About

Through exploratory, co-creative, and empowering approaches, we research, design, and develop services that address societal concerns. Our vision is to contribute theoretical and practical knowledge to support the design, and deployment of ethically anchored, future-oriented services.

What we do

Our research investigates the design, development, and assessment of services as a strategic approach to social innovation, civic participation, and long-term societal transformation – an orientation we describe as civic service design. We work across overlapping domains – urban regeneration, healthcare and well-being, education, inclusion, sustainability, democracy, and policy-making – from a perspective that values a systemic and future-oriented approach. Across these contexts, we examine how participatory, human and more-than-human centred approaches can support the co-creation, prototyping, and evaluation of services, infrastructures, and futures together with citizens, public institutions, civil society organisations, and private stakeholders. A substantial part of our work concerns the role of digital and emerging technologies – including AI, XR, and other digital applications – as both objects of inquiry and constitutive elements of contemporary service ecosystems. Under the broader heading of digital civics, we study how these technologies can underpin relational models of service provision, organisation, and citizen engagement, while maintaining a critical perspective on their implications. This includes attention to democratic access to data, citizens’ rights to control their personal data, the capability to make sense of data and algorithmic systems, and the conditions under which designers and developers can act critically within AI-based socio-technical systems. Alongside this, we develop methods and approaches for using the design, development, and assessment of services as strategic tools for innovation in business, the public sector, and civil society. We are writing high-profile academic publications on various aspects of design and civic service design, but that’s not it. We also do the following:

Running one of the oldest and most well-respected Master’s Program in Service Design with a strong research-based component.

Hosting focused spin-off initiatives, such as the OpenDataLab, which explores the potential of big and open data in service design.

Working on small and large scale research projects where service design fosters the collaboration of a variety of stakeholders.

Contributing to academic research by co-authoring papers, reports, articles, books with fellow researchers from all around the world.

Proposing design-based frameworks and methods to empower citizens and other stakeholders in pursuing their innovative endeavors.

Supporting the creation of a community and a network of actors interested in service design in Copenhagen and, more broadly, in Denmark through education, research projects, Service Design Talks, internships, alumni network…

Who we are

The Service Design lab was founded by Nicola Morelli and Amalia De Götzen in 2012. Since then, they have been building up a multidisciplinary and international team. Today the Service Design Lab consists of seven researchers, often joined by students from the Master’s Program in Service Design as temporary team players.

Nicola Morelli

director

Nicola is Professor with Specific Responsibility at Aalborg University (AAU). Nicola has been working on service design for many years and worked in several research projects on service design and innovation, social innovation and user participation. Nicola worked at Politecnico di Milano, at RMIT in Melbourne (Australia). Together with Amalia de Götzen he started the master in Service Systems Design at AAU and contributed to the consolidation of the research group that is now the Service Design Lab. He is coordinating and connecting the research projects of the Lab. nmor@create.aau.dk Linked In

AMALIA De Götzen Design researcher

Amalia’s research activity focuses on Digital Social Innovation and in particular on the intersection between Interaction Design and Service Design. She is interested in tools and methods that bridge the analog and digital world of services. She participated to several european projects as investigator and work package leader and has an extensive research experience on Sonic Interaction Design. ago@create.aau.dk Linked In

LUCA SIMEONE Design researcher

Luca’s work is situated at the intersection of design practice, research and entrepreneurship. In particular, his interest is in how strategic approaches can support design-based innovation and management processes. He has founded and managed 7 companies and conducted research and teaching activities at universities such as Harvard, MIT, Polytechnic of Milan, Malmö University and University of the Arts London. He (co)authored some 70 publications, including 3 books and articles in journals such as Technovation, R&D Management, Journal of Knowledge Management, Journal of Business Research, Leonardo and Visual Studies. lsi@create.aau.dk Linked In

Ali Adjorlu

Associate professor

Text coming soon adj@create.aau.dk Linked In

HADAS ZOHAR

phd sTUDENT

Hadas’s design work combines both practice and research, based on her background in visual communication, service design and cultural studies. Before joining the lab, she worked as a graphic designer, design writer and editor and gave talks in Denmark, Sweden and Israel. Hadas’s work was published in various exhibitions and books. At the Service Design Lab, she is focused on the T-factor project.

Linked In

María Vitaller del Olmo

PHD STUDENT

With a strong focus on social practices, a cross-disciplinary approach that combines Play Design, Human-Centered Innovation and Education, María aims for improving the living conditions for human beings. Passionate about the potential of play not only as an outcome but also as a steady constant in the design process to connect with stakeholders, she has collaborated with public and private institutions designing interventions, objects or experiences that leverage play to trigger togetherness, spark activism, foster creativity, or generate dialogues that inspire context-rooted concepts. At the Service Design Lab, María is part of the EasyRights and NordicPath projects, where she will contribute to the development of inclusive collaborative ecosystems for sustainable and citizen-centred cities. mvdo@create.aau.dk Linked In

Christina Lindeberg

PHD STUDENT

Christina has been working for over a decade within the service design industry and has an academic background spanning both design (BDes – The Glasgow School of Art) and management (MSc – Lund University). She has experience of working both as a design consultant and internal designer for organisations within the public sector (e.g. Malmö Stad), private sector (e.g. IKEA) and third sector (e.g. Macmillan Cancer Support). During this time, she has developed a specific interest in exploring how design can improve the necessary public services and will explore this further within the CoDesign4Transitions network through the research question: DC5 Replicating and scaling up different public participation practices for circular transitions. cmkl@create.aau.dk Linked In

Daniele Dell ‘Orto

PHD STUDENT

Daniele has a background in communication design and a deep interest in the convergence of technical and social perspectives in contemporary issues. The will to contribute to the construction of fair and sustainable relations and ways of living strongly shapes his research. His current work, at the intersection of the Service Design Lab and the Techno Anthropology Lab, focuses on participatory data design as a tool for collaborative knowledge creation in the context of climate assemblies. He is part of the international doctoral network “CoDesign4Transitions”. ddo@create.aau.dk Linked In

Patricia Csobánczi

RESEARCH Assistant

Patricia is a researcher and design practitioner focusing on biodiversity and food systems through more-than-human design. Combining these themes into a design collective, she co-founded ‘Hopkok Fabrik’, creating experiences for children around food, culture and sustainability across the Nordics. Patricia co-authored a chapter in the publication ‘Post-Normal Design’ edited by Alastair Faud-Luke about a design framework encouraging sustainable food transitions through alternative ingredients. As a Research Assistant at the Service Design Lab, she works on the EU-funded ‘Climaborough’ project, helping to design sustainable cities as well as other projects, such as BC4ECO, which applies blockchain toward environmental causes. pacs@create.aau.dk Linked In