Search Toolkits

This resource describes a comprehensive method for the BC Public Service (BCPS) to design services for British Columbians, although it is also applicable to other governments.
The Playbook is intended to help ensure public service designers have the necessary tools and corporate support to make change.
It includes an overview of service design, a discussion of when and how to use it, as well as detailed guidance and tools for the various methods used in service design. The methods are organised according to the publisher's model: Alignment, Discovery, Opportunity, Prototype & Test, Roadmap, and Implement.
The resource also compares service design with other public service approaches, like behavioural insights, lean, etc.
The appendix includes research planning templates, template partnership agreements for service design projects, and sample matrices for evaluating opportunities.

A series of 16 individual templates for different service design methods and techniques, plus posters with a guiding methodology for use in your own workshops. The posters do not include much step-by-step guidance so these are best used by people who have used these methods and techniques previously. The publisher's website also includes some case studies. Available in English and Dutch.

The toolkit provides an approach and methods those looking for a new way to tackle social and policy issues by making services more valuable to customers and users, easier to use, with fewer resources wasted on implementing the right ideas in the wrong way (or on the wrong ideas entirely).
This approach involves spending time understanding people’s experiences and resources on their own terms, taking methodical steps to analyse and address these with their active participation, and pushing for more effective cross-team and cross-organisational working.
The included Social Design Methods Menu focuses on the difficult early phases when uncertainty is high. It provides background, modes, methods and "recipes" for different situations and contexts, but the publisher suggests that these be further adapted and configured based on your needs.
A basic understanding of service design is helpful for exploring this toolkit.

This online interactive playbook is intended for teams to work better together in order to get things done. It is organised into Health Monitor (checks and activities for building team health), individual plays (filterable standalone activities), and game plans (series of plays for common use cases). The playbook organises the materials by project, service, and leadership team type, provides detailed instructions on how to run the plays and offers downloads of materials. Since many plays are adapted versions of other tools, licensing varies. However, many are licensed for reuse and further adaptation.

This toolkit outlines Bridgeable’s approach to harnessing behavioural economics (BE) to design better products and services that nudge user behaviour. It combines a service design approach with a BE approach, with the caveat that BE helps identify and tweak pivotal moments of decision making but not overall user experience or strategies.
The toolkit includes an overview of BE as well as an ideation and testing framework incorporating BE principles to move from a current state to an idea future state. A basic knowledge of service design is helpful for approaching this toolkit.

14 methods and 3 recipes suggesting how to combine them, associated with a guide book available for sale by the toolkit publisher.
Accompanying each method: Purpose, Outcomes, How to do it, and Tips as well as a worked example, to help readers understand how the method and associated template can be used at the early stage of designing an innovative service.

The resource is both an online catalog of resources as well as a publication. Combined, they comprise a basic but comprehensive introduction to service design and a selection of service design tools. The resources include the fundamentals of service design, an explanation of the Double Diamond design process and how it is used in service design, what to expect when working with a designer, and tools and methods that service designers use in the creative process. The publisher is considered the creator of the Double Diamond design process, which is ubiquitous in the design world.

A front-end framework for building websites that are accessible, usable, interoperable, mobile friendly and multilingual for the Government of Canada and beyond, the resource includes a collection of of flexible and themeable templates and reusable components and related guidance. Content is also available in French.

The IoT Service Kit is a board game that brings domain experts out of their silos to co-create user-centric IoT experiences. The Kit consists of three major components: maps, tokens and cards, which can be downloaded and printed/3D printed. It includes source content on GitHub as well. Its stated goals: achieve mutual understanding, stay tangible, and make complex simple. It is best for those who have some understanding of service design processes and principles as well as IoT technologies.

Guide to service blueprinting. The reader analyses their own interaction with service users. Through the tools of personas, scenarios, and the decomposition of a scenario into a blueprint of its elements, the reader can understand and improve their services from a Human-Centred design person

“Scenes” is a tool and a method to create visual stories about products and services fast, collaboratively and iteratively. It is intended for leaders and professionals of all industries to shape their ideas and scenarios in the form of fun illustrative storyboards without the need of refined drawing skills. It uses storytelling instead of long functional specifications for new or redesigned services or concepts.
It contains free, downloadable and printable templates for professionals to construct scenes for prototyping products and services. There are also "add-on" scenes for specific situations or topics.
The toolkit contains editable and printable scenes components as well as a how-to guide.

The purpose of the standard is to provide guidance for those in the New Zealand government or anyone who designs or provides government services regarding the provision of accessible, integrated, inclusive public services. It includes principles, rationale, information on how to meet the standard, related implementation guidance and resources, and a glossary.

A guided introduction to 14 common service design tools, such as empathy maps, personas, and customer journeys. They are organised by the publisher's methodology: Define, Learn, Solve, Test. Toolkit. The publisher offers a suggested path through the tools but the publisher suggests that each can be used on their own. The toolkit is available via website in exchange for your email address.

This field guide introduces human-centred design as an approach to addressing challenges related to community demand for services (specifically immunization services, but it could be applied to others). This Field Guide exists to help investigate, understand and respond to challenges of demand. It draws on insights from behavioural science and employs human-centred methods to improve immunization outcomes. Includes a 170 page field manual, process map, and workbook with tools. Its process overview poster provides guidance on who to involve and expected time investment for each method in the process.

This resource is a method library containing 54 method descriptions for using the key methods in service design. These methods include instructions, guidelines, and-tips-and tricks for activities within research, ideation, prototyping, and facilitation. This collection only contains building blocks. It doesn’t detail how to assemble them into a cohesive design process or how to plan or manage it. The associated (paid) book and curriculum offers this context.

In this booklet you will find tools to implement the CO-CRE-AR methodology in its three phases: Understanding, Creating and Arming.
CO-CRE-AR moves in spaces of divergence and convergence. The first part invites you to UNDERSTAND in detail the challenge you want to face; the second to CREATE with openness and generate ideas without many restrictions, to then land them and make them concrete in work plans, including the necessary communication elements to "sell" the solution in the organization.

This playbook shares lessons the publisher has learned while working with vulnerable populations as they access digital services, with the aim of improving access and awareness to those services.
This playbook is for nonprofits, community-based organizations, and governments who serve people who are eligible for government safety-net and criminal justice services, people with low incomes, and people in contact with the justice system.
It includes guidance in the form of principles and best practices for digital outreach to vulnerable populations.

The purpose of the standard is to provide guidance for those in the Australian government or anyone who designs or provides government digital services regarding the provision of simple, clear and fast services. It includes 13 criteria, rationale, information about meeting the standard, design principles, service design and delivery process, related training and guides, and a glossary.
The resource also includes downloadable posters.

An collection of communication tools used in service design processes that deal with complex systems, organised by design activities, representations, recipients, and contents. The website is the result of the research activity done by Roberta Tassi during her graduation thesis investigating the relation between communication design and service design, starting from the observation of the existing practices in the field of service design.
Each tool contains a description, how-to instructions, and case studies of its use.

The Shift Surrey guide provides an overview of Surrey's design approach to date, including a summary of projects and suggestions for building an internal community of practice inside government. At the end of the guide, there are several typical design tools, tips and tricks learned through Surrey's experience and suggestions for related design resources.

This set of service design resources includes a downloadable zip file of resources created by MrThinkr, such as templates, examples, and guidance on personas, journey mapping, and stakeholder mapping. The website contains video guidance on how to use these methods. In order to download the zip file, you must enter your email. The publisher is also marketing some paid software on their website.

An introduction to service design for public servants, and a set of practical ways to include design methods in your work. This resource was developed for the City of New York but is relevant to other cities, governments, and innovation labs as well.

The stated aim of the resource is to enable public sector organisations to use design management thinking and methods currently used by leading companies in the private sector. There is a library tools that are available for free (one must subscribe to access the case studies.) Many of these are commonly-used design methods which have been tweaked and re-branded as Shape Better Services resources. The library content is free to view but using their online guidance requires a paid subscription.

Principles and guidance for developing digital services in Argentina and beyond. The resource is available in a Github repository and includes 9 principles, indicators, and standards for API's, website, mobile applications, and others.