Abstract
Service design is increasingly recognized as a valuable contributor to user-centred innovation in the public sector. However, a lack of focus on public servants’ emotional experiences may limit its impact. This paper introduces “experiential insighting” as a human-centred approach to fostering empathy and understanding of bureaucrats’ lived experiences within the Norwegian public sector. In 2024, service design master’s students transposed these experiences into interactive installations, which were later presented at a conference. Feedback from policymakers and bureaucrats suggests that the experiential insighting installations effectively communicated key experiences, fostering empathy, stimulating dialogue, and enrichening communication. The study highlights the role of making as a critical skill in service design education, demonstrating its potential to connect policy development with lived experience. We advocate for an "experiential re-turn" in service design, where embodied and emotional experiences complement systemic approaches to drive deeper engagement and transformative change.
Keywords
Service design, Public Sector, Experientially
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/servdes2025.80
Citation
Matthews, T.,and Michalak-Paulsen, A.(2025) Exploring Experiential Insighting., in Mahamuni, R., Onkar, P. (eds.), ServDes 2025: Empowering Diversity, Nurturing Lasting Impact, 6–10 October, Hyderabad, India. https://doi.org/10.21606/servdes2025.80
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Exploring Experiential Insighting.
Service design is increasingly recognized as a valuable contributor to user-centred innovation in the public sector. However, a lack of focus on public servants’ emotional experiences may limit its impact. This paper introduces “experiential insighting” as a human-centred approach to fostering empathy and understanding of bureaucrats’ lived experiences within the Norwegian public sector. In 2024, service design master’s students transposed these experiences into interactive installations, which were later presented at a conference. Feedback from policymakers and bureaucrats suggests that the experiential insighting installations effectively communicated key experiences, fostering empathy, stimulating dialogue, and enrichening communication. The study highlights the role of making as a critical skill in service design education, demonstrating its potential to connect policy development with lived experience. We advocate for an "experiential re-turn" in service design, where embodied and emotional experiences complement systemic approaches to drive deeper engagement and transformative change.