“Voices of Design: People, Stories and Innovation” Service Design through University and Community Engagement

Abstract: Voices of Design (VOD) is an event that uses Zoom, an online meeting program, and Miro, a web-based whiteboard platform, to create a virtual space for group collaboration and research. This virtual meeting space and the strategies of the VOD event are discussed regarding their ability to support large and small group interaction, interpersonal communication, design thinking processes, collaboration, complex problem solving, and gamification activities all in real time. Four goals were set as metrics for the success of this event: 1) create a safe virtual meeting place to share ideas, collaborate, and build community, 2) design content that inspires participants and casts a shared vision for design as a catalyst for positive change at global, national, local and personal levels, 3) use the event to build common ground by solving worthy yet complex problems, and 4) actively engage participants in the online activities through a series of gamification strategies. This event, these online and digital platforms, and these four goals are discussed regarding best practices for service design for online and hybrid education and design research conducted in virtual space.

Keywords: Design, User Experience Design, Education, Community Engagement

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1002539

Cite this paper:

​