Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interactivity.” [4] explain that the
term serious game “came into wide use with the emergence of the Serious Games Initiative in
2002 (seriousgames.org)”. The Serious Games Initiative website states that they are “focused
on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public
sector”. [4] also believe that serious games “can be applied to a broad spectrum of application
areas, e.g. military, government, educational, corporate, and healthcare.”
1.2 The Think Services Approach
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The approach used by Think Services is adapted from techniques originating from design
thinking (for an introduction see [5, 6]) and for more on design science [7]); from the
Innovation Games of Luke Hohmann [8]; and from participatory focus groups. One of the
objectives of Think Services is rely on a positive lens. According to [9], this concepts “refers
to a perspective in the social sciences that emphasizes the capacity of people, teams, and
organizations to construct enriching work environments, create more fulfilling customer
experiences and design better socio-technical systems (...)”. [9] also explain that design
encompasses three organizational practices: (i) actually producing artifacts; (ii) using them;
and (iii) communicating about them.
In a world where management and governance processes are focused on decision-making,
[9] strongly advises that decision-makers engage in design thinking practices. Indeed it has
been assumed since the theory of innovation of Schumpeter in the 1930’s that “the most
important designs for innovations would originate from producers”, even if individuals or
other firms also contribute to innovation [10]. Here we allow ourselves to draw a parallel with
policy-making and political decision-making: we have a feeling that it is also assumed that
innovations come from those who are in charge. However information and communication
technology and new models such as open source software and co-creation have been changing
this paradigm and leading to what has been coined open innovation [10]. This is why the
Think Services approach aims at co-designing policies and services. It furthermore has the
goal of going beyond technological applications and making the results of multidisciplinary
approaches tangible. Indeed prototypes of service innovation should be tangible [6], however
tangible does not (necessarily) mean physical. The Think Services approach relies heavily on
tangible outputs such as pictures, videos, shared documents and working spaces, and
contextual mapping and presentation tools such as Prezi [11]. However it also goes further in
using the leverage of tangibilization: innovation games such as Design the Service Box
actually do produce a cardboard box describing the designed service. We indeed believe that
in order to tackle wicked problems, tangible prototypes should be used.
Several countries and governments are currently exploring a design thinking approach
similar to the one fostered through Think Services, see e.g. [12] or [13]. More generally
Service Design is itself becoming a more and more developed and structured discipline that
addresses a growing demand from the private and public sector see [14], [15] and [16].
1.3 Workshops
To support our tangible service design approach we assembled a toolbox of different
workshops. The goal is twofold: first, it allows the elicitation of needs, i.e. exploring the
feasibility and the viability of the ideas, and second, it builds energy and momentum with the
stakeholders taking part in the workshops.