About

I am a Service Designer and Design Researcher with 10+ years of working experience in the technology, insurance, medical, and retail design industries. My skills include simplifying complexity, navigating ambiguity, evolving experience strategy, and innovating through iteration to bridge the gap between Research and Design. I thrive in working on and leading interdisciplinary teams where I have the opportunity to utilize my strengths in systems thinking, design thinking, and problem solving.

 

My capabilities include:

Mapping and other visualization techniques throughout the design process - from early, ambiguous asks to detailed solutioning

  • Service blueprinting

  • Journey mapping

  • Milestone mapping

  • Ecosystem mapping

  • Service landscape mapping

  • Bespoke mapping

Workshops and other participatory activities - from planning through facilitation, analysis and synthesis, and delivery of outcomes

  • Future vision workshops

  • Current state alignment workshops

  • Discovery workshops

  • Idea generation workshops

  • Prioritization workshops

  • User flow workshops

  • Bespoke workshops

Research including both primary and secondary studies - from scoping and intake, through conducting, analysis and synthesis, and presentation of insights

  • Discovery research

  • Generative research

  • Co-design research

  • Ethnographic research

  • Evaluative research

Emma Sanders received her MFA in Design Research and Development from The Ohio State University in 2015. She is also a 2011 graduate from Ohio State’s undergraduate program in Industrial Design. Her interests include user experience research and service design, as well as the environmentally sustainable consumption and use of everyday products and objects.







PUBLICATIONS

Sanders, E. C. (2015). Expanding the use phase of products. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, Ohio State University.

Braun, E., Moreland, J., Sanders, E., & Gill, C. (2014). Designers in design thinking. In Bohemia, E., Eger, A., Eggink, W., Kovacevic, A., Parkinson, B., & Wits, W. (Eds.), Design Education & Human Technology Relations (302-307). UK: The Design Society & Institution of Engineering Designers.

I have also been involved in the creation, writing, and development of two books about design research that are now used as internal training documents for the organizations to which they belong.  The books describe sets of design research methods that have been tailored to the specific companies, including suggestions for specific tools and techniques that can be used to execute the methods. The books also contain example scenarios that demonstrate how the research methods can be combined to form appropriate design research approaches to different types of projects. These books are proprietary and currently for internal use only.

 

Awards

Patent (US D663913 S1) “Materials Handling Pendant” for Columbus McKinnon Corporation. Emma K. Alder, Caroline L. Gill, Wonmo Koo, Jay P. Mehta, Justin A. Moyer and Emma C. Sanders. Filed in July, 2011.

Honorable Mention, 17th Annual  International Housewares Association (IHA) Student Design Competition, 2010.

Nominee, College of Arts and Sciences “Outstanding Graduate Associate Teaching Award” at The Ohio State University, 2014.