynamics that shape their role in enabling change. This study explores how and why designers experience power in practice, drawing on ecological systems theory (EST) to map experiences gathered through a case study of five focus groups with international practitioners. Leverage analysis is then used to conceptualise these insights. By intersecting these two frameworks, we developed the Power Compass - a project-centred template that visualises how social, political, and ecological forces converge in design projects, revealing power as both a source of agency and a constraint. The template aims to support designers in identifying, analysing, and navigating power structures throughout a project’s life cycle. The Power Compass serves as a boundary object and inquiry tool used among the various actors involved in the project, offering potential application beyond service design. We therefore invite further evaluation and contextual adaptation of the tool, concept, and its application.