Simon Penny

An AI generated photograph of four propaganda-style posters pasted side-by-side on a weathered brick wall beneath a railway bridge. From left to right, the posters read “BE MORE HUMAN,” “BE LESS FROG,” “ATTENTION IS CURRENCY,” and “SPEND IT WISELY,” each in bold red, black, and cream graphics. The paper is creased, slightly misaligned, and layered over remnants of older torn posters. Three commuters walk past in the foreground, motion-blurred and looking down at their smartphones. Street bollards, a utility box, and a CCTV camera mounted high on the wall are also pictured.

In the age of algorithms, the real danger may not be that Big Brother is watching us.

It may be that we no longer notice who, or what, is shaping what *we* see.

simonpenny.wordpress.com/2026/02/12/b...

#DigitalCulture #AttentionEconomy #Technology #AI #Orwell #Huxley #Agency

In the age of algorithms, distraction is personalised and choices are guided.

Your attention is currency. Spend it wisely.

A post on #Orwell, #Huxley, and individual #agency in the age of #algorithms.

simonpenny.wordpress.com/2026/02/12/b...

#DigitalCulture #AttentionEconomy #Technology #AI

The danger isn’t being dropped in boiling water - it’s in the water heating, notification by notification.

Be more human. Be less frog.

A post on #Orwell, #Huxley, and the age of #algorithms.

simonpenny.wordpress.com/2026/02/12/b...

#DigitalCulture #AttentionEconomy #Agency #Technology #AI

Brave New 1984: Are Algorithms Rewriting the Dystopian Playbook? Are we shaping our technology, or is it shaping us? I recently reread George Orwell’s classic novel, 1984, and I followed it up with a first-time reading of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. I chose…

Aspects of 1984 and Brave New World feel less like fiction than they once did. I've shared some thoughts on algorithms, attention, and modern dystopias: Brave New 1984

simonpenny.wordpress.com/2026/02/12/b...

#Algorithms #DigitalCulture #AttentionEconomy #Agency #Orwell #Huxley #Technology #AI

Sparck on LinkedIn: #design #accessibility #servicedesign What’s inspired the Sparck team in the past week? Everything from accessibility training to The Simpsons to surveys in the post. 👇 1. “After creating a…

Sharing a little bit of Monday morning #design inspiration from @sparck.io based on things that have inspired my colleagues and I this past week - www.linkedin.com/posts/sparck... #ServiceDesign #UserResearch #Accessibility

Each year, on #BlueMonday, my mind is always drawn to the legend of New Order's 1983 Blue Monday 12" single packaging designed by Peter Saville - a perfect example of the bluring of #art and #design, and a facinating story - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mo...

High-tech art (with a sense of humor) Artist and TED Fellow Aparna Rao re-imagines the familiar in surprising, often humorous ways. With her collaborator Soren Pors, Rao creates high-tech art installations -- a typewriter that sends email...

Really enjoyed this TEDTalk - High-tech art (with a sense of humor) (Aparna Rao | TEDGlobal 2011) go.ted.com/6W2a

In a few hours, I’ll be logging off my socials for a few days to spend some quality face-to-face social time with my nearest and dearest. Before I do, I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you on the flip side!

So, it seems my local Post Office can sell me 4 first-class stamps or a book of 8 second-class—but not 4 second-class stamps, as they’ve run out! Smells like an internal process or policy issue, and definitely feels like bad #ServiceDesign and poor #CX.

What gives UK Post Office?

Those experiences and others from my time working in-house in housing associations, shaped my design DNA and still inspire my work today at @sparck.io @bjss.com, where I'm helping organisations build their own in-house capabilities.

Curious about building design capabilities in-house? Let’s chat! ☕

Back in August 2015, I was immensely proud to have an article published in Vol. 7 No. 2, In-house Service Design. My article, Innovating from the Inside Out (page 42, if you're wondering) chronicled my experience working in-house in a UK #LocalGov.

www.service-design-network.org/touchpoint/t...

The latest edition of the Service Design Network's Touchpoint Magazine, Designing from Within, explores the evolving role of in-house #ServiceDesign, a topic close to my heart heart. It's sent me on a nostalgic and reflective trip down memory lane 🧵

www.service-design-network.org/touchpoint

Photo of a green post-it with a hand drawn sketch. The sketch shows a horizontal arrow with the words ‘E2E experience’. Underneath is a vertical arrow with the words ‘E2E org design + op model’.

Photo of a green post-it with a hand drawn sketch. The sketch shows 4 overlapping circles of different sizes. Inside the circles it says ‘Create an account’, ‘Order a card’, ‘Manage your finances’ and ‘Get financial advice’.

Photo of a green post-it with a hand drawn sketch. The sketch shows a cluster of 4 circles, with arrows going round the outside. It says ‘E2E customer experience’.

Why do so many strategic initiatives fail?

Too often, organisations focus entirely on the target customer experience, without thinking about how they’ll make it real. They want to create a new experience, but their operating model holds them back.

Do We Need A Department of Effectiveness? As things get really tight, it will feel like the safe thing to do is stick with what you know. Double down on the same processes, hire the same people and hope technology will save us. The problem…

"Most companies think and see in vertical lines across a series of vertical silos. This leaves numerous blind spots where complexity and inefficiency can thrive."

Great new post from @paulitaylor.bsky.social

Do We Need A Department of Effectiveness? lttr.ai/AYxMq

#Innovation #ServiceDesign

6 Roles to Consider as Part of Your Stakeholder Management Strategy So, you’ve been working on this project for weeks now; from the start you’ve been dogged by sketchy briefs, confused over who needs to be involved, plagued by dodgy power dynamics and hamstrung by …

Engaging the right people at the right time is critical to driving real change. It's like starting a revolution!

Think Like a Revolutionary: simonpenny.wordpress.com/2020/06/18/i...

#StakeholderManagement #BusinessTransformation #Leadership #ProjectManagement

This should be standard functionality in calendar software.

Adding Mindsets to Your Service Design Toolkit A mindset is the underlying framework through which we interpret, process, and respond to life. It’s a set of beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions that shape how we approach challenges, set goals, a…

Personas help us understand who users are; mindsets reveal how they approach each step of the journey. By combining both, we ensure designs resonate not just with who users are, but with what they feel in the moment. #UserExperience #DesignThinking #Mindsets simonpenny.wordpress.com/2024/11/04/a...

This is one of my favourite bits of local government. It’s not afraid of different answers in different places. In fact it encourages it! #lgaconf24

Real lesson for #devolution here.

Should universities leave X? - Research Professional News As UK HE technology body exits Musk’s X, experts weigh up whether institutions could follow

Here's some of my thoughts on whether or not universities and research professionals should be leaving X Twitter.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

A woman speaker presenting in front of a large screen displaying a slide titled "Design maturity," outlining four steps of design integration. Step 1 is "Design is not applied systematically," Step 2 is "Design is used as finish, or styling in new products/services," Step 3 is "Design is integrated into development processes," and Step 4 is "Design is a key strategic element in the business model." The audience is seated in a lecture-style setup, attentively observing the presentation.

“Design maturity is not just about the level of capability, but also an increased level of value that design creates”

— Susan Cullen, 🇦🇺 Australian Taxation Office, at the Intl #GovDesign #Helsinki Conference 2024

How systems thinking can supercharge service design As a service designer I’m excited by systems thinking because it helps us have big ideas and work more efficiently.

"Including #SystemsThinking tools in our #ServiceDesign work means we are able to expand its scope and effectiveness."

Great post from my SPARCK BJSS colleague, Thaddeus Parsons - How systems thinking can supercharge service design

sparck.io/journal/how-...

#ServiceEcosystems

Service Design in Government 2024 A quick set of notes from the conference.

I did a quick writeup of key things from SD in Gov (just in time to start taking notes for International Design in Gov conference!) www.vickyteinaki.com/blog/service...

The Future is Analog (If You Can Afford It) | TechPolicy.Press Maroussia Lévesque considers "analog privilege" and what understanding it can tell us about the detrimental effects of AI systems.

The idea of "analog privilege" describes how people at the apex of the social order secure manual overrides from ill-fitting, mass-produced AI products and services. Maroussia Lévesque considers what understanding it can tell us about the detrimental effects of AI systems.

Leaving the metaphors behindpublic digitalpublic digital

I've written a review of Richard Pope's exceptional new book, Platformland. public.digital/pd-insights/...

Living Between Worlds: Navigating Our Virtually Digital Reality Are we truly present in the moment, or are we merely observers through the lens of our screens? Back in the early noughties, as part of the final year of my undergraduate degree, I took a class on …

We may not be plugged into a #VirtualReality headset, but we are increasingly absorbed into an alternative, virtual world of one form or another.

Living Between Worlds: Navigating Our Virtually Digital Reality

simonpenny.wordpress.com/2023/12/14/l...

#VR #DigitalTransformation #ServiceDesign