Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze how service design practices reshape mental models to enable innovation. Mental models are actors’ assumptions and beliefs that guide their behavior and interpretation of their environment. Design/methodology/approach: This paper offers a conceptual framework for innovation in service ecosystems through service design that connects the macro view of innovation as changing institutional arrangements with the micro view of innovation as reshaping actors’ mental models. Furthermore, through an 18-month ethnographic study of service design practices in the context of healthcare, how service design practices reshape mental models to enable innovation is investigated. Findings: This research highlights that service design reshapes mental models through the practices of sensing surprise, perceiving multiples and embodying alternatives. This paper delineates the enabling conditions for these practices to occur, such as coaching, diverse participation and supportive physical materials. Research limitations/implications: This study brings forward the underappreciated role of actors’ mental models in innovation. It highlights that innovation in service ecosystems is not simply about actors making changes to their external context but also actors shifting their own assumptions and beliefs. Practical implications: This paper offers insights for service managers and service designers interested in supporting innovation on how to catalyze shifts in actors’ mental models by creating the conditions for specific service design practices. Originality/value: This paper is the first to shed light on the central role of actors’ mental models in innovation and identify the service design practices that reshape mental models.

The intention of this paper is to learn more about why consumers choose whether or not to recycle, with special attention given to the functions of the packaging itself, in order to provide suggestions for improvements in packaging design, recycling systems and the environmental assessment of different packaging designs. The study focussed on ten households in Sweden that where motivated to participate in the study in order to gain an understanding of the complex matter of this decision-making process. The intention of implementing an interview-based qualitative study was to gain rich data and to reach beyond the respondents’ immediate verbal responses. The respondents were interviewed with open-ended questions, which were supported with pictures of packaging; additionally, their waste bins were examined. This explorative study suggests a set of obstacles that cause consumers to dispose of packaging relating to the functions of packaging. The different obstacles that determine whether or not packaging is recycled were organised according to three different themes: the attitude towards cleanliness, the effort required to clean and sort and uncertainties about the best environmental alternative. The different functions of packaging do in fact influence all of the identified themes and; therefore, influence the decisions consumers make with regards to the recycling of specific packaging. The identified packaging functions were easy to separate different materials, easy to separate different parts, easy to clean, easy to empty, easy to reseal, easy to compress and communication regarding recycling. Consumer behaviour with regards to specific packaging functions and recycling should be further investigated. It should also be considered for inclusion in design processes, to increase the chance of materials being recycled, and in food-packaging life-cycle assessments, to provide results that align more closely with reality.

7.1 Introduction In a panel conversation at the QUIS conference in Karlstad in 2014, Steve Vargo suggested that Service design is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between service provider and customers. It is now a growing field of both practice and academic research. Designing for Service brings together a wide range of international contributors to map the field of service design and identify key issues for practitioners and researchers such as identity, ethics and accountability. Designing for Service aims to problematize the field in order to inform a more critical debate within service design, thereby supporting its development beyond the pure methodological discussions that currently dominate the field. The contributors to this innovative volume consider the practice of service design, ethical challenges designers may encounter, and the new spaces opened up by the advent of modern digital technologies.

This case study describes ‘First Line’, a multi-year service design project focused on changing mental healthcare for young people that was conducted through collaboration between Experio Lab and Första linjen in Karlstad, Sweden. The project reflects a ‘Trojan Horse’ approach to changing healthcare in that service design was brought in by the clinical team based on the explicit agenda of developing new digital mental health services for young people. However, bringing in service design also came with the somewhat hidden agenda of supporting new ways of working within the context of mental healthcare. This case study tells the story of the overall project, how this ‘Trojan Horse’ approach to change through service design unravels and the benefits and tensions amid the complexity.

Over the last decades, service design has broadened its aims from developing new service offerings towards catalysing service system transformation (Koskela-Huotari and Vink 2022). Service system t...

Den här rapporten beskriver lärandet av ett delprojekt inom projektet Helhetsenkelt, som finansieras av Vinnova inom ramen för Impact Innovation och SustainGov. Helhetsenkelt använder systemdesign för att undersöka och utveckla åtgärder för att minska den upplevda regelbördan inom lantbruket. Det här delprojektet har fokuserat på de regelgivande och regelutformande nivåerna i systemet. Problembeskrivningar och formuleringar av uppdrag sker bland annat på Regeringskansliet. Arbetsgruppen har inte i detta arbete haft möjlighet att utforska i vilken utsträckning aktörsinvolvering och kontakter med bransch sker i de riktigt tidiga faserna, där direktiv och uppdrag formuleras. Arbetet har drivits av behovet av att besvara frågan: Hur skulle vi kunna öka inflytandet från lantbrukarnas verklighet med syfte att förstå, tydliggöra och beskriva konsekvenser av reglering?. Syftet är att minska den upplevda regelbördan och skapa beslutsunderlag som är mer ändamålsenliga, genomförbara och heltäckande. Arbetet har avgränsats till den svenska delen av lagstiftningskedjan. Jordbruks- och livsmedelspolitiken styrs i hög grad av vad som sker inom EU. Hur och när involvering sker i den delen har inte rymts inom detta arbete. Dagens konsekvensutredningar bedrivs per regelområde och är expertstyrda, vilket innebär att de fokuserar på enskilda regler snarare än den samlade regelbördan i lantbrukarens vardag. Utredningarna missar ofta den kognitiva och emotionella belastningen samt de målkonflikter som uppstår när olika regelverk krockar. Dessutom betraktas lantbrukare ofta som en homogen grupp, trots stora skillnader i förutsättningar och drivkrafter. Involvering sker framförallt genom textbaserade metoder som ger begränsat utrymme för att uttrycka erfarenheter samt i regel för sent i processen. Exempelvis i remissförfarandet när förslagen redan är färdigformulerade, vilket begränsar möjligheten till reellt inflytande. Projektet har använt sig av systemdesign för att se helheten och samla relevanta aktörer. Arbetet har innefattat: - Intervjuer och dokumentstudier för att kartlägga nuvarande regelprocesser. - Workshops med lantbrukare, handläggare och experter för att identifiera problembilder. - Metodtester med visualiseringar, där man skapat fallföretag och jämfört ”nu- och nylägen” för att göra komplexa - lagförslag (t.ex. SOU 2025:64) begripliga och möjliga att reagera på för lantbrukare. - Visuellt stödd dialog med lantbrukare för att fånga upplevda och relationella dimensioner av kontroll. Genom att utgå från olika fallföretag kunde projektet tydliggöra diversifieringen hos lantbruksföretagen och hur den upplevda regelbördan skiftar beroende på verksamheternas förutsättningar och logik. De visuellt stödda dialogerna gjorde det möjligt för lantbrukare att bidra med expertkunskap om sin vardag på ett sätt som textbaserade remisser inte tillåter. [SH1]Behöver ”systemdesign” förklaras? Jag känner i alla fall inte till definitionen/innebörden.