UW Human Centered Design & Engineering students visit the City of Seattle's Service Design Team for career trek Seattle IT’s Service Design team welcomed 15 students from the University of Washington’s Human Centered Design and Engineering program on October 15 for a career “trek” with the City of Seattle.
The visit gave students an overview of how teams in Seattle IT make services easier to use and more effective. These teams also work to improve the experience for city employees and the public.
Bringing a Human-Centered Approach to City Services
Seattle IT created the Service Design team in 2025. The team uses a human-centered approach that combines customer experience and business processes when designing services. This methodology helps public agencies lower costs and improve customer satisfaction.
Sharing Career Journeys in Public Service
Seattle IT Chief Technology Officer Shannon Smith and Chief of Staff William Smith opened the event by talking about public service and the value of human-centered work in government. Service Design team member Jenny Chen then showcased how user experience and service design work together.
Jenny Chen, Michelle Ringgold, and Zhen Zhen McMahon led the rest of the event. They were joined by Mishti Dhawan, Rebeca Estrada, and Yechan Choi, who are HCDE graduates now working at the Seattle Department of Transportation.
Together, they led a panel and question-and-answer session. They shared their career paths and talked about what they value most about working in public service.
“The career trek helped students connect with real public-sector design work by hearing directly from professionals and alumni in the field,” said Ringgold, service design manager.
What Students Took Away
Students said they appreciated the experience. Here is some of their feedback:
- “I learned a lot from the conversations. I liked the presentation about service design and the examples of the team’s work.”
- “I loved hearing about their favorite parts of the job and the skills they did not expect to use at first.”
- “I really enjoyed learning about the City. I hope to work here one day. I feel inspired.”
- “I am very interested in design, project management, and civic engagement, so this visit helped me see new possibilities.”
Melissa Ewing, who works in Outreach and Strategic Partnerships at HCDE, also shared her thanks.
“Thank you and the team for hosting our UW students. It was clear to me and the students that you put great care and attention into the visit,” Ewing said. “You and your colleagues showed students how City of Seattle and SDOT teams can use human-centered design and service design to solve complex problems.”
Seattle IT wishes to thank to the students in the Human Centered Design and Engineering program, and Melissa Ewing for helping make the afternoon a success.