(Work) 03 · Service design

Presente

A service that helps people in grief turn their memories of a loved one into an object they can hold: alone, with family or with others who understand.

Postgraduate project · BAU Barcelona, 2017 · redesigned in 2026

Service designUser researchCo-creationService blueprint

Role: Service Designer
Team: 5 designers
Method: Design Thinking: Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver
Timeline: Research 2017 · redesign 2026

(The question)

How might we support people in grief through creativity and the memories they keep?

(The story in 30 seconds)

From Problem to Solution

01 · The problem

Grief Has No Manual

Death is still a taboo, so many people go through grief without any help.
Traditional therapy makes some people feel like patients, and it doesn’t fit every life or every pace.
People fear forgetting: the voice, the smell, the small things.

The solution

Memories You Can Hold

A guided way to gather memories, at your own pace.
Family and friends can add the stories you didn’t know.
A maker helps you turn them into an object of your own: there is no single result.

Context

The brief

The final project of the postgraduate course in Innovation and Design Thinking at BAU, Barcelona: design a service that improves people’s lives.

Audience

People who have lost someone close and are open to support that doesn’t feel like a treatment.

Goal

Use creativity, technology and objects to strengthen the bond with the person who died, and so help people through grief.

Note

Research, workshops and the first service were made in 2017 with Diego Castañeda, Laura Espejo, Jerónimo Garzón and Laura Piñana. In 2026 I redesigned the final service on my own, from the same research.

02 · My role

Service Designer

In the team, I worked on the research and interviews, designed and ran the co-creation session and the prototypes, and built the service blueprint and business model. For this portfolio I went back to that research and designed a new version of the service.

03 · Process

Discover → Define → Develop → Deliver

Discover: Understanding Grief

We started with the maker movement and turned towards grief when we saw how much emotional value self-made objects carry. We spoke with two psychologists, interviewed people who had lost someone, studied art therapy and how other cultures mourn, and mapped grief as a journey: from shock to a new life.

The 2017 grief journey map: stages, facilitators, barriers and touchpoints, from building memories in life to shock and recognition. — The grief journey map, 2017.

Page of eight numbered insights from the grief research. — Eight insights from the grief research.

Persona Pablo González, 27, a Venezuelan graphic designer in Barcelona whose grandfather died, with the quote: Don’t remind me that he is dead, remind me that he lived. — Our persona, Pablo: “Don’t remind me that he is dead, remind me that he lived.”

Define: Co-creating and Prototyping

A co-creation session in Barcelona showed that physical objects mattered far more than digital ones. After a brainwriting session we had three paths. We tested them with two prototypes: in one, participants prepared a legacy for someone else; in the other, people in grief documented their memories for two days and tried to turn them into an object.

Six photos of the first prototype session: participants watching film clips, writing post-its, building legacy objects and mapping the stages of grief on an orange poster. — Prototype 1 at BAU: a diagnosis, a legacy, a surprise.

Black-and-white photo of the team sketching ideas on paper during a brainwriting session. — Brainwriting.

The team in front of a wall covered with teal, yellow and pink post-its. — Clustering the research.

Develop: The First Service

The 2017 version matched people with an artist through a website with three price plans. It was rich in research, but the solution was mostly an online shop: the relationship with the artist was a chat, the family stayed outside, and the service ended at delivery, while grief goes on.

The 2017 service blueprint in teal and orange, with the stages access, memories and creation. — The 2017 service blueprint.

The 2017 stakeholder map with key settings, individuals and key sectors in overlapping circles. — The 2017 stakeholder map.

The solution · 2026

Five Moments, Not a Straight Line

The new Presente keeps the heart of the research (memories made tangible) and adds what the first version missed: the right timing, the family, people who understand, and a reason to come back every year.

01Arrive02Gather03Invite04Create05Receive & remember

What Pablo doesGets a card at the funeral home. Opens it three weeks later, when he is ready.Answers one gentle prompt a week: a smell, a song, a phrase his grandfather used.Invites his mother and cousins, and reads stories he never knew.Shapes the object with a maker, online and in a fablab workshop.Receives it on his grandfather’s birthday. Each year, a new layer.

Insight behind itShock is not the moment to sell anything.Memories live in smells, songs and small objects.Stories from others make the memory richer.Many could not build what they imagined alone.Rituals and anniversaries help to let go.

Grief comes in loops: the service lets you go back to any moment.

One Service, Eight Touchpoints

The cardGiven at the funeral home or by the insurer. A code that never expires: you start when you are ready.Physical
The appA private place for memories: photos, voice notes, writing, a song.Digital
The memory boxThe same prompts on paper, for people who would rather write by hand.Physical
The circleFamily and friends add their stories. Each person decides what to share.Digital
The makerAn artist trained in grief turns the memories into a form, with you.Person
The workshopFour sessions in a fablab with an art therapist and a small group.Person
The objectWhatever fits the memories: a stone, a pendant, a small sculpture. 3D printed, so the family can have replicas.Physical
The anniversaryEach year the circle shares a memory, and the stone can grow by one layer.Digital

Service Blueprint

Layer	01 Arrive	02 Gather	03 Invite	04 Create	05 Receive & remember
Evidence	Card in a sympathy envelope	App · paper memory box	Invitation link · shared wall	Sketches · 3D test print · workshop kit	The object · replicas · a yearly layer
Person in grief	Keeps the card; activates the code when ready. Chooses: alone, with family or in a group.	Answers weekly prompts; uploads photos, voice notes, writing.	Invites family and friends; decides what each person can see.	Picks a maker; co-creates online, in the studio or in a workshop.	Chooses a meaningful delivery date; orders replicas.
Line of interaction
Frontstage	Funeral home staff hand over the card, with no sales talk.	Prompts adapt to the stage of grief the person reports.	Gentle invitations that can be declined; no notifications at night.	A maker trained in grief; an art therapist leads the workshops.	A delivery ritual; an anniversary message to the circle.
Line of visibility
Backstage	Partner onboarding and training.	Memory library, prompts and privacy settings.	Moderation and support with family conflicts.	Maker matching; a brief from the memories; a psychologist on call.	Print lab, quality check and courier.
Support	Funeral homes, insurers, hospitals	Cloud storage · advice from psychologists	Community guidelines	Maker network · fablabs	3D print partners · courier

The Object: Every Presente Is Different

There is no single result. Each person creates the object that fits their memories and what they want to express. Pablo’s memory stone is just one example: one layer for each chapter of memories, and a new layer every year. Every object is 3D printed, so the family can have copies: the psychologists warned that losing a one-of-a-kind object can reopen the wound.

The memory stone taken apart: seven layers floating one above the other, slightly turned. — Pablo’s stone: seven layers, seven chapters

The memory stone with two smaller copies behind it. — Replicas for the family

The memory stone with a new honey-yellow layer floating above it. — A new layer on the anniversary

The App and the Card

Four phone screens of the Presente app: memories of Abuelo Luis with a weekly prompt; stories from the family circle; creating the object with a maker; and an anniversary message offering to add a layer. — Gather, invite, create, remember.

The Presente card: a dark teal front with the quote Don’t remind me that he died, remind me that he lived, and an ivory back with an invitation and a code that never expires. — The card: an invitation that waits for you.

04 · Outcome

What Changed in the Redesign

The research stayed; the answer grew. The first service ended when the object arrived. The new one starts when the person is ready, includes the people around them, and comes back every year.

13insights from interviews, desk research and two psychologists

3participatory sessions: co-creation and two prototypes

8touchpoints in the new service, digital, physical and human

05 · Reflection

What I Learned

With a topic this delicate, recruiting is the hardest part. Testing with real situations, even role play, gave us reactions no survey could.
Grief is not linear, so a service for it can’t be a funnel. It has to let people pause, go back and return.
Looking at my own work years later, I saw that good research can still lead to a thin solution. The redesign is the answer I would give today.

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