User Research & Service Design resources & Templates?

Design Lounge
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Hi All,

Newbie here. I’m a mid-life career-changer, recent Service Design grad (coming from a very non-technical, non-visual/design background).

I’m searching for jobs focused in User Research & SD, but trying to improve my chops on creating visual artifacts that go hand-in-hand with research insights (journey maps, personas, basic prototypes, infographics, storyboards, project timelines, etc etc)… We all know a picture is worth a thousand words…

Yes, I know the research & insights come before designing pretty stuff, however, it’s the visuals that make the best first impression on stakeholders/clients. Visual communication design makes insights & a story immediately compelling. (who wants to listen to someone blab verbosely & present their approach/ “innovative thinking” via boring cookie-cutter Powerpoint or chart?)

I see many open-source resources that are geared toward techies (software/dev/coding) or visual designers, app design, etc. However, there seems to be far less offerings for Researchers who collaborate & work with the techies & designers… unfortunately I’m too poor to afford Adobe CS or invest a lot of $ for a Mural or Miro type software subscription.

I would appreciate any ideas/thoughts/suggestions!!

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While not open source I know some open communities make good use of google jamboard for co-creation workshops online.

Only other tools I can think of are your githubs/gitlabs and markdown files for user research docs etc.

Other than that you’re right in that there’s not a lot out there for design researchers and service designers - perhaps the first step is making a list of what kind of OS software, resources and tools you want as a DR & SD and let it be known :smiley: I’m sure the folks at PenPot.io would be interested to see what the need is?