The importance of recognising service designers in the 2026 Census

The importance of recognising service designers in the 2026 Census

Service Designer and Strategic Designer will be recognised as professions within the Australian classification system used for the upcoming census collection, following a successful case by The Design Institute of Australia. An RMIT expert explains the significance of this step. 

Dr Marius Foley, Program Manager, Master of Design Futures:

"From 11 August 2026, practitioners will be able to identify formally as a Service Designer or Design Strategist in the Australian Census, a positive step in recognising the important work of these practitioners. 

"Services such health care, public transport, banking and insurance, government services (like Medicare, CES, education, family support, and taxation), and cultural audience experiences, all greatly benefit from the expertise of designers to ensure needs and expectations are being met, and trust is built between service and customer. 

"Alongside this classification, broad descriptors now help articulate the nature of this work. A Service Designer develops service journeys and service blueprints as tools for shared understanding and alignment across front-end and back-end perspectives, and a Strategic Designer applies foresight, scenario-building and speculative design methodologies to explore possible and preferable futures and inform present-day strategy. 

"We have tracked the emergence of Strategic and Service Design in Australia and the region for over a decade, with a particular interest in sustaining ethical practice within this increasingly consequential field. 

"The resulting data from the census will help position these practices as leading contributors to transformative design across government, corporate, not-for-profit, cultural and innovation sectors."

Dr Marius Foley is the Program Manager of the Master of Design Futures, RMIT School of Design, investigating new models of implementing change using design methods. His research includes new evaluative processes and power literacy. 

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General media enquiries: RMIT External Affairs and Media, 0439 704 077 or news@rmit.edu.au

06 August 2026

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06 August 2026

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RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

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