About the Course

Design for Service Innovation is an experiential, project-based course.  Students  will work in multidisciplinary teams to design new services to address the real-world needs of an underserved population of users.

The solutions designed in these projects may include new processes, operating protocols, policies, organizational constructs, software programs, websites, campaigns, or products that can be readily adopted by a partner organization.  The goal is to:

  • Improve the efficiency and effectiveness with which user’s needs are met.
  • Be economically viable for the partner organization.
  • Be scalable to reach a significant portion of the target audience.

Some project solutions may be implemented within the span of the 10-week quarter.  In other cases, the teams may hand-off their designs to the partner to carry forward.  Students also will have the option to follow-through on their solutions during Spring quarter via independent study projects.

Two Sections Now Available

This year, the course offers two sections. The first (OIT343/01) focuses on health services; the second (OIT343/02) explores financial services. Both tracks follow a “design thinking” approach that emphasizes empathy-building and action-oriented prototyping as mechanisms for deeply and accurately understanding users’ needs and then building creative solutions to address them.

Health Track
OIT343/01, MED 274, BIOE 372

Students pursuing the healthcare track will partner with representatives from the California HealthCare Foundation and the 3 local "safety net" hospitals and clinics it supports. We also will continue our work from last year with the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.

This year's projects will focus on improving the delivery of health services and medical care. Students will have the opportunity to redesign workflows, create programs and materials to improve medical adherence, or recast the experience of pediatric patients with chronic conditions as they transition to adult care. For more information, visit the Health page.

Finance Track
OIT343/02

Most financial services are currently targeted at relatively wealthy users. Students pursuing the financial services track will explore opportunities to improve services provided to existing customer segments as well as explore the development of financial service products for the middle class and low income customers.

Through interactions with partner companies and consumers in the field, this year’s projects will focus on identifying and addressing needs in the following six areas: insuring poorly insured consumer risks; monetizing illiquid assets; leveraging social technologies to increase access to financial services; improving the experience of shopping for financial service products; strengthening the communication between financial institutions and their customers; reducing financial illiteracy. For more information, visit the Finance page.