Service Design (MA)
Radhika Agrawal
Hi there! I am Radhika Agrawal, a Service Designer who strives to look beyond design as a "methodology" and sees it as a "mindset". I enjoy immersing myself in the user's space as well as experimenting and speculating towards the future. A background in Business Studies and Graphic Design has also helped cultivate my curiosity for ecosystems and the potential connections that could exist across various platforms for a more effective and holistic impact. I believe in more collective decision-making strategies and effectively transforming experimental ideas into an experiential, innovative reality. Having worked on various client-based projects at the RCA and through a work internship at Grab Singapore, I am constantly gaining experience in aspects such as user inclusive research, balancing empathy and strategy building, ideation, facilitating workshops, finding ways to understand various stakeholders, and designing a justifiable service from a business point of view, as well as considering the value and impact of it. A constant drive to keep exploring and standing my ground as a creator is knowing to "design with people, and not just for them". Eventually, I want to be able to expand the concept of design more as a mindset to collectively transform the way we deliver and experience service moments.
Awards:
2019-2020- IMDA Singapore Digital Scholarship (SG:D) Postgraduate
2018- Winner RCA Eco Hackathon, Solve.Earth London
Exhibitions:
2020- WIP Show, RCA Service Design 2020
2020- Futurity Works Presentation at Thoughtworks London
Participations:
2020- Branding and Experience Team WIP Show 2020
2018- RCA Student Representative
I am currently based in Singapore, aiming to establish my learnings from Service Design as a way forward for the Asian Market. As an evolving designer, the development of enhanced meaningful experiences through deeper environmental, social, and cultural immersions has always been an area of interest for me. Service Design has enabled me to connect with users and their experiences on a more personal level to help create moments that go beyond tangible boundaries. I call it the 'blind spot'. Often, services are unable to discover and define, key moments that are essential for users and in essence, create meaningful experiences for them. And as cultivators, I feel that we have the ability and drive to understand the importance of the invisible touchpoint that helps create a lasting impact on clients, users, and society. It's like saying, "I am not deaf, but I am less numb". With this in mind, I continuously work on being comfortable with the unknown, experimenting, and building works with an empathetic and futuristic outlook.
I constantly remind myself that people come first. In a world where the "rush hour" is the only hour, we seem to have lost the concept of time, moments, and thoughts. But that rush has come to a pause. For me, the 2020 pandemic has been a gateway to understanding the value of time, even though it has been hard to keep track of it. Being able to reflect on my thoughts, revisit moments, enjoy simple activities that only buzzed past my mind but never got carried out. I am aware of what I thought was too insignificant, and I treasure the pauses in life more. The way we design, infer, and adapt is changing as we are in a perpetual realm of the unprecedented. But this is where innovation happens, in ways we never imagined.
So sometimes, "some sort of disorder is the best type of order."
Finding Hidden Opportunities — We were stunned by the abundance of experience the seniors have, over all the years of work, living life, traveling, and just, being the coolest person in the room. Roger contributed hugely to the building of the Humber Bridge in London. Deh Ta could not stop talking about his love for cooking and how he went to India to teach Chinese cooking to increase the tourism activity there!
younger people together. We are not only utilizing their common interests as bonds to create more social connection and human touch in communities but also boosting co-learning in a friendly and informal environment using their accumulated knowledge and experience to create more value exchange between different generations.
In a way, we are trying to create awareness about the role that seniors play within and beyond communities, and shifting people’s perceptions of them from being vulnerable to visible and highly valued.
