With Sonja Jazic, Senior Project Lead at Service Design Network
The SDN, founded in 2004, is the leading global platform for service design professionals. As a non-profit, it brings together people from agencies, businesses, and government to share knowledge and collaborate.
One of SDN’s key initiatives is the Service Design Award. It’s a global competition that’s been celebrating outstanding service design projects from professionals and students around the world since 2015.
Major pain points
Before using Evalato, the team managed the award with different tools, including online forms, shared folders, and manual jury coordination. That made the whole process slow and hard to manage as the program grew.
The Service Design Award team faced several challenges before switching to Evalato:
- Multiple tools — They made the process inefficient and hard to manage.
- Heavy manual workload — Managing entries, organizing files, and coordinating jury activities took up significant administrative time.
- Limited scalability — As the award gained more visibility, handling a growing number of submissions became harder.
- Support overload — Participants often needed help navigating submission requirements or sending files, increasing the team’s support burden.
“Choosing Evalato was the best decision we made — it brought everything together in one seamless system.” — Sonja Jazic, Senior Project Lead at Service Design Network
How Evalato helped the Service Design Award
As the Service Design Award grew in visibility and submissions, the need for a scalable, integrated solution became essential. Evalato brought everything the team needed into one seamless platform, making a big difference right from the start.
Key improvements include:
- User-friendly forms — Intuitive entry forms helped applicants submit better entries with fewer questions or errors.
- Custom evaluation setup — The team created tailored judging criteria with ease, giving jurors a clear and structured way to assess entries.
- Smooth communication — Evalato’s email automation allowed the team to send confirmations, updates, and reminders to applicants and judges.
- One system for everything — Submissions, judging, and communication all happen in one place, saving time and reducing oversights.
“We especially value Evalato’s custom evaluation criteria, user-friendly entry forms, and clear communication tools. These features have streamlined our entire workflow, allowing us to deliver a professional and engaging experience for participants and judges alike.” — Sonja Jazic, Senior Project Lead at Service Design Network
The results
Switching to Evalato led to measurable gains in efficiency, participant experience, and team satisfaction.
The Service Design Award has seen some major improvements:
- 60% reduction in administrative workload — Less manual coordination, fewer emails, and no more juggling tools.
- Faster jury evaluations — Judges can now access, review, and score entries in one platform.
- Fewer support requests — Clearer processes and forms led to fewer questions from participants.
- Higher satisfaction — The team, applicants, and reviewers all report a smoother and more enjoyable experience.
“We’re genuinely impressed with Evalato and couldn’t be happier with the results. It’s made our award process more professional, efficient, and enjoyable for everyone involved. On top of that, the customer support has been exceptional—fast, friendly, and always helpful.” — Sonja Jazic, Senior Project Lead at Service Design Network
.png)
