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Design Matters: Ré Dubhthaigh, service designer at Citi

‘I realised that service design is about the wider systems, not so much about a “thing”’

Citi service designer Ré Dubhthaigh: “I work within the enterprise bank, which enables the financial operating systems of some of the biggest companies across large parts of the planet”

Gemma Tipton's face
Gemma Tipton
Sat Jul 4 2015 - 00:00

What exactly is service design? As Ré Dubhthaigh from Citi’s Innovation Lab explains, it’s nothing short of improving the systems that make up our world.

“I studied graphic design at DIT, but I’d always been more interested in how systems fit together. I went on to an MA in interaction design at the Royal College of Art in London in 2002. It was amazing to be plugged into that network, to meet people who were not just making websites, but looking at the broader social impacts of technology. My internship was at Lego, which was reliving a childhood dream!

“Myself and a friend set up a company out of college, consulting with clients such as the BBC, Hitachi, Sony and Hasbro. It was thought-provoking to look at future technologies and what they might mean.

“I realised that service design is about the wider systems, not so much about a “thing”, but about the wider context – how do you design an overall service with pieces of technology, and how do the people fit in?

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“Coming to Citi has been exciting. Citi employs more than 350,000 people globally. I work within the enterprise bank, which enables the financial operating systems of some of the biggest companies across large parts of the planet.

“The Innovation Labs are there to look at new ways of doing things from all perspectives. There are labs in Singapore and Miami, but Dublin was the first and is the leading lab in the network.

“Design is a team sport. We work across engineering, product management, financial and business functions. It’s not about art or craft, it’s about pulling things together to make tangible value in the world. Thinking in this way lets you think about how the world works, and what role design can have to make it better.

“It gives you the opportunity to make change. Just adding a veneer on top of current systems is a waste of the potential of design.

“It’s not magic that makes services work, people design them. Designers need to roll up their sleeves and go deep . . . My hope for ID2015 is that it can shift perspectives for designers as well as the general public.”

citigroup.com