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⚙️ The Scottish Approach to Service Design (SAtSD)
Daniele Catalanotto avatar
Written by Daniele Catalanotto
Updated over a year ago

A bit of context

The Scottish Approach to Service Design (SAtSD) is a framework to guide how the Scottish Government creates public services. Here again as it was the case for the British government and the Australian one, it's more about principles than a step by step process to follow.

What I like about it

A few of the principles shared in this approach resonate particularly strongly with me. The first one is this idea to turning the common practice upside down. The second principle of this approach states:

"We design service journeys around people and not around how the public sector is organised".

This principle shows a deep understanding of how things are done usually and then offers an alternative. I kind of love such oppositions because they make clear what's the status quo we are fighting against. In a way, this principle is one you find in many stories: you need an "enemy" to make the story go forward. And the enemy is made clear already from the second principle.

Another principle that isn't as present in other processes is the sixth one. It says:

"We share and reuse user research insights, service patterns and components wherever possible".

Many service designers, include myself, often see our work from a project point view. Every project means we start again the full process. Here this principle recognizes the importance of recycling knowledge. Things we learned from one project can help kickstart another project. There is no need to always start from a blank sheet.



Go deeper

There is a pretty good documentation online about this Scottish Approach to Service Design. And if you prefer a good old PDF to print out they also provide the PDF version here.

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