Submission guidelines

Please ensure you submit your paper to the appropriate track within the submission system. Carefully read through the available tracks and select the one that aligns best with your submission’s focus and objectives.

Paper Track 1: Diversity Drive – Designing for diversity and inclusion

Paper Track 2: Community Catalyst – Co-creating with and empowering communities

Paper Track 3: Equity Expressway – Designing for equity and justice

Paper Track 4: Human-Centered Horizons – Themes exploring new frontiers in human-centered design

Paper Track 5: Ethical Endeavours – Ethics and responsible Service Design

Paper Track 6: Skills Scaffolding – Capacity building and skills development in service design

Paper Track 7: Innovation Intersection – Driving business innovation through Service Design

Paper Track 8: Impact Insights – Measuring impact and ROI in Service Design

Paper Track 9: Tech Trends Terrain – Emerging technologies shaping the future of Service Design

Paper Track 10: Dare to Try – Learning from design failures—insights and lesson

Paper Track 11: Other – Other relevant service design topics in line with the theme of the conference

Workshop Track: Proposals that engage with the conference theme through hands-on, participatory sessions

Student Service Design Competition Track: Addressing real-world challenges faced by India’s social sector.

We invite submission of advanced and high-quality papers of up to 6000 words (including abstract, tables, references, and figure captions) that address the Conference theme. The papers should offer original insights, contribute to the theoretical and practical understanding of Service Design, and spark new directions for research and practice.

Papers must be written and presented in English only.
[Download Long Paper Template]

We invite concise, thought-provoking contributions (up to 3000 words including abstract, tables, references, and figure captions) that explore the conference theme in exploratory, speculative, and/or provocative ways. This track welcomes works that are still in progress, offering a space for discussion and feedback. These papers should present new ideas, challenge existing assumptions, or explore novel methodologies–aiming to provide opportunities for lively and respectful discussion.

Short papers should be written and presented in English only.
[Download Short Paper Template]

We welcome workshop proposals that engage with the conference theme through hands-on, participatory sessions. Capacity Building and Skill Development are emphasized in this track, offering sessions and workshops aimed at enhancing participants’ skills in service design methodologies, tools, and techniques.
Workshops submitted should address one of the conference themes. We invite workshop proposals that explore concepts, theories, processes, frameworks, practices, and pragmatics through a smaller workshop format. Workshop duration should be around 120 minutes. Venues will be provided but please include specific requirements, such as materials, facilities, and technologies in your proposal.

Workshop proposals should be written and conducted in English.
[Download Workshop Template]

The competition aims to leverage students’ creativity and service design skills to address real-world challenges faced by India’s social sector. Solutions must be innovative, actionable, and culturally sensitive, motivating NGOs to implement them effectively.
Participants will choose one of the curated 12 problem statements, which address pressing social issues such as rural healthcare, climate-resilient farming, digital literacy, and reskilling for the unorganized sector. These problem statements are designed to align with the needs of NGOs operating in India.

View more at Student Service Design Competition

All submissions will be blind peer-reviewed by an international review panel, according to evaluation criteria set by the scientific committee. Once reviewed, all authors will be notified of acceptance, conditional acceptance, or rejection. Submissions that are accepted conditionally will be required to address the feedback by the camera-ready resubmission date. Long Papers that are unfortunately rejected will have the opportunity to re-write and submit as Short Paper. The review process will include concise feedback, suggesting modifications and the best path forward. Note: The time for resubmission to another track is limited, so please plan accordingly.

All submissions must be anonymous to ensure a blind peer review process. Please ensure that no author names, affiliations, or any identifying information are included in the manuscript (this includes file names, document metadata, captions, and references to institutions).
Acceptance of notification will be sent by e-mail. Those accepted will be required to attend and present, discuss questions, and engage with the conference program. This means at least one author must register for the conference for the submission to be included in the proceedings. All accepted and revised submissions must be formatted in the ServDes’25 template and submitted to the conference system.

ServDes25 is proudly endorsed by the Design Research Society (DRS). All accepted papers—both long and short—will be published in the DRS Digital Library, ensuring global accessibility as open access publications.

Each paper will be assigned a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), enhancing discoverability and citation tracking. Additionally, we are applying for Scopus indexing of the conference proceedings. While the Scopus indexing process typically takes six months post-conference and cannot be guaranteed, we are optimistic about meeting the criteria based on the high-quality standards of the ServDes series.

We look forward to your contributions to this globally recognized platform for advancing service design research.