Deborah Szebeko (born 1980,) is the founding director of the social design agency ''Thinkpublic.''

History

After volunteering for nine months at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital

NHS Trust An NHS trust is an organisational unit within the National Health Services of England and Wales, generally serving either a geographical area or a specialised function (such as an ambulance service). In any particular location there may be several ...

in 2003, Szebeko recognized the potential for design to enhance communication and patient experiences in healthcare settings. Szebeko established Thinkpublic in 2004, following participation in the NESTA Creative Pioneer Programme. Using design to improve health and public services, Szebeko and Thinkpublic have worked with organizations across the world in the health and social sectors, with experience in designing services, products, and social enterprise.

Co-Design and Service Design

The work of Thinkpublic and Szebeko focuses on co-design, a

participatory design Participatory design (originally co-operative design, now often co-design and also co-creation ) is an approach to design attempting to actively involve all stakeholders (e.g. employees, partners, customers, citizens, end users) in the design pro ...

methodology that engages people in identifying opportunities and needs, and employs creative tools to develop solutions. Working across the public, third and private sectors, Szebeko has used design and research methodologies to encourage service innovation and enterprise. Over the past 13 years, she has successfully used her service design approach to inform and develop products, enterprises and service innovations that have been rolled out internationally by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, the

Department of Health (UK) The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England, along with a few elements of the s ...

, NESTA, Alzheimer's Society,

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...

AstraZeneca AstraZeneca plc () (AZ) is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, UK. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas includi ...

, DigitasLBi and

Design Council The Design Council, formerly the Council of Industrial Design, is a United Kingdom Charitable trust, charity incorporated by royal charter. Its stated mission is "to champion great design that improves lives and makes things better". It was instr ...

Awards

In 2012, thinkpublic won

Design Week ''Design Week'' is a UK-based website, and formerly a weekly magazine, for the design industry. It was first published in October 1986 by Centaur Communications. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations primary circulation for 2007 was 8 ...

Service Design Award, followed by being ranked in the top 50 Agencies of the year. In 2008, for her dedication to social innovation, Szebeko won the British Council's UK Young Design Entrepreneur Award and was listed in the Top 10 for ‘The Future 500’ in

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

and

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

. In 2003, Szebeko won the HEFSC Young Volunteer of the Year Award for her design work at Great Ormond St Children's Hospital NHS Trust.

Public speaking

Since setting up thinkpublic, Szebeko has presented her work at international design and health conferences including: Leading Age Services Congress (Australia 2015), Design Indaba (Cape Town 2011), The European Business Analysts Conference (London 2010), Women in Design (Poland 2011), Designs of the Time (Cornwall 2011), Reinventing Design (Hong Kong Design Centre, 2008), Designs of the Time (Newcastle, 2007), NESTA Young Innovators (London, 2007), The European Forum on Quality Improvement in Healthcare (Prague, 2006), Doors of Perception (New Delhi, 2005) and DOORS Leaders Round Table (Amsterdam, 2004).

Publications

* Szebeko's work has featured in the following publications: * Jefferies, E. Tan, L. Yee, J. 2013. ''Design Transitions'' – "Inspiring Stores. Global Viewpoints. How Design is Changing." BIS Publisher * Meroni, A. Sangiorgi, D. 2011. ''Design For Services ''- What Design is doing and can do for services, and how this connects to existing fields of knowledge and practice. Gower Publishing * Bates, P. Robert, G. 2007. ''Bringing User Experience To Health Care ''– "Experience Based Design" (EBD) is a new way of bringing about improvements in healthcare services by being user-focused.Radcliffe Publishing

Academic papers

Papers written by Szebeko on Co-design: *Co-designing for Society - Australasian Medical Journal 2010 *Co-designing for dementia: The Alzheimer 100 project - Australasian Medical Journal 2009 *Szebeko holds a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design & Advertising from Buckinghamshire University, MA in communications from

University Of The Arts London The University of the Arts London is a public collegiate university in London, England, United Kingdom. It specialises in arts, design, fashion, and the performing arts. The university is a federation of six arts colleges: Camberwell College of ...

and Diploma in Organisations, Relationship and Co-active Coaching.

References

* Baker, M. (2007)
''Public life: Design Makes a Difference''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

. * Hutchins, E. (2008). . British Design Innovation. * Service Design Network. (2008)
''thinkpublic receives the UK Young Design Entrepreneur Award''
* Szebeko, D. (2008)

Health Sector Journal. * UKYDE. (2008)
''"Co-design" pioneer takes top design entrepreneur award''
* Wodcast. (2008)
''Deborah Szebeko - Interview (mp3)''

External links

thinkpublic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Szebeko, Deborah 1980 births Living people Public economists 21st-century British designers