This course will investigate the complex structures, systems, experiences, connections and culture of the public service sector in Norway. The primary framing of the course is to consider the public sector as material for design and how investigating this material through visualization and mapping can give access and an understanding of this complex context.

The course will be led by Heidi Dolven & Simon Sandoval from design agency Halogen who are both senior designers with long experience working within the bureaucratic structures of public sector Norway, having worked with policy and ‘forvaltning’ design as well as front end, user-centered public service innovation. The course will also include other leading voices from design, public service management as well as others engaged in questions of public service innovation from several levels of government.

The course is positioned from an interdisciplinary perspective that represents systems orientated design and service design.

The main activity of the course will be to investigate, unpack, reflect, visualize and disseminate the material that is public service sector Norway and make this accessible to other designers and bureaucrats working in this context. The output and value of the activity is not only in the finalized visualizations but in the co-created and co-learning space created between students and the many actors with which they will engage.

In this course we are unpacking what design leadership is and why it is important for organisations. Design, and in particularly design thinking, have gained attention on strategic management levels. Some of the promises are that a designerly approach in the innovation process can help companies in digital transformation, and to develop proposals that meet consumers’ needs, dreams and wants; to name a few applications.

Design becoming part of the management discourse raises several questions. What characterises design leadership? How does design thinking differ from traditional management thinking? How can a designerly way of thinking and working contribute to the top management of an organisation?  What are the present hinderances where designers come up short in a management role?

The course is explorative in its nature. We have so far only scratched the surface of what design might contribute with in a management context. Therefore, the aim of the course is twofold: first to unpack current knowledge within the field of design leadership, but also to contribute to the further development of it.

The diploma at the Institute of Design is the final project in the Master programme. The Institute takes a broad approach to the design profession that includes products, services, systems and interactive experiences. The education brings together aesthetics and technology, creativity and design methods, culture and research. The programme has roots in Industrial Design, but today also includes Interaction Design, Service Design and Systems Oriented Design. This is reflected in the width of our students’ diplomas, and the broad range of themes that they address.

The diploma concludes our five-year Master in design and is done in the final semester. The diploma is a self-initiated and self-organised project that takes place over 18 weeks. The students develop and define their own project-descriptions (the diploma programme) in a pre-diploma’ course, in the semester leading up to the diploma. During the diploma project the students have a main supervisor at the Institute, but can also seek additional input and guidance form across AHO and externally. Diplomas are typically done as individual projects, but can also be done in groups.

The diplomas at the Institute of Design are characterised by variety and breadth. The diploma projects are typically initiated and developed by the students, and they are free to explore different themes and formats. These can be creative explorations, product development and theoretical projects, or collaborations with commercial companies, public services or researchprojects. Diplomas can also be discursive design projects that seek to raise questions or challenge societal or cultural issues. Often our diplomas are ‘hybrids’ that bring together different methods and actors, or span across our different design specialisations.

The purpose of the diploma is multi-layered. The students have to bring together what they have learned throughout their education to define and develop their own project. A challenge here is how the project is followed through, how it is developed and how it is executed as a design project. In the scope of the Master, the diploma is a relatively large project that demands that the student is self-driven, organised, structured and creative. At the same time, the diploma is a possibility for the student to explore his or her own identity as a designer, to research topics she or he finds interesting, or to challenge the students acquired skills and methods. The diplomas should therefore be understood holistically as projects where the students get to choose their own themes, approaches and processes, but where the challenge is also about organising and developing the project itself. Defining and developing the scope and plan for the project is done both in the project-description (diploma programme), as well as throughout the process.

It is important to note that in doing a holistic evaluation of the diplomas, the focus should be on the project itself rather than how closely it follows the initial description or diplomaprogramme.

The second part of the interaction design programme focuses on the complex connected world we now live in, where visual interfaces are increasingly prevalent (from mobile phones to large public information systems and presenting designers with fascinating, complex and highly relevant challenges. The course explores how these interfaces can be effectively integrated into networks and spaces; the information they contain and the messages they impart; and how we, as users, engage and interact with them.

New digital technologies, and the internet in particular, have changed the ways of production and consumption of information. The internet itself has undergone a sea-change in recent years, from primarily static and closed systems to infrastructures where openness, information sharing, collaboration and creativity are key ingredients. 

Massive information datasets and structures need to be presented in dynamic, user-friendly and accessible ways, allowing for easy navigation, providing an overview as well as detailed analysis. These sophisticated design challenges will be explored in a range of workshops and projects.The course will provide students with appropriate practical skills, design methods and design thinking tools, enabling them to tackle advanced screen-based design issues, and leading to the creation of engaging, informative and effective interfaces. The semester is a compilation of several smaller modules and workshops to introduce the students to the new and more screen specific methods, processes and tools that will form the core of the term. This will be followed by one final project, where students will develop more in-depth conceptual frameworks.