Promise Design Tools
Part of: Supporting the workforce
The Promise Design Tools use the principles of Service Design to help Scotland in its work to keep the promise.
Service Design blends proven tools and practices to create services which work better for people. It’s a way of working which aligns with the promise and what’s needed to achieve change.
Some of the principles of service design are that:
- the voice and needs of people are the centre
- the process of design is collaborative and iterative.
Download the Design Tools
Promise Design Tools Download Folder (Black and White)
All black and white Design Tools in a single folder for download.
Promise Design Tools Download Folder (Colour)
All colour Design Tools in a single folder for download.
Individual Design Tool Selector
You can download each Design Tool from the list below, as well as background information around how to use them. They're numbered in the order they might be used.
How do you use the Promise Design Tools?
The Promise Scotland has collected resources which explain the Design Tools to you and your team, which you can use before beginning the process of Service Design.
When can these tools help you keep the promise?
The Design Tools can help you understand what’s feasible with the time and resources you have.
For example, teachers at a school might realise their ideas around improving education at their school require wider collaboration with schools in their community.
This can help them to think about whether collaboration is possible, or whether they need to come up with an idea they can do by themselves.
The Design Tools can help you think of solutions you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.
It might not have occurred to the teachers that collaboration would work for them. But the tools can help them quickly think up lots of possibilities of how this might work, and to see if similar things are happening locally now.
The Design Tools can help you to work with the people you work for, to find the best solution that works for them.
If pupils in the teachers’ school are involved in the design process, they will be able to see that some solutions wouldn’t work in practice. They’ll be able to help work out a solution that keeps them at its centre.
The Double Diamond
The Design Tools are made to be used with the Double Diamond model of Service Design.
This model highlights how a good design process explores a problem widely before it focuses in on a solution.
And it shows us that design isn’t a linear experience.
The Promise Design Tools use the Double Diamond model of Service Design, which acknowledges a good design process involves two distinct things.
The model focuses on gathering and exploring evidence to make sure you're designing the right thing— a problem you clearly and collaboratively understand.
Through exploring ideas and gathering feedback, you can then be confident you’re designing the thing right— making that solution as good as it can be.
The Promise Design School
Service Design is at the heart of The Promise Design School, which is available to anyone working to keep the promise in Scotland. You can access its 3 Day Sprints throughout the year, as well as masterclasses, coaching support and the resource bank of tools below.
Find out more
The Double Diamond Approach to Service Design
The Double Diamond approach underlies the Promise Design Tools.
How to use The Promise Design Tools
Overview of how The Promise Design Tools can be used with a team to drive change.
About the Design School
What the Promise Design School is, and how it supports people in designing services.