Golf In Society
Co-design Partnership
We partnered with Golf In Society to explore the challenges facing older adults and their carers, and co-design a service blueprint envisioning golf clubs as Health Hubs.
Good intentions don't always lead to better services.
Often, everyone agrees something needs to change, but knowing what it is and making it happen is much harder.
And the challenge isn't usually a lack of ideas. It's seeing how the different parts fit together, understanding what's getting in the way, and working out what needs to change in practice. That's where we can help.
We have a particular way of designing with (not for) communities, and turning what we learn into practical change.
The problem we see most
Knowing what to change but struggling to implement it.
The obstacle is not effort or ideas. It's siloed working: good people doing good work separately, with nothing joining up.
The practical problem
Good ideas don't translate into action.
The human problem
People lose motivation when nothing changes.
The bigger problem
People lose trust and opportunities are missed.
The plan
Three ways we can help
Research & engagement
We can help you uncover what matters to people, what’s getting in their way and where there’s potential to make a difference.
Learn more
Community design
Through creative workshops and expert facilitation, we can help you turn community needs and ideas into practical, effective solutions.
Learn more
The CLIP process
Our structured way of backing local projects from the first honest conversation through to tested, practical solutions that people own.
Learn moreThe CLIP process
Community-Led Impact Partnerships
CLIP is one of the ways we work with a place, used when there is an appetite to back a group of local projects from the first honest conversation through to tested, practical solutions that people own.
The same process runs as Love Your Place at the University of Southampton's Future Towns Innovation Hub.
Phase 1
Get ready
We start with a Challenge Day, exploring the problems and projects that matter to your community and shaping them into something people can act on.
Shape
The Challenge Day helps people define the problem, sharpen the challenge and develop a vision and an action plan.
Submit
Teams then have a few weeks to strengthen their challenge and their team before submitting a project proposal.
Select
Projects are assessed and selected for ongoing support, and in some places the community votes on which ones continue.
Phase 2
Get started
Teams then dig deeper into the problem and the possibilities, guided by the insight and expertise of the people around them.
Discover
Design-led, user-centred research with stakeholders to uncover needs, priorities, barriers and opportunities.
Define
That insight is drawn together into a focused, evidence-based problem statement that everyone recognises.
Project brief
Teams come out with a shared problem definition, a unified vision, stakeholder insight and a clear brief to work from.
Phase 3
Get results
Teams co-create and test solutions, bringing their vision to life through prototyping and real-world delivery.
Design
Designing and prototyping ideas that respond directly to the problem the team has defined.
Test
Testing assumptions with real people, gathering feedback and adapting quickly. Better to fail fast than succeed slowly.
Learn
Teams finish with tested solutions, an implementation plan and the confidence that the work will make a difference.
Support through every phase
After Getting Ready, teams join monthly check-ins with a design coach, and open the door to the expertise, resources and connections that keep a project moving. We stay alongside people as they do the work, rather than handing over a report.
The programme made me really think about what people actually want, rather than an idea that I thought people wanted. It made me realise that research and talking to people is so important. The aim of our project changed as we began to understand what the actual problem was.
Participant, Love Your Place cohort
Your team
Meet your service designers
When you work with Made Open on service design, you work directly with the two directors, Kathryn and Robert. Their experience, care and wisdom are brought directly to your challenge.
Kathryn Woolf
Service Designer
Kathryn is an experienced Service Designer, user researcher and Design Council Expert specialising in human-centred design. She works with…
Robert Woolf
Strategist / Service Designer
Robert is a strategist and service designer with over 25 years' experience helping organisations and communities create positive change. He…
Case studies
Real stories from communities we've worked with.
Design Out Drowning
Royal National Lifeboat Institution
Design Out Drowning was a community-led research project designed to help the RNLI reduce the risk of drowning around the UK and Republic of Ireland. Using co-design principles to improve water safety.
Designing Communities
Design Council
A Design Council initiative to ensure community voices genuinely shaped future plans. Using design-led approaches to co-create with communities and drive participatory change.
Imagine This
Torbay Community Development Trust
A National Lottery-funded partnership bringing local organisations together to improve the lives of children and young people in Torbay through an Ideas and Imagination festival.
"The festival exceeded our expectations. Every time we looked around all we could see were people huddled around activities, deep in thought, action and conversation."
Testimonials
What our customers say
"It is a genuine breath of fresh air to work with Made Open. They have demonstrated what's possible when collaboration and practical problem-solving genuinely sit at the heart of a service."
Ready to design something that lasts?
Tell us about the challenge you're facing. We will show you how we would approach it in your place, and what it takes to get from insight to change.
Start a conversation