Service Design in Public Sector: Boosting innovation through design

The modernisation of public administrations is one of the priorities of the European policy in order to encompass the crisis and create growth and jobs (European eGovernment Action Plan, 2011-2015). Design is now commonly seen to have important contributions to make in helping public organisations face these challenges. As it is testified by the number of public ‘Labs’ that have been set up across the worlds to bring an experimental approach to build knowledge and create system-change to address the challenges facing governments and citizens. In the article the authors examine a project of co-design of public services led by the Municipality of Milano and the Politecnico of Milano in the perspective of reconnecting the introduction of design knowledge to the change of the public body involved. The purpose of this article is exploring the trend in the adoption of design culture as practice to deal with public services innovation.