CIVIC DESIGN: SYSTEMS THINKING IN PUBLIC SERVICE DESIGN
Hands-on introduction to civic design and the role of designers in the public sector. Examination of service design, systems-thinking, and participatory methods applied to government and community contexts. Team-based partnership with a government agency or nonprofit intermediary to brainstorm, prototype, iterate, and propose a service improvement.
Prerequisites & course information
Requisites: None Course Designation: Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement Repeatable for Credit: No Learning Outcomes: 1. Differentiate civic design from related design fields and articulate the implications of those differences for public-sector work. Audience: Undergraduate 2. Apply systems-thinking to analyze a public-sector service ecosystem. Audience: Undergraduate 3. Produce clear service representations that communicate opportunities and risks to multiple audiences. Audience: Undergraduate 4. Integrate multi-stakeholder feedback to iterate on concepts and prototypes, documenting how feedback informed design decisions. Audience: Undergraduate 5. Design, prototype, and propose a feasible service improvement for a live public-service context and evaluate outcomes against defined criteria. Audience: Undergraduate 6. Situate course work in relevant scholarly and professional literature. Audience: Graduate 7. Justify design decisions by explicitly addressing ethical considerations in systems-thinking and service design. Audience: Graduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Differentiate civic design from related design fields and articulate the implications of those differences for public-sector work. Audience: Undergraduate 2. Apply systems-thinking to analyze a public-sector service ecosystem. Audience: Undergraduate 3. Produce clear service representations that communicate opportunities and risks to multiple audiences. Audience: Undergraduate 4. Integrate multi-stakeholder feedback to iterate on concepts and prototypes, documenting how feedback informed design decisions. Audience: Undergraduate 5. Design, prototype, and propose a feasible service improvement for a live public-service context and evaluate outcomes against defined criteria. Audience: Undergraduate 6. Situate course work in relevant scholarly and professional literature. Audience: Graduate 7. Justify design decisions by explicitly addressing ethical considerations in systems-thinking and service design. Audience: Graduate
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027