The use of design for and in policy-making actions traces its roots in the development of service design. More generally, the relationship between design and public policy design is an interesting and current subject of relatively recent study of design research. For this reason, since its establishment, the DRLab has been wondering how to understand and reduce the gap between the traditional design of policies at a territorial level and the actual needs of its actors (citizens, communities, institutions, public and private entities).

According to these premises, the DRLab has activated a pilot project in order to:
- deepen the knowledge of the context and design practices of public policies at local level;
- explore the usefulness and added value of service design in supporting Trentino public policies;
- understand how to translate design knowledge into human-centred practices.

The actions of the pilot research project were therefore guided by the need to answer a specific question: how the design culture in service design, through the application of its principles, processes and tools, can support and innovate the design of public policies locals?

Key words: design for public policies / design for public policies; service design; inclusive innovation / inclusive innovation; pilot project / pilot project; human-centred policies.

Trentino Research Habitat

The Trentino Research Habitat Forum, born from the need to innovate the Research System in Trentino and to identify future development trajectories on which public support will focus on applied research, provided the opportunity for the DRLab, in charge, as of observer, of the production of infographics, of answering the question.

The DRLab team therefore analyzed and assessed the various topics and produced visual tools according to a process informed by:
APPROACH: qualitative
CRITERION: analysis and evaluation of the treatment of the topics according to the relationship between development and relevance perceived during the listening phase.
DESIGN PRACTICE:
Exploratory, divergent phase: Analysis of the context;
Exploratory, divergent phase: Listening, data collection and reasoned visualization;
Exploratory, divergent phase: Conceptual mapping and pretotypes;
Definition phase, convergent: Sense-making, clustering and identification of the guiding principles of the work;
Definition phase, convergent: Concept and elaboration of the concept;
Development phase, divergent: Identification of project hypotheses;
Implementation phase, convergent: Design choice and realization.

The main results, still in confidential form, will be presented on the occasion of the final event of the Research Forum, to be held on Saturday the 20th of July 2019, at Malga Costa - Val di Sella (Borgo Valsugna, TN).

Here the official link.