Thinkpublic are an award-winning agency focused on using design
to improve service experiences in the public sector. We achieve this by working with service providers
and the general public to gain understanding of how their services and experiences could be
improved. Our dynamic and creative company has worked with the NHS, education, Local
Government and the Third Sector.
Dec 18th, 2008
Ivo’s Good Gym project has won the second ever Social Innovation camp. The project will set up a framework for people to integrate brief visits to isolated older people and the delivery of useful items to good causes/ dependant individuals into their running routes and exercise routines.
Over the course of the weekend the project signed up 20 volunteers and fleshed out the concept with a range of older people, doctors and lawyers.
The Good Gym team for the weekend included: Rohan Gunatillake, Alice Casey, Ed Whyman, Matt Collins, Tom Taylor and Ana K. The team worked from 9AM on Saturday morning until 2pm on Sunday refining safety issues and developing a solid business model.
You can read more here at Headshift or listen to Ivo on the Guardian Podcast.
If you’d like to get involved getinvolved@thegoodgym.org. If you would like to find out more, try these sites: Guardian podcast, Social Innovation Camp and the Headshift blog
Dec 4th, 2008
Members of the thinkpublic team were in Amsterdam last week to run a workshop called Get Well Soon, the workshop was part of the Service Design Network conference and was run in partnership with Kuopio Academy of Design, Finland.
Read a full report of the outcomes; including photos, videos and four solutions to major social challenges.
Dec 1st, 2008
After many conversations and analysis of submissions, we are pleased to announce that the winner of The Real Work Experience ‘Design for Social Change’ workshops is Bristol (UWE)!
Led by graduate designer Chris Clarke and Alex Ostrowski, the 27 strong Bristol group produced and submitted a printed book covering their ideas and experiences of the workshop (as well as the report) – that extra mile really caught our eyes and showed a bold dedication and belief in the national scale this project can have! We will now work with Chris, Alex and their team at Bristol to develop the idea into a strategic plan.
We felt that many of the submissions last week were very similar and crossed many of the same themes and therefore would like to let all of you know that we intend to involve all the leads in the development. A huge big thank you to everyone who took part in the workshops – your attendance and contributions have been crucial to us gaining insights to the academic understanding of social design.
Nov 25th, 2008
Directed by thinkpublic’s Ivo Gormley, Us Now is a ground breaking documentary exploring the power of mass collaboration, government and the Internet. Us Now brings together for the first time the fore-most thinkers in the field of participative governance to describe the future of government.
The film follows the fate of online networks that are challenging the existing notion of hierarchy; Ebbsfleet United, a football club owned and run by its 35,000 fans; Zopa, a bank in which everyone is the manager; and Couch Surfing, a vast online network whose members share their homes with strangers.
Exploring the idea of how this type of collaborative thinking and open participation could threaten to change the fabric of government forever, Us Now confronts politicians George Osborne and Ed Milliband with the possibilities for participative government as described by Don Tapscott and Clay Shirky amongst others.
Us Now is directed by Ivo Gormley and produced by Banyak films in association with the RSA
Two advanced screenings are taking place next month in central London, the first at the RSA on 3rd of December and the second at the Prince Charles Cinema on 10th December. To attend either of these events please sign up here : 3rd December 2008 at the RSA
10th December 2008 at the Prince Charles Cinema
Nov 13th, 2008
thinkpublic initiative Pitch Your Project has been short listed by the NHS Centre for Involvement, as part of their Involvement to Impact Awards (i2i)
Pitch Your Project is part of our Journeys to Health collaboration with UK volunteering charity TimeBank and involves the hosting of Dragon’s Den style events with Foundation Trusts to support the development of innovative volunteering opportunities within health.
Members of local health and wellbeing community groups are invited to pitch their idea for using volunteers to a panel of experts. This provides an excellent way for Foundation trusts to engage with local people and hard to reach groups, equally for the organisations pitching it’s a great opportunity to find out more about the Trust and have their voices heard.
Over the last year Pitch your Project has run in seven Foundation Trusts across the country with 27 organisations pitching their ideas.
The awards are announced on Tuesday 25 November 2008, following the NHS Centre for Involvement’s conference.
Nov 6th, 2008
thinkpublic are hosting their Design Clinic at the NHS Innovation Live conference on Wednesday 12th November 2008. The thinkpublic Design Clinic is a space for delegates to receive a prescription that will help them ensure that their services delight their users. Delegates are invited to sign up for a 15-minute appointment with our Design Doctors who will diagnose communication and innovation aches and offer a personal prescription. Our Doctors are design qualified and will be happy to share their knowledge on a full range of issues, including:
* User requirements: How do you find out what your users really want?
* Service design: How can you create sustainable services that delight users and inspire staff?
* Touch-point mapping: How do your users experience your services?
* Future service scenarios: What other ways can your service help its users?
* Patient experience: How can you map your users emotional experiences of your service?
Plus, our doctors will have a selection of inspirational remedies to help inspire even the most challenging communication, service design or innovation ache or ailment! If you plan on attending the conference, why not pop by for an appointment?
Oct 28th, 2008
thinkpublic’s director Deborah Szebeko has been nominated for a Women of the Future award. The awards were founded two years ago to ‘celebrate and identify female role models under the age of 35 and bring together the rising stars of business, professional and public life.’
Deborah has been nominated in the category of Art and Culture. This award acknowledges the creative forces of future writers, artists and directors and observes their inspirational contribution to business in this sector and beyond.
The awards will be presented on November 6, 2008 at the London Marriott, Grosvenor Square.
For more information on the awards go to Real Business
Oct 20th, 2008
Deborah Szebeko, director of thinkpublic has published an article in this week’s Health Service Journal (HSJ) to argue this very point.
Detailing Deborah’s experiences of a designer working in health, the article highlights why design is important in healthcare improvement and how thinkpublic use design to “aid a better understanding of the people who use and provide services, then offers a range of tools and processes to support working together to develop and make improvements.”
The full article is available at: www.hsj.co.uk
Oct 7th, 2008
Paul Thurston and Ivo Gormley from thinkpublic are running a session at the Service Design Conference in Amsterdam this November. The workshop will be run in partnership with the Kuopio Academy of Design, Finland and aims to provide participants with an “Understanding of the complex issues to be considered when designing for the health service. Getting participants designing innovative solutions to meet individual’s needs outside existing health services and encouraging the design of imaginative new solutions to key social challenges”
The interactive “Get well soon” workshop is one of 9 taking place on the 26th November covering service design approaches to a wide range of issues including; health, social innovation, transport and finance.
If you are attending and would like to meet with either Paul or Ivo at the event please email: hello@thinkpublic.com
Sep 22nd, 2008
Deborah Szebeko, the founder and Director of thinkpublic, walked away with the prestigious British Council’s UK Young Design Entrepreneur Award on Friday evening. The award was presented by Sebastian Conran at the 100% Design exhibition in London’s Earls Court.
Sebastian Conran, Managing Director of Studio Conran, added “Deborah gave an impressive, compelling and prodigiously clear-sighted presentation on how to integrate design with the public realm. Tenacious about translating design to a wider range of clients, she has succeeded in combining both enthusiasm and common sense to gain the confidence of people who are usually sceptical about design. The judges commend her unique achievements in marrying design with the public sector in a tremendously valuable, straightforward and no-nonsense way.”
Download the press release
Read the rest of this entry »
