Deborah Szebeko (born 1980) is the founding

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

of the social design agency '' Thinkpublic.'' Deborah Szebeko

History

After volunteering for nine months at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital NHS Trust in 2003, Szebeko identified opportunities to use design to improve communications and patient experiences in healthcare. To encompass her insight, Szebeko set up thinkpublic in 2004 after taking part in the

NESTA Nesta (formerly NESTA, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is an innovation foundation based in the UK. The organisation acts through a combination of programmes, investment, policy and research, and the formation of part ...

Creative Pioneer Programme. Using design to improve health and public services, Szebeko and thinkpublic have worked with organisations across the world in the health and social sectors, with experience in designing services, products, and social enterprise.

Co-design and service design

At the heart of thinkpublic and Szebeko's work is co-design, a

Participatory design Participatory design (originally co-operative design, now often co-design) is an approach to design attempting to actively involve all stakeholders (e.g. employees, partners, customers, citizens, end users) in the design process to help ensure t ...

methodology for involving people in identifying opportunities and needs, then using creative tools to design 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 NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement (NHS Institute) was a special health authority of the National Health Service in England. It supported "the NHS to transform healthcare for patients and the public by rapidly developing and spread ...

, the

Department of Health (UK) The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England, along with a few elements of the same matters which are not otherwis ...

Alzheimer's Society Alzheimer's Society is a United Kingdom care and research Charitable organization, charity for people with dementia and their carers. It operates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, while its sister charitieAlzheimer Scotlandand Alzheimer's ...

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...

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

, DigitasLBi and

Design Council The Design Council, formerly the Council of Industrial Design, is a United Kingdom charity incorporated by Royal Charter. Its stated mission is "to champion great design that improves lives and makes things better". It was instrumental in the prom ...

Awards

In 2012, thinkpublic won

Design Week ''Design Week'' is a UK-based website, formerly a 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 8,074. In 2011, ...

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. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

and

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

. 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 Design Indaba is a trademark and brand founded and run by Interactive Africa in 1995 with a focus on design and under the slogan "A better world through creativity". Consisting of an online publication and a series of events and creative projects, ...

(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 Ashgate Publishing was an academic book and journal publisher based in Farnham ( Surrey, United Kingdom). It was established in 1967 and specialised in the social sciences, arts, humanities and professional practice. It had an American office i ...

* 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 University of the Arts London is a collegiate university in London, England, specialising in arts, design, fashion and the performing arts. It is a federation of six arts colleges: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea Coll ...

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 popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

. * Hutchins, E. (2008)
''Inaugural Design Award Winner Announced at 100% Design''
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 British designers