Time passes; movements appear and disappear in the design community. And then comes Metadesign. “Metadesign has been initially put forward as an industrial design approach to complexity theory and information systems by Dutch designer Andries Van Onck in 1963”.

The idea behind Metadesign is to bring in a multidisciplinary team into the creation process. Instead of relying only on one specialist, Metadesign wants to use the forces of as many disciplines and expertise as possible. This new approach isn’t limited to just objects, or specific types of interactions. It wants to impact human life in general, be it in the way we clothe and shelter ourselves, communicate, and so on.

We see here that the multidisciplinary focus of Metadesign also relates to how Service Designers work today. I often say that one of the principles of Service Design is to say that the designer is not the expert. Others (employees, users, people from other fields) are the experts. The Service Designer is like a sound engineer who mixes the different instruments played by other expert players to create a final and coherent sound track, or — in the world of Service Design — a coherent and enjoyable service.

This article is part of the book "A Tiny History of Service Design, " a tiny two-hour read that goes through the historical events that created what Service Design is today.