Short Diploma in Design Thinking and Service Design is a free program on ARPS, the Arab Platform for Professional Studies. An applied foundation linking design thinking with service design. Start with a user's need, research it responsibly, map the journey and its backstage dependencies, compare concepts, test small prototypes and measure a bounded change with explicit limits.
Important notice: Independent completion education, not a university degree, professional licence or endorsement by cited organizations.
Optional certificate fee 50% launch discount
$100 instead of $200
368 AED or 375 SAR
A person can arrive for an appointment without the right document even when the booking screen is easy to use. This programme begins with the task the person is trying to finish across the whole journey: where did information get lost and who controls the visible or backstage repair? Five subjects move from problem framing and research to journey and blueprint mapping, concept generation, prototyping and testing, then a limited operating trial and outcome measures. Lessons use fictional cases set in Arab cities for decision and calculation practice, with independent worked solutions. Their numbers are not statistics about those cities, and completion is not a professional licence or external accreditation. Learn to separate observation from interpretation, align a service promise with operational ability and pause an attractive concept when testing does not support it.
Produce a problem boundary, interview plan, journey map, service blueprint, trade-off matrix, test script, indicator card and decision brief. Each tool is practised on supplied fictional data with a worked result and review criteria.
Service improvement stalls when a familiar feature is selected before the failure is understood, or when a usable interface promises an outcome that operations cannot deliver. The diploma connects research, design, testing and measurement in one assessable learning path.
Useful for members of service, customer experience, product and operations teams who participate in bounded improvements. It supplies shared language for working with researchers, designers and operating owners. It does not promise a job, promotion or licensed consulting status.
The first subject begins with a familiar situation: a team wants a new app because some visitors returned with missing documents. Separate a person's need from a symptom, an assumption from a solution, and mark the journey and team authority boundaries. Then plan responsible discovery that includes completers and non-completers across channels, and write interview prompts that do not plant a cause. Organize observations in a matrix that distinguishes what happened from what was inferred, testing a competing explanation before framing a problem. Fictional registration and appointment cases require explicit denominators and worked decisions. A changed fact can redirect the intervention without pretending that a small set of interviews represents everyone.
The second subject moves from describing a problem to seeing a service over time. Map a member's path from needing a book through booking and collection, recording actions, touchpoints and evidence seen. Add a blueprint that links the visible interaction to work below the visibility line: staff lists, record updates and exception handling. Fictional parcel cases show how a Ready message can precede staff's ability to hand over an item. Finally compare improvement opportunities by task impact, evidence strength and trial effort. A less frequent defect that prevents completion may deserve earlier action than a more common question resolved immediately. Neither priority scores nor one-week samples become facts about an entire population.
The third subject turns a clear problem into genuinely different options. Frame “How might we” questions without naming an app in advance, and generate concepts that either prevent an error or recover after it. Involve people who experience the service and those who deliver backstage work in a bounded activity, noticing absent channels, decision rights and privacy. Compare cancellation concepts for user value, operating ability, sustainability and inclusion. Applications show that understanding a cancellation message is insufficient if the appointment remains active in the schedule. State a decisive assumption and a test capable of disconfirming the preferred concept. The output is a concept portfolio, trade-off record and evidence-conditioned decision rather than a vote on the prettiest sketch.
The fourth subject matches prototypes to learning questions: a text card for confirmation meaning, a state flow for safe appointment saving and a service simulation across channels. Write a task that does not steer people to a button, and separate what they did and said from the researcher's inference. Analyze a case where selecting a time cannot count as full task completion because some participants cannot tell if it saved and some records stay old. Tie each revision to an observation, retest and stop condition, and compare before and after using stable denominators. Cases are fictional. A paper model can expose risk; it does not prove a live service safe or represent every user.
The fifth subject brings research and design into a reviewable operating decision. Plan a bounded trial with an office, channel, period, owners, event record and rollback when a Ready message precedes a backstage list. Define indicators using user outcomes, numerators, denominators and time periods. Correct a measure when an audit shows bookings and visits no longer describe the same set. The final brief links user problem, journey, blueprint, options, trial and measurement. Do not add interviews, calls and visits without case linkage. Say what held, what remains unknown and how priority changes if an arrival problem appears after record sequencing is repaired.
Subjects unlock in sequence as you progress.
Core methods draw on the Design Council framework, IDEO.org tools, government service and research guidance, and Nielsen Norman Group blueprinting guidance; each source has a stated scope and verification date.
The programme links need research to journey and blueprint mapping, prototyping, trials and measurement, while stating source and denominator limits.
Short Diplomas are relatively comprehensive learning pathways that cover a major subject through five connected learning subjects and structured assessments, with a diploma transcript available with the credential.
Self-paced sequential study. Content unlocks progressively and each subject combines reading, examples, exercises, knowledge checks, and assessment.
Each Short Diploma contains five subjects, each with an approved assessment. A sixth final exam is not required when the five assessments adequately cover the learning outcomes.
Assessment attempts: 2 per assessment, 7 days apart
The pass mark is announced before the program is published.
Successful completion makes the learner eligible for the Short Diploma certificate and Diploma Transcript under the credential policy.
Every certificate has a public verification code. Verify a certificate
The real design with fictional details; opens in a new window.
Verification example: a real issued certificate
Disclaimer: Educational completion, not a university degree or professional licence.
No. The diploma introduces core tools progressively, while expecting you to read cases and complete applications rather than only watch definitions.
No. Activities use fictional data. Real workplace research requires participant consent and the organization's current rules.
No. It records internal educational completion and is not a licence or external endorsement.
Each subject has a summative assessment, and subject results appear in the completion transcript under route policy.
The current authored workload is about 960 minutes. The nominal study period is 30 days, with access up to 60 days under route policy. Official hours await central calibration.
Yes. Short Diploma in Design Thinking and Service Design is free on ARPS: every lesson, exercise and assessment is free, the first subject is open to read without an account, and the program is available in Arabic and English. Issuing a certificate is optional; it is a training completion certificate showing you passed the program's assessments, not a university degree, a professional licence or an endorsement by an external body.
The subject of this program is also known as: design thinking, service design, human-centered design, service blueprinting. Learners usually find it by searching for: design thinking course free, design thinking process, design thinking steps, service design blueprint, service design definition.
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