DATA CANVAS FOR SERVICE DESIGN

Data is now recognized as one of the founding pillars of our economy. Designers are more and more required to understand “data” – or how to make a meaningful use of data – in their work.

Data is everywhere nowadays, but do everyday people really benefit from it? How can we design for meaningful use cases of open data to improve people’s everyday lives or create new business opportunities?

As part of a “Design with Open Data” course that aims to create new service opportunities enabled by open data, Data Card Toolkit was developed for supporting hands-on ideation with different types of data. Each toolkit contained 50 Data cards (40 open datasets from https://data.gov.sg and 10 personal datasets), 12 Persona cards, 18 Theme cards, and a Data Canvas for idea development.

Approach 1: Data-driven ideation

In groups of three to four, a few data cards would be picked from the shuffled deck individually and ideate on potential services that can be designed by combining the datasets on hand. Participants were encouraged to discuss, trade within their group or draw more cards should there be difficulty making connections with their hand. The best connection made would be chosen to develop as a service idea on the Data Canvas. The Data Canvas acts as a prompt to identify determining factors such as Goals, Target Group, Usage Context, Data Sources, Stakeholders and Possible Challenges for the selected service idea.

Approach 2: Human-driven ideation

In groups of three to four, persona and theme cards are first browsed then discussed to attempt at creating meaningful connections through the combining of different personas and themes. Blank cards are provided for participants whom identified other personas / themes. The most relevant persona-theme combination would be chosen to develop into a service idea to design for. Data cards meaningful for the service idea should be picked from the deck of Data cards before using the Data Canvas to bring the idea one step further.

Toolkit-in-action

Thank you for your interest in the Data Card Toolkit.

Feel free to download the toolkit below but do remember to credit us, Service Design Lab Singapore! We also look forward to your feedback to us on how we can further iterate and improve the toolkit at servicedeslab@gmail.com!