This is service design learning

This past two years, the service design industry has experienced more attention than ever before, and this has enabled the accessibility of education about this topic around the world. Previously we could only find the well known Service Design master degrees at prestigious universities such as Politecnico di Milano, Royal College of Arts, SCAD o Laurea Finlandia. But considering to spend two years and a considerable amount of money in international masters is a real luxury most people can’t afford (at least in Mexico).

Luckily for us, we can now find much more accessible courses in both cost and duration. I made a list of some Service Design courses that I find interesting either by the institutions or teachers involved, or because of the quality of the syllabus. Ordered by relevance in the industry (curricular value) and personal preferences.

Disclaimer: being passionate about Service Design and education has led me to start an initiative focused on the training of service designers in Mexico. I could not make a list without including our courses as part of the benchmark, hence I added them at the end of this article, separated so as not to bias the ranking.

International Service Design courses:

Service Design Doing Executive School: Essentials
Taught by: Marc Stickdorn & Adam Lawrence
Where: New York or Amsterdam
Duration: 3 days
Hours: 24
Price: $2,445 usd
Topics: Introduction to service design, research, stakeholder maps, personas, journeys, prototyping, testing, business tools and facilitation tips

Service Design Core
Taught by: Richard Ekelman, SERV
Where: Chicago
Duration: 12 days
Hours: 36
Price: $4,000 usd
Topics: Fundamentals, research, process mapping, prototyping, strategy and implementation roadmap

Service Design Immersive
Taught by: Cooper / Designit
Where: San Francisco or New York
Duration: 2 days
Hours: 16
Price: $1,410 usd
Topics: Introduction to service design, current-state service diagnosis, future-state definition, prototyping, blueprint, presenting

Service Design
Taught by: Antonio Starnino, London College of Communication
Where: Online
Duration: 6 days
Hours: 12
Price: £ 550
Topics: Introduction to service design, research, journeys, personas, ideation, prototyping, blueprints

CIID Service Design
Taught by: Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design
Where: Singapore
Duration: 3 days
Hours: 24
Price: $1,540 usd
Topics: Research, sensemaking, prototyping and testing

Analysing Service Economics
Taught by: Richard Ekelman, SERV
Where: Chicago
Duration: 1 day
Hours: 7
Price: $821 usd
Topics: Understanding the economic impact of service design in organizations

Service Design Masterclass
Taught by: Koos Amsterdam
Where: Amsterdam or Lisbon
Duration: 2 days
Hours: 16
Price: 1,200 €
Topics: Introduction to service design, research, journeys, visual thinking, fast prototyping

Certified Service Design Thinker
Taught by: XDi — Experience Design Institute
Where: several cities across Europe
Duration: 3 days
Hours: 21
Price: 1,790 €
Topics: Design Thinking and Human Centered Design methodologies applied to service design

Service Design Workshop
Taught by: Akendi
Where: London
Duration: 1 day
Hours: 8
Price: £ 570
Topics: Service Design principles and fundamentals

Intro to practical Service Blueprinting
Taught by: Erik & Megan, Practical Service Design
Where: Online
Hours: 2
Price: $149 usd
Topics: Blueprint Design

Service Design courses in Mexico:

Service Design Fundamentals
Taught by: Service Design México, 6 coaches
Where: Mexico City
Duration: 3 days
Hours: 24
Price: $8,500 MXN ($415 usd)
Topics: Fundamentals, research, sensemaking, journeys, blueprints, archetypes, personas, value proposition

Service Design Immersion
Taught by: Service Design México, 6 coaches
Where: Mexico City
Duration: 12 days
Hours: 50
Price: $16,500 MXN ($807 usd)
Topics: Fundamentals, project briefing, actors map, research, problem definition, sensemaking, archetypes, personas, journeys, ideation, value proposition, blueprints, prototyping, presenting

I am excited about everything happening in the industry and the amount of options that we can find to study and work in the field right now. This will only result in more and better professionals. For all of us also recruiting, it is undoubtedly an interesting time to be a service designer around the world.