Devika Mallik

Service Design (MA)

Project Thumbnail of EY Seren x RCA's AI & Trust Project — AI & Trust in Fintech: EY Seren x RCA In partnership with EY Seren, this project explored how AI can either reinforce or alleviate trust gaps for women navigating foreign currency exchange in moments of financial vulnerability. Through emotional journey mapping and speculative UX design, we developed an AI-driven fintech feature tailored to women managing finances abroad. The concept embedded safety, cognitive load management, and adaptive support into digital decision-making, demonstrating how responsible AI design can centre human needs and reduce stress in high-stakes contexts.

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Splash & the Water Guardians – Design for Good Academy Splash & the Water Guardians is an educational initiative that helps 6 year-olds build lifelong water-saving habits through story-driven behavioural design. Co-created with teachers, parents, and students, the service includes character-led storybooks, worksheets, and posters aligned with UK curriculum and SDG 4. Selected among the top 5 global projects in the Design for Good Showcase, the solution builds early empathy around sustainability and empowers children as water guardians in their homes and communities.

Project Thumbnail of Reboarding, my capstone project around supporting mothers in the UK workforce — Reboarding – Independent Research Project (IRP) Reboarding is a systemic service intervention tackling the UK’s motherhood penalty. Built around a 6-spoke organisational assessment tool, it supports SMEs, HR teams, and line managers to improve return-to-work experiences for mothers. Co-designed with parents and employers, the platform includes planning tools, empathy prompts, reintegration templates, and strategic policy modules. Grounded in behavioural research and systems thinking, the service repositions return-to-work as a shared institutional responsibility, enhancing retention, equity, and emotional wellbeing in the workplace.

Project thumbnail of project on Social Value & Sustainability – UK Ministry of Defence x Imperial College — Social Value & Sustainability – UK Ministry of Defence x Imperial College As part of Imperial’s Wicked Acceleration Labs, I worked with the UK Ministry of Defence to embed social value into procurement and sustainability efforts across RAF estates. Our team designed strategic pathways for Net Zero-aligned carbon sequestration and biodiversity projects, focusing on funding mechanisms, stakeholder integration, and pooled social value models. We conducted stakeholder interviews, systems mapping, and policy-friction analysis, translating sustainability intent into implementation strategies within complex public procurement structures.

About

I’m Devika, a service and systems designer with a background in UX, product strategy, and ethnographic research. Prior to RCA, I worked at a start-up delivering small-to-large-scale government and public-facing projects; ranging from AI-enabled digital experiences to experience design for Indian handicrafts, monuments, and museums.

At the Royal College of Art, I’ve had the opportunity to work across diverse industries and scales:

EY Seren: exploring AI and fintech for financially vulnerable women
Design for Good Academy: co-creating water conservation education for children
UK Ministry of Defence & Imperial College London: embedding social value into procurement, to their Sustainability Net 0 Goals
Imperial College’s Entrepreneurial Journey: worked on building a health-tech start-up from ideation to development; which is slated to go live by October 2025

My approach blends systems thinking, co-creation, and behavioural insight to turn complex challenges into actionable service strategies. Whether mapping transition journeys, designing policy-aware toolkits, or facilitating multi-stakeholder change, I aim to create services that are human-centred, structurally sound, and ready for real-world impact.

Having worked on high-complexity, regulated projects within domains like healthcare and defence, I’m skilled at navigating ambiguity, uncovering system-level levers, and aligning diverse actors toward shared outcomes. I believe one of the most powerful tools in service design is stakeholder orchestration: getting the right people in the room at the right time.

Design, to me, sits at the intersection of care and complexity. The most transformative interventions happen when we align lived realities with long-term, strategic change.

Awards & Recognition

Student Service Design Challenge (2025)| 3rd Place (Red Cross Brief)

Zia: a faith-based giving platform bridging individual intent with corporate CSR

Design for Good Global Showcase (2025):

Splash & the Water Guardians: selected to present among the top 5 projects globally to promise and early impact.

Contact:

✉️ devikamallik.design@gmail.com

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