Service Design

practical access to an evolving field

Service Design

KISD

Stefan Moritz

Service Design
Practical access to an evolving eld
Stefan Moritz, London 2005
Kln International School of Design
MEDes MA European Studies in Design

Service Design

University of Applied Sciences Cologne

Fachhochschule Kln
Faculty of Cultural Sciences
Fakultt Kulturwissenschaften
Prof. Birgit Mager
Head of department for Service Design

Copyright 2005 Stefan Moritz, All rights reserved.

To use any of the contents of this work a
permission of the author is required in writing.
Contact: [email protected]
To use any of the material that does not belong to the
author the permission of the individual originator is
required.

practical access to an evolving field

Executive summary

Service Design helps to

innovate (create new) or
improve (existing) services
to make them more useful,
usable, desirable for clients
and efcient as well as
effective for organisations.
It is a new holistic, multidisciplinary, integrative eld.

This summary provides an insight into Service

Design and how it can help address some key
challenges facing organisations today.
Service Design is a new holistic, multi-disciplinary,
integrative eld. It helps to either innovate or
improve services to make them more useful, usable, desirable for clients, as well as more efcient
and effective for organisations.
The service sector makes up the biggest part of
the economy, up to 70% of GDP. However, services
are not as productive for organisations and as
satisfying for clients as they could be. Services
have a design problem.
Professionals in the service sector need to realise
that they are involved in design and use Service
Design to improve it. Services have unique features. They are not tangible, cannot be stored or
owned, consumption happens at the same time as
production and they are complex experiences that
happen over time. Therefore, designing services
requires special considerations.
Design as a whole has changed and Service
Design can address the unique challenges that
the service economy is facing. Design is not only
crafting details of products anymore. It is a eld
that designs complex and interactive experiences,
processes and systems. It involves expertise and
experts from related elds and clients in the
design process. It uses special processes, tools and
methods.
Service Design arose about 10 years ago. Since
then it has continued to evolve through a number
of channels and has gained signicant momentum
in the last couple of years through the development of an international Service Design Network.

Service Design integrates management, marketing, research and design. It acts as an interface
and connects organisations and clients in a new
way.
Many organisations in the market today are
working to improve and innovate services, and
there are many great examples of that in Virgin
Atlantic, First Direct, FedEx, however, improvement is seldom done regularly, systematically or
even intentionally. That is why there is a need for
dedicated Service Design.
Recognising how Service Design can give organisations a signicant competitive advantage is a
starting point. From there, to get involved in
Service Design it is essential to rst have a complete understanding of it and this paper sets out
in detail what is required to do so. It explains and
describes the framework in which service design
operates, explores existing models, details the six
minds-sets required to complete a service design
project (understanding, thinking, generating,
ltering, explaining and realising) and provides
overview models, a process and a practical job
description.
To conclude, Service Design is a very different way
of approaching the way we think of the relationship between organisations and clients. This paper
denes the essential role that Service Design can
play in nurturing that relationship through the
creation of outstanding and innovative service
experiences. Through Service Design organisations
can create competitive advantages, loyal satised clients and higher prot margins. Improving
services is essential not only to drive organisations forward, but economies too.

Contents

INTRODUCTION
13
15
17

About this paper

Goal
Methodology

ACCESS TO SERVICE DESIGN

113
115
121
123

CHANGING WORLD
23
29
32

Service revolution
What differentiates services
Understanding design

Bridging the gap

Service Design framework
Service Design overview
Service Design (SD) tasks

124 SD Understanding
12 8 SD Thinking
132 SD Generating
13 6 SD Filtering
14 0 SD Explaining

SERVICE DESIGN SOLUTION

39
43
48
57

66
69
73
75

85

service design evolution

Service Design to date
Service Design players
The Service Design Network
Examples of outstanding services

14 4 SD Realising
14 9
15 0
15 4
161

Considerations
Service Design overview model
Service Design process
Service Design role description

CONCLUSION
167

Conclusion

APPENDIX
177

service design reality

18 5

Who is designing services now

Workshop with practitioners

241

Contents

Service Design
9

24 4

Glossary
Service Design tools & methods
Bibliography
Acknowledgements

89

What is Service Design

What differentiates Service Design
Areas with related expertise
Service Design benets

Introduction

Service Design

10

11

INTRODUCTION

About this paper

Objective
This paper introduces Service Design as a way for
practitioners to deliver value for their organisation. This paper looks at the development of
Service Design and describes where it is at
today. It gives people that work with services an
understanding of, and practical access to, Service
Design.

Enable understanding and access

Which tools can be used to enable Service Design?

Which can be identied in other disciplines? How
can some of them need be adopted to Service
Design? And overall: Which ones can be developed
specically for designing services?
The paper also helps identify the skills required to
manage and become active in Service Design and
explores a set of tools that are helpful to achieve
those tasks.

12

13

Introduction

Service Design

The service economy is booming yet clients

are not always satised, and the service sector
is still less productive than the manufacturing
sector.1 Service Design is a new eld in which user
oriented strategies and concepts are designed to
make services work better for an organisation and
their clients. Service Design is offering a competitive advantage for organisations and ensuring
quality experiences for clients. For example it
helps organisations to offer better services than
their competitors and to raise clients awareness to
the service they consume. However, so far only a
few organisations use it.2 Why?

The paper explores this question, identies how

possible tasks can be addressed by Service Design
and it develops a model that groups tasks into a
workable framework.

1 According to the UK treasury the service sector is 1/3 less

productive than the manufacturing sector, as stated by
Kevin Gavaghan in a conversation.
2 As found e.g. by research of the University of Westminster

Goal

Given that Services have specic implications,

designing them is a complex, iterative and
multi-disciplinary process. Service Design is a eld
that allows and encourages competencies from
different elds to come together. Experts from
different disciplines have contributed with various
perspectives to this new practice.
To make it easy for a broad range of professionals
to fully understand Service Design, this work
sets out to turn Service Design into a tangible,
accessible reality. As a practical starting kit it
compiles tools and methods of Service Design to
facilitating the explanation of Service Design to
clients, institutions and investors.
In addition this work gives me, as the author, the
opportunity to establish a holistic and practical knowledge of Service Design, as well as an
opportunity to explore and understand various
tools and experts in Service Design and its related
elds. It enables me to examine this eld from an
international perspective, to equip myself with
a broad range of valuable contacts, tools and
knowledge.

To me is clear that I have a unique opportunity to

use the experience and the network that partially
result from the MEDes1 and from Birgit Magers2
support and endorsement. The combination of
both enables me nally to write the rst master in
Service Design a subject that Im very passionate
about.
This work includes four chapters. The rst chapter
sets out to set up the background for the development of Service Deisgn, including the changes in
the economy and in design. The second chapter
gives an insight into Service Design as a new eld,
including what it differientates and what it can
deliver. The third chapter explores how Service
Design can be made accessible in a practical way.
The fourth chaper is the conclusion of this work.
The working process has been kept transparent
and documented via a Blog.3 This paper includes
research, thoughts and reasoning as well as some
material that specically helps to understand
Service Design. Quotes, visual material and summaries support this paper to be a compact and
reader friendly summary of Service Design.

14

15

Introduction

Bill Hollins, Service Design pioneer

The complex and multi-disciplinary eld of

Service Design according to some experts can
address some of the key challenges that our
society and economy is facing.

Service Design

One of the big

challenges is to get
people in the service
industry to realise that
they are involved in
design and to get help
to improve it.

1 MEDes European studies in design. A new programme joining seven

European design universities, including two years in two different
countries.
2 Birgit Mager is Professor for Service Design at Kln International
School of Design, Cologne
2 On-line communication platform: http://master.stefan-moritz.com

Methodology
In the four different areas of research, interviews,
desk research and a workshop were used to
ivestigate and understand Service Design, related
elds, service practitioners and various tools.
To establish a profound understanding of the
Service Design eld various papers and books have
been reviewed. A seminar that was conducted by
RSA-Design1 in London helped to gain understanding of different perspectives on Service Design.
The attendance of a one-day workshop for practitioners in the service sector that Birgit Mager
held in Cologne, helped to understand the detailed
background, tools and methods of Service Design
as well as the audience that attended this workshop.

1. Service Design

Literature review
Expert interviews
Model & process review
Tool analysis

2. Related elds
Expert interviews
Model & process review
Tool analysis

3. Practitioners
Interviews
Desk research
Workshop

4. Service Design Tools

Interviews
Desk research
Prototyping
Workshop

17

16

Introduction

Service Design

Several interviews and conversations with various

Service Design experts helped to gain understanding not only about the Service Design practice
but also about the landscape and actors within
this new eld and different perspectives. The
emerging international Service Design Network was
a crucial platform to access people and material.
Different resources that are available from those
Service Design experts have been reviewed and
analysed. n

CONDUCTED RESEARCH

1 The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts,

Manufactures & Commerce. http://www.rsa-design.net/

n Methodology
Service Design is a multi-disciplinary approach. The various relating and
overlapping elds have been reviewed to research relevant existing tools.
The methods and tools that are available within these areas of related
expertise have been reviewed to be applied or adopted to Service Design.
Experts in some areas have been consulted to gain detailed understanding
of the tasks that cover the discipline and the tasks and skills that are used
to perform these tasks. The understanding of the related elds is crucial to
understanding Service Design.

Business

Service Design

The audience that this work aims to enable to use Service Design was
specied in the goal. To nd out their context, needs and goals several
interviews have been conducted. This understanding is crucial for the success of this work. To investigate how different tools can be used with this
audience a workshop has been carried out. Research that was available from
the University of Westminster has been reviewed and gave insights into the
way that services are currently developed and innovated.
Research has also been undertaken to analyse the tools that are currently
being used by the various academic and consultancy players in the Service
Design Network. Desk research into existing tools has helped to gain a list of
tools and methods that can be used in Service Design as such or that can be
adopted to the specic needs of Service Design.

18

The end result of this work can be seen as a starting point and discussion
base. It enables precise and quality input from both sides, the Service
Design experts and the service practitioner community.

[ model one ]

Where does Service Design t in?

This map shows two things: Service Design is part of the worlds of Business,
Design and Related elds. Only some aspects of the whole systems are
covered in this work. The description of the methodology highlights what
these areas are.

Service Design

Introduction

Related
fields

A Service Design workshop helped to identify insights, develop ideas and

nd solutions and to test different tools. In the workshop a supporting
service has been discussed and designed. This activity therefore covered
rich results: Insights into the needs of practitioners, the development of
ideas, and testing the tools that have been prepared especially for this
workshop.

19

Design

Changing world

Service Design

20

21

CHANGING WORLD

Service revolution
We are surrounded by services every day. We
listen to the radio. The window cleaner makes
sure that the sun can shine into our apartment. Our mail is delivered. The hairdresser
gives us a new summer cut. We borrow books
from the library. We go online, book our holiday
and nally take the plane to the Caribbean.
And that is not new. Services have been around for
centuries the old Greek and Romans had servants and even prior to that services were provided
and also paid for.

Four main drivers lead the

service revolution
1 . The service economy is booming
2 . The product market is satised
3 . Technology enables services
4 . Humans have individual needs

Still, we are aware that some things have changed

dramatically in the last say 25 years. We have
reached the end of the monopoly of the industrial
era.1 In the end of the 19th century the steam
machine, bigger factories, new inventions and
methods pushed a mass of cheaper goods in the
market. The industrial revolution created an ocean
of cheaper and better products in developed
countries. Today, most households have two TVs,
an electrical toothbrush, a car, and most of us
stereos and PCs. Like the industrial revolution that
transformed society and economy we are now
about to experience the service revolution.2

Service Design

Changing world

Theres been a lot of focus

on product innovation over
the years, but very little
discussion or thought on
innovation in the service
sector despite the vast
growth of that part of
our economy.

23

22

John A. Byrne, editor-in-chief of Fast Company magazine, January 21, 2005

Service Innovation, http://blog.fastcompany.com

1 Thackara, John: In the Bubble

2 Conversations with Lavrans Lvlie

1. The service economy is booming

2. The product market is satised

The World bank recognises a strong growth of the

service sector and expanding trade in services:
Service industries increased their share of the
world economy during the past two decades, while
the relative shares of agriculture and industry
shrank in most developing regions. 1

As a consequence of mass and serial production,

products increasingly resemble each other. 6
Over the last years products got more and more
similar. From a client* standpoint the twenty
different washing powders that are available in
every super market are all fullling the same
purpose. And the basic function of cleaning and
basic quality is taken for granted for all of them. In
the last years branding has worked on positioning,
creating unique selling propositions and marketing has pushed and promoted those products. A
documentary revealed that shampoo packaging
is redesigned every two weeks in Germany on
average. But also outside the FMCG market many
new versions of old prodcuts are being created all
the time, even though the results are not always
innovative or very different from before.7

The service economy is the dominant part of the

economy of most developed countries. The USA
and Japan are the worlds leading countries in their
massive service economies. Catching up with
this in European countries, services are becoming
increasingly important for the economy. Up to
70% of the GNP lies in the service sector today.2

Pure service companies are emerging in surprising

places. Product companies are developing into
solutions companies by adding services to accompany their products. Jan Carlson at Scandinavian
Airlines said: We dont y planes any more we
full the travel needs of our clients. 4

This is not to say that there wont be new unique

products. However, the industrial revolution enabled a new quality of life in developed countries.
Results such as the Volkswagen peoples car or Ikea
furniture enabled a wide range of people to afford
designed products. To make prices even cheaper
and to be more competitive most producing
companies moved their manufacturing facilities
to low price countries mainly in Asia.

More and more hybrid product-service companies

are relying a lot more on services. For example the
revenue mix at IBM has gone from
68% products / 32% services in 1994
to 48% / 52% in 2003, a 63% change in ten years.5

Services are used to support products competitiveness and to ad value. Many products are
platforms for services. More and more the real
business does lie in services and products represent the possibility to consume the service. But

1 World bank. Retrieved from the world wide web the 2005-03-12.
http://www.worldbank.org

6 Mager, Birgit (2004): Service Design. A Review. (page 9). Cologne

24

25

Changing world

Service has been recognised as third sector beside

agriculture and manufacturing. In the past years
a fourth sector around transformation of data
and information into knowledge has also been
recognised.3 The currency of that new economy
lies mainly in services.

Service Design

n Service revolution

Supermarket shelf: The product market is satised. Over the last years products got more and more similar.

2 DIEC. Retrieved from the world wide web the 2005-03-16.

http://diec.co.uk
3 Bel, Daniel: The Coming of Post-Industrial Society
4 Mager, Birgit (2004-11-16): Service Design workshop, Cologne
5 Rae, Jeneanne M. et. al. (2004): Services Are Different. In Heads Up!
On Organizational Innovation. Online weekly. InnovationNetwork.

7 http://uiaf./projects/zone
* In this work the word client is used consistently instead of customer,
consumer or user. This is representing the change of thinking in Service
Design towards seeing and treating clients as important and part of
the process.

n Service revolution
3. Technology enables services

4. Humans have individual needs

Conclusions

A change in technology resulted in the industrial

revolution. It changed the way companies worked
and offered many new possibilities. Furthermore,
the service revolution is based on a wide range
of technological changes. The internet, telecommunications, computers & wireless devices
again open up many possibilities. All these new
technologies work as service enablers.7 Services
can be provided in new ways. Banking for example
is now possible via the internet or on the phone.
New services can be offered such as broadband
for example. There are unlimited opportunities in
creating service systems that offer value in new
ways.

Clients are complicated. They have individual

needs and expectations that cant be standardised. Depending on context and situation every
client has different needs even for the same service. The same person might want to go through an
airport very quickly on a business trip but might
want to relax with a coffee and do some shopping
on a private holiday. This need goes clearly beyond
different packaging of the same things. In a store
somebody wants to browse around themselves
and somebody else expects direct specic help. In
the last years life styles and patterns changed and
today a bank manager can listen to hip-hop, eat in
a good restaurant and go home on roller blades.

The opportunity for Service Design is to address

these drivers and to support the service market
with new concepts. The future lies in good
designed services. Successful organisations
have moved from product centred organisations
towards offering mainly services, other organisations can benet from such change too.

Technology has changed the relationships

between clients and service providers. Therefore
technology represents new possibilities as well as
challenges. Physical boundaries are not existing
any more. Networks make it possible to have service centres in countries with cheap labour. Online
services are very quick and rather easy to copy.
Overall networks and technology have changed so
drastically in the last two decades.

The mechanics of client behaviour play a much

bigger role in information chains than they do in
supply chains. Especially in services where clients
are directly involved in the process. This is why it
is getting increasingly hard to estimate or guess
what any one person wants.8

Technology offers new possibilities how to deliver

services and enables new kinds of services. But
it is not always true that new technology has to
be used for its own sake. Clients are individuals
with human needs, wants and feelings. There are
services that robots and computers cant offer in
the same way humans can. Service Design puts
clients in a stronger focus.

Sources & further information:

8 Karmarkar, Uday: Will you survive the service revolution?
June 2004. Harvard Business Review.
> http://worldbank.org
> http://diec.co.uk

26

> Rae, Jeneanne M. et. al. (2004): Services Are Different. In Heads Up!
On Organizational Innovation. Online weekly. InnovationNetwork.
7 Conversation with Lavrans Lvlie, Live|Work

> Mager, Birgit (2004): Service Design. A Review. Cologne.

Service Design

Changing world

This development changed the way things worked

and offers fertile ground for the service revolution.

No computer, machine or robot can cope with the

individual needs of clients sufciently. Service is a
big opportunity to offer a totally new dimension
of value.

The market is full of products. Organisations

need to nd new ways of standing out against
the competition and to offer new value. Just
selling and pushing advertising and pricing is not
sufcient. Service Design can help to create a new
relationship between organisations and clients.

27

this does not mean that products are not important any more. Services are integrated in complex
hybrid product and service units that complement
the service offering. For example a mobile phone
as a product is the enabling platform to use the
service of communication. The phone mostly
comes for free with a service contract. This example has been used a lot to illustrate how important
services are and that products are just there for
the service. Yet the mobile phone is playing a
signicant role as a fashion item. Therefore the
service hybrid represents a new unit that requires
new design in strategy, branding and marketing.

What differentiates services

1. Are not tangible

2. Are not separable from consumption
3. Cannot be stored
4. Cannot be owned
5. Are complex experiences
6. Quality is difcult to measure

Source: Mager, Birgit: Service Design a review. Hollins, Bill: Design and its management in the service sector.

To explain what is unique about services the

differences between products and services have
been examined (Sasser, Hollins, Mager etc.). This
differentiation is still valid today and underlines
the major shift in thinking that is needed for and
delivered by Service Design.
Given the amount and complexity of services it
is helpful to describe what services are not. The
English magazine The Economist wrote: Service is
everything that cant fall on your feet. 2 Generally some key features summarise what is unique
about services. Those unique features represent
some of the challenges that are addressed within
Service Design.

2. Services are not separable from

consumption
Production and consumption of services mostly
occur at the same time. Supplying a service is
inseparable from the consumption by the client.
The challenge is that the involvement of clients
cannot be planned or prepared in services. New
technology offers possibilities for self-service.
Even though elements and modules can be prepared there is always an overlap between service
and consumption.

3. Services cannot be stored

As services are not physical they cannot usually be
stored or inventoried. Clients expect services to
be accessible most, if not all of the time. Services
simultaneously lose their value if they are not
used. In contrast, the seat on a plane looses its
value once the plane has departed.

1. Services are not tangible

4. Services cannot be owned
Most services are used on the spot. Nobody can
take services home. Most services are not transported or exportable. Services are used rather than
owned. Nobody can own a massage for example.

28

Service Design

Changing world

Services have no physical form, they can not be

physically touched. They cannot be seen before
purchase or taken home after. One cannot touch
legal advice or a journey, though one can often see
the results. The challenge is to nd ways to create
tangible manifestations and representations that
communicate the value of the service.

1 Please see list of services on page 74

1 Brandeins. German management magazine. 04-2002

29

Services...

70% a large part of the economy is in the service

sector and the vast range of different services1
underlines the fact that services are everywhere.

n What differentiates services

PRODUCT

SERVICE

> Produced

> Performed

> Material

> Immaterial

> Tangible

> Intangible

> Can be stored

> Cant be stored

> Usually without client

> Interaction with client

No consumer ever buys a product.

Consumers buy what products provide.
Peter Drucker, business & management specialist

5. Services are complex experiences

Conclusion

Services happen over time and across several

Touchpoints. Unlike tangible products, no two
service delivery experiences are alike. Clients
perceive services on many different levels. The
overall interface and experience connects is a
combination of the experiences of all Touchpoints.

The unique features of services have a major inuence on the experience that clients have compared
to the experience clients have with products.
Services can include different components. That
can be space, product and service components.

6. Service quality is difcult to measure

> Consumption after production

> Consumption = production

> Defects in manufacturing

> Mistakes in behaviour

The measures of quality in a service tend to

be qualitative and there are few quantitative
measures. As a result, there is a wider variability
in services and it is more difcult to control the
quality of a service.

The total experience that clients have is made up

from different contacts with these components.
Every encounter of a part of a service is called a
Touchpoint. That means that services are different, more complex and basically exist from
the perception that clients have across different
Touchpoints.
An organisation that provides services needs to
address research, innovation and development
in a different way than that of products. This is
where Service Design comes in.

Service Design

Products and services are different

This overview shows the most prominent differences.
The implications of these differences are addressed in
Service Design.
Source: Backmann, Michaela (1998): Designmanagement als strategischer Erfolgsfaktor
im Dienstleistungssektor. Diplomarbeit im Lehrstuhl fr Innovations- und Technologiemanagement. University Regensburg. As cited in Kleebank, Nina (2000). Diploma in
Designmanagement. KISD. Cologne.

31

30

Changing world

[ model two ]

Sources & further information:

> The Service Management Course, (by Hart, C., J. Heskett, and W. E. Sasser Jr.
N.Y.: Free Press, 1990).
> Hollins, Bill: About Service Design. Design Council. http://design-council.org
> Conversations with Birgit Mager, Bill Hollins, Sean Blair & Lavrans Lvlie

Understanding design

Disciplines are melting

Changing world

In the last years companies and academic institutions recognised the need and potential of a
new approach to design practise. For example
the model design school in Cologne offered a
new multi-disciplinary design education across
thirteen areas of design.1 Design companies such
as IDEO hired professionals from different elds
such as psychology, human factors, zoology and
ethnography to state but a few.2 The consequence
is that designers work on broader horizons and are
able to integrate specialist expertise.
In such working practise the awareness for lacking
knowledge or experience and the sensitiveness
towards the real needs of a project increase. That
means that a designer would not just design a

poster. It would be questioned if in this specic

case a light-beam or projection could work better.
Instead of a new fridge design a service concept
could deliver fresh food. Design does not only
operate on a specialist level any more. It combines
the expertise of different design disciplines to
develop holistic concepts. The co-operation of
different experts enables a new platform of multidisciplinary work.

New scope of design

Design has changed its scope and goes beyond
designing artefacts. It used to be limited mostly
on to the level of designing features of products,
rooms, stationary etc. Design today extends to the
experience that clients have with products, services, spaces or a mix of these. But design is used
also to design the processes and systems that are
behind these experiences. On the broadest level
design comes in to policy making, is involved to
develop strategies and philosophies. Design is
being recognised as a business driver that should
be integrated up front in a project. In the course of
a project as time goes by design is involved from
the broadest to the most focused level. From the
strategy to the actual details of the outcome. n

2
3
4

[ model three ]

Levels of design
1
2
3
4

Design of features (product, service or space)

Design of client experience
Design of processes and systems
Design of strategy, philosophy, policy or ideology

32

33

Based on: Worldviews of Design, Spirit of Creation, 2004

Service Design

Design used to be seen as a profession that

operates in specialist areas such as graphic design,
product design and fashion design. One of the
tasks that design used to be associated with, was
to make things look good. Design used to work at
the very end of the process in most companies.
A product designer for example would be responsible for the shape and look of a product that
was already developed. Design is not any more
restricted to the surface of things and how they
look. And it is not any more only employed at the
end of the product development process.

Kln International School of Design, Cologne. http://kisd.de

2 IDEO, design group. http://ideo.com

n Understanding design
Co-design

New roles for designers

No design, no matter how beautiful and

ingenious, is any good if it does not full a user
need. 1 That seems rather obvious. But the role
of the user (client) in the design process has
changed (please see model four). Designers used
to see users from a design centred observational
perspective. At a later stage the user was imagined
to think about what they might want or need. A
different approach was when designers actually
made contact with users. This participation was
either in representing the user or experiencing the
user. This new way of designing included the user
nally in the design process and is today practised
as User Centred Design. This participatory design
makes clients part of the project and involves
them in a collaborative design. The research group
Luotain at the UIAH in Helsinki is working on various projects that include clients in different parts
of the design process.

Design has developed and opened new elds for

designers. New roles such as Interaction Design,
Gender Design, Experience Design, Design Management, Strategic Design, etc. have emerged.
Designers that have been trained in a traditional
design background have taken specialised education to accommodate the new market needs and
possibilities. Also Service Design is a new role for
designers.

New designers
Design has also opened up a new eld for people
traditionally considered non-designers to participate in multidisciplinary approaches. Design
offers a new platform for collaboration of people
from different backgrounds and with different
experiences. Are you already a designer? Otherwise you might want to become one?

We are all designers now.

John Thackara, Author of In the Bubble

Conclusion
Design involves the understanding of client wants, needs, motivations
and contexts as well as business, technical and domain requirements and
constraints. This knowledge can be translated into artefacts, into plans
for artefacts or strategies that set frameworks or give direction. Design
ensures that the overall experience of products, services and spaces is useful, usable and desirable as well as efcient, effective, economically viable
and technically feasible.1

1 Design Council. Retrieved from the world

wide web the 2005-05-12. http://www.design
council.org.uk
2 Hollins, Bill. Various papers online. Retrieved
from the world wide web the 2005-05-27.
http://wmin.ac.uk/dm/
3 Thackara, John (2005): In the Bubble.
Designing in a Complex World. The MIT Press.
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Page 226

Design has been recognised as an important factor for businesses and it has
been identied (e.g. by the Design Council) that companies that use design
in a more integrated way are more successful.2

Design
Centred
Design
O B S E RV

User
Imagined
AT I O N

User
Represented

PA R T I C I

PAT I O N

User
Experienced

Design has always been involved in change. Without changes design would
not be that necessary. The changes that we are facing have resulted not
only in new designs. They have resulted in a re-designing of design.

User
Centred
Design

RO LE IM
MER SIO

As John Thackara (Doors of Perception) writes in the last line of his book In
the Bubble. Designing in a Complex World: We are all designers now. 3

Service Design

Changing world

Design strives to create experiences that go across products, spaces or

services. It takes the view of a product or service from the entire life cycle
with a client, from before they perceive the need to when they discard it.

Co-design
This model shows how design has changed
towards User Centred Design. Clients are involved
in the design which is called Co-design.
This represents one of the dimensions that
changed in design.

35

34

[ model four ]
1 Design Council. Retrieved from the world wide web the 2005-04-23.
http://www.designcouncil.org.uk
Diagram source:
User Centred Design Conference, 2003-05-12, UIAH, Helsinki,
Luotain presentation, referencing Bill Gavers

Service Design solution

Service Design

36

37

SERVICE DESIGN
SOLUTION

What is Service Design

38

Peer Insight is currently conducting a massive research into the innovation of services. They formed a collaborative
venture among eight companies, including Mastercard and Siebel Systems, to share data and deconstruct the successes and failures in service innovation.

2 Conversations with Sean Blair

3 Presentation from Jenny Winhall from the
new unit RED at the Design Council, at the
RSA-Design Service Design seminar.
October 27, 2004.

If it comes to the delivery of slightly more complex service, like the supply
of a parcel, we know that design can offer help with the corporate design
of forms, corporate fashion of the drivers outt or with the design of the
packaging. But for a long time there was no profession existing that would
look after the planning and detailed execution of the overall service
a Service Designer.
The design of products seems very normal to us today and interestingly
that emerged in a rather similar way to how Service Design is developing.
In the 19th century new technology enabled a variety of new machines and
devices. Designers like Raymond Loewy and the German Bauhaus engaged
themselves with giving the technology a more human face. To design
meant to make sure that products are beautiful and pleasing as well as
useful. 1
Today product design is more complex and advanced. The principle is the
same designers think about the end user and make sure that products
are useful, usable and desirable. At the same time designers implement
manufacturing processes in organisations that are effective and efcient.2
Service Design is the design of the overall experience of a service as well as
the design of the process and strategy to provide that service.
Service Design is a process across the four Ds Discover, Dene, Develop &
Deliver 3. It is about understanding client, organisation & market, develop
ideas, translate them into feasible solutions and to help implementing
them. Service Design is involved in the ongoing live-cycle of services and
offers continuous evolution. Services can be constantly changing in time. n

Service Design

Service Design solution

Jeneanne M. Rae, Co-founder of Peer Insight

Services have been provided for a long time. And when it comes to serving
wine or cutting somebodys hair nobody would have thought about getting
help from a designer to improve their services.

1 Live|Work presentation at the RSA-Design

Service Design seminar. October 27, 2004.
Conversations with Lavrans Lvlie

39

Its one of those

areas that is a
tweener, falling
between other
departments in
a company.

From the previous chapter it becomes clear that services are different.
The world is changing. The service sector has an increased signicance for
organisations. So what does that mean?

Ser

n What is Service Design

ts

sa
tio
n

[ model five ]

Service Interface

The Service Interface is the pattern derived from

various contacts that a client has with a brand
through different Touch-Poins of a Service Journey. It is established over time and is the platform
for the Service Experience.

space and of the overall situation. The different

roles are played by service personnel instead of actors. But just as in the theatre a service is a unique
individual experience. The stage is the equivalent
to the Service Design interface.

A metaphor used for Service Design is that of a

theatre stage. Klaus Weyh refers to it as Broadway
Management1. The service experience happens
on a stage. The difference to a real theatre is that
the client is part of the show literally. But as in the
theatre a complete service experience is always
a mixture of the actors that play their roles, the
stage design and different objects that are used.
In service, the stage design is the design of the

Just as in the theatre, Service Design covers not

only the design of every detail that happens on
stage, but also processes, organisation, business
and preparation back stage. Only when all factors
front and back are working together will the client
experience the service as working perfectly and
sufciently.

Service Design

Service Design works on the design of all different

Touchpoints that together result in a designed service interface

41

Service Design solution

oin

40

d To
uch
p

ni

f ac

ga

ien

Service Design helps to unveil opportunities,

produce ideas, solve problems and create
implementable solutions. It provides meaningful specications, guidelines and strategies. It
generates ideas, develops solutions and creates
concepts. It uses criteria to identify the best ideas
and solutions. It nds ways to explain and share
insights, complex structures and processes. It
uses prototyping to test results, plans and process
maps to implement the solutions.

Service Design connects the desires of the client

with the desires of an organisation. Service Design
is a mediator that understands how to build
the bridge between the two within the overall
context.

te r

Or

Cl

Service Design is planning and shaping useful,

usable, desirable, effective and efcient service
experiences. Service Design helps to understand
consumers, the market, resources available and
insights into clients expectations, needs and
experiences across all Touchpoints and over time.

Service Design creates and shapes the client interface and crafts all details of the service journey.
Methods and tools are used to make the service
experience consistent, desirable, useful, viable, in
line with the brand and commercially successful.
For companies Service Design offers the possibility to create additional value, to differentiate
against competitors, to better use resources and
to connect to consumers in a desirable way. For
clients Service Design represents the improvement of everyday life and the provision of quality
experiences.

e In

De s
ign
e

Service Design is not a new specialist

design discipline. It is a new multidisciplinary platform of expertise.
What does this mean? Service Design is not a short
project that carries a service through to launch. It
is an ongoing process. It is work with components,
workshops and projects to integrate new service
practises into organisations. Effectively, Service
Design adapts to organisations and needs, and is
translated into business structures and processes.

v ic

What differentiates Service Design

3. Service Design integrates expertise

from different disciplines
4. Service Design is interactive

42

Service Design solution

5. Service Design is ongoing

Service Design is a
new eld that connects
organisations and
clients in a new way.

1. Service Design truly represents the

clients perspective
To design services it is important to establish a
good understanding of the goals, motivations and
latent needs that clients have. They are difcult
to predict and mostly clients are not consciously
aware of those needs. As well as needs there are
some principles that feel more natural to some
clients than others.
When IDEO developed the service strategy for
Juniper Financial they observed the banks clients
in their homes as they paid bills, at banks, ATMs
and elsewhere. One of the latent needs identied
was that people are used to keeping bills in a
stack and then pay them all together at some
point. Based on this insight they included a gentle
reminder function in the online banking portal.
Similarly to the bill stack, a virtual list would grow
and indicate gently, e.g. with colours, when its
time to pay. The service had the possiblity to use a
mechanism that matches the natural behaviours
of clients.
Services so far are provided by organisations
and are thought through and planned (designed)
mostly from this provider perspective. The point
of difference that the Service Design approach
offers is the development of service systems
which are focusing on the client as well as on the
organisation. n
Service Design

2. Service Design addresses the

unique features of services

Earlier in this paper the special features of services

were discussed. They differ to products, happen
over time, are complex, interactive and stretch
across different Touchpoints. The consequence is
that the design and therefore also the research,
development and implementation need to be
addressed differently. Service Design integrates
different elds and clients in the design process.
It is a new eld that connects organisations and
clients in a new way. This paper explores how
Service Design addresses the challenge. The
following pages set out to identify what is unique
about the eld Service Design.

43

1. Service Design truly represents

the clients perspective

n What differentiates Service Design

In Service Design it is easy to confuse user-clients

with customer-clients. For consumer products,
customers are often the same as users, but in
corporate, technical or service domains, users and
customers rarely describe the same sets of people.
Customers of a product are those who make the
decision to purchase the service.

2. Service Design addresses the unique

features of services

3. Service Design integrates expertise

from different disciplines

Clients encounter different Touchpoints over time.

A Touchpoint is a contact point with one of the
elements of the service offering like receiving a
conrmation letter.

Design has developed into a strategic, conceptional and multi-disciplinary eld. Therefore
many designers are used to working with experts
from diverse elds, such as research, technology,
communication etc.

All Touchpoints can be considered experience

puzzle pieces of a service and can be build out
of product and service components. The overall
experience that a consumer has is driven by the
Service Interface. It is a mental concept in the
clients mind. Designing this interface means to
align all Touchpoints against the Service Design
concept.

Design (including communications) always has

been a mediator / translator between industry and
people, technology and application and between
offer and need. There is no reason that marketers, engineers or others could not contribute to
projects in the multi-disciplinary eld Service
Design. They might prefer it to be called Service
Marketing etc. However, Service Design as a eld
offers a very unique portfolio of tasks and there
are different tools and skills needed to provide
those. Later, the role description of the Service
Design Scout helps to establish a description of
what role Service Design can play in an organisation.

Touchpoints
All Touchpoints are experience puzzle pieces of the
service. They complement the overall experience
across the service interface. Each piece helps to
shape a whole.

Marc Innegraeve, service expert

45

44

Service Design solution

Services are different from products. Yet in many

cases they are connected to products in some
way. Or as Bill Hollins says: A lot of services ride
on the back of products. 1 Service Design does
not exclude products but rather looks at the unit
of product and service as they are experienced
together by clients.

Service Design usually addresses internal as well

as external clients. In an organisation there are
different people that need to be seen as clients.
Service Design ensures that everyone involved in
a project feels like a client, and that the different
methods and tools used ensure excellent internal
and external service experience.2

When designing and

developing a new service,
organisations need to think
about trust, about increasing
a sense of transfer of owner
ship and about experience.
Changing the method of
payment, can not impact the
design of a product, but it is
a major change in the devel
opment of a service.

Service Design

Clients are involved in designing the service

delivery process. Without a client there can be no
service. That has a number of consequences on
the design of services. Service Design needs to use
new ways of testing services.

1 Conversation with Bill Hollins, London 2005

2 Mager, Birgit (2004): Service Design a review. Page 17. Cologne.

n What differentiates Service Design

You cant
experience the
experience until you
experience it.
Bill Moggridge, IDEO

Service Design is not a new specialist design

discipline. It is a new multi-disciplinary platform
of expertise. Born in design thinking it integrates
various elds of expertise. However, at the
same time at the very core it has a specic offer
designed to address the various design challenges
in the booming service economy.

4. Service Design is interactive

Service Design enables behaviours and dynamics. It offers clients the possibility to connect a
potential with a result. It provides all resources
and components that are necessary for a client to
do what they want to do. As has been identied
before the client is an integral part of the service
performance.

Given the variety of services that exist, Service

Design has to cope with different situations and
contexts to products. The systems that Service
Design creates and improves are complex and
stretch over time. Service Design looks at a scope
from long term strategies and designs processes
to implementing consistency across organisations
in small details such as the style of a text message.
What is unique about services is that they
live. They cannot be pre-produced and stored
until somebody employs them. That has major
implications for the development of a service. For
example, even though Service Innovation is able
to develop a service and then launch it, Service
Design continues after the Service is in use and
monitors it for constant improvement. Amazon
is a Service Design minded company and since its
launch in 1995 every day parts of the experience
are changed and improved.4

47

46

Service Design

Service Design solution

One big advantage with services is that it is much

easier to make changes. Even though it is new and
not easy, depending on the complexity of a service
it is very feasible to prototype services and to test
implementation models. It is easier to innovate
and less expensive in services than in manufacturing. 3

5. Service Design is ongoing

3 Conversation with Bill Hollins, London 2005

4 Conversation with Lavrans Lvlie, London 2005

ment

mo

tio

P r i ce

Pro
design

log

og r a

p hy

Market research

Obser

Tes
t

v ation

ing

De sign

lisation

Service Design

S e nsua

de s

ig n

de
ion

Interior design

ig n

ce d

es

r ie n

yd

[ model six ]

Service Design expertise

Service Design integrates management, marketing, research and design. It creates a unique
connection of organisation and client. The areas of related expertise are used and integrated
in Service Design and also used in bringing in specialised experts from those areas.

49

ct

or

ra

at

te

c ip

sig

In

r ti

sig

Pa

t de

Service Design solution

service

a ce

St

eg
r at

er f

Q uali

g an i s a t i o n
or

Process management

nage
t y ma

o
ch

Et hn

es

duc

48

Branding

Ps

e sig

s ourc

ent

Pro

On the following pages key elds, integral and essential to the development
of Service Design (please see model six) are discussed. The descriptions are
helpful in explaining what aspects Service Design covers with terms that are
established and that practitioners can relate to.

P ubli

mm
Co

Mar ke t i ng

pm

E xpe

an r e

elo

In many organisations there are people responsible for improving and innovating services. Many of them work on elements of Service Design, but often
without calling it or recognising it as such.
As the diagram shows, marketing and design have always mediated between
the organisation and the client. Marketing mostly operates from an organisations perspective. Design on the other hand mostly works from a clients
perspective. Service Design integrates management, marketing, research and
design. Therefore it combines the best and most relevant tools and experience
from the areas with related expertise to address the challenges of the service
economy.

c r e la

on
ati
ic
un

de v

M a n a g em e n t

Hum

ct

Re sea rch

Based on that knowledge, Service Design can be seen as a hub that brings
together the experience, methods and tools from the various elds to employ
them in the specic development and innovation of services.

du

c l i en t

Throughout the Service Design process it is evident that these areas affects,
are part of and link into Service Design. Based on desk research, interviews
with Service Design experts and from analysing different examples, the areas
in the diagram give an overview of the most important elds related to Service
Design.

Pro

Int

Service Design connects a new prole of expertise with a multi-disciplinary

working model. It represents a new practise of work that utilises the best and
most suitable experience, tools and knowledge from the various backgrounds.
At the same time Service Design continues to work in co-operation with a pool
of experts.

Service Design is a multi-disciplinary process. That means that Service Design

integrates and links various elds of expertise. To understand this is important
for two reasons. Firstly, to appreciate the portfolio of expertise that Service
Design brings together. Secondly, to understand that these areas with related
expertise provide existing tools, knowledge, resources and experience. For
example some tools that are used in product market research can either be
used or adopted to be used specically for Service Design.

tions

Areas with related expertise

Branding is important to make sure that all elements of a company look and feel consistent and
are visually and sensually aligned with the brand.
Even though services require special treatment the
main competency driving the eld of branding is
similar to that of Service Design. On a detail level
therefore, the principles of corporate design, corporate fashion and corporate communication are
crucial for service design too. On a holistic level,
the thinking in the branding eld to recognise that
every Touchpoint with the brand is a communication opportunity needs to be employed to Service
Design also.

Products are often an essential part of services

and form together a hybrid product-service combination. Therefore understanding of the design
of products is important to develop and design
successful product-service hybrid concepts. But
even for services that do not include any product
components the principles and knowledge from
product design are important. To develop tangible
interfaces and to design the packaging for services
these principles can be employed. Product design
therefore is an important element within Service
Design but is also brought in as a eld in its
own right to cover product design elements of a

Psychology
As in many other elds and especially in various
design disciplines psychology plays an important
role. Given that services encounter and interact
with human beings this is particularly important
to Service Design. Psychology is important to
gain understanding of underlying drivers and
the demand for new services. It is also important
to understand the inuence that details of a
Service Design have on the overall perception. For
example understanding the psychology of the
perception of waiting is used in Service Design.
To develop ideas that provide clients information
how long they have to wait for example. Waiting
time is perceived shorter when this information is
provided. The application of general knowledge of
psychology is vast in Service Design and specialists can be important partners to develop specic
solutions or to evaluate different Service Design
concepts.

Interior (& exterior) design

Ethnography

Given that many services are performed and

consumed in set environments (e.g. airport,
shop, hospital, etc.) the design of spaces is an
important element of Service Design. It is not only
important that the atmosphere is in line with the
image and quality that the service offers, as well
certain details can improve the experience, make
a service more useful and desirable for clients and
more efcient and effective for the organisation.
Orientation and overview can be given in different ways and can be important for the service.
A space is not only full of Touchpoints that need
to be designed, it is the stage and setting for the
service performance. In conclusion, as interior and
exterior design works to set the tone and expectation of clients it needs to be incorporated into
Service Design.

This special way of research uses an anthropologists tool kit of methods and theories to observe
clients in their natural habitat. Ethnography
provides insights in cultural trends, attitudes and
lifestyle factors that inuence clients decisions
and behaviour. And as one can not isolate service
experiences from their life context, ethnography
provides the possibility to learn and test very close
to reality. Eric Arnould describes ethnography as
a way to get up close and personal with consumers. 1 It situates clients in their larger social and
cultural context and provides holistic understanding how products and services will resonate with
the clients daily life. Given that understanding
these issues is crucial to Service Design,
ethnography can play an important role in almost
any Service Design project.

Participatory design

Interaction design

The main concept of this new area of design is

to make the client part of the design process.
This way of approaching design is particularly
relevant to designing services. In Service Design it
is possible to use the knowledge, techniques and
methods from this area to create collaborative and
innovative Service Designs together with clients.
As the client is part of the delivery of the service
(production and consumption overlap in services)
the client can be part of designing the service also.
User Centred Design involves special methods
of research and design that enable the client to
contribute to the design process.

Examines the role of behaviours in physical and

virtual spaces as well as the convergence of physical and digital products and the way they interact
with human beings.

50

Service Design solution

Product design

project. Even though Service Design can integrate

product components and design product-service
concepts, if an important part of a new service
is a product, product design specialists would be
brought into the project to develop this device.
That could be for example a special water-resistant
device with a big interface for servicing technicians.

1 Eric Arnould. Professor of Marketing. University of Nebraska

This new eld works on designing interactions.

Especially in the case of software applications and
web-sites clients interact with a system through
an interface. Interaction design is about designing
a system that can be understood and used by clients in an easy way and fulls their expectations.
In Service Design the same principles are used to
design the interactions of clients with the interactive system service. Information architects work
on the systems and pathways that are provided for
clients to nd the information that they look for
and to offer them relevant information that they

51

Branding

Service Design

n Areas with related expertise

n Areas with related expertise

Interface design
This discipline is working on the design of machine
and product interfaces. Interface is the set of
devices that gives the user control and feedback.
Even a pair of scissors has an interface that
helps control the cut and gives feedback about
the thickness of the paper. In Interface design
usability has been the eld of extensive research
to ensure that all details of designed interfaces
are easy to understand and comfortable to use.
In Service Design there can be components that
require actual interface design such as computer
terminals. But also the overall concept of designing interfaces is used in Service Design and
applied to services.

This extends the concept of visualisation to all

other senses (hearing, tasting, smelling, touching,
moving, etc.). Sensualisation is used to explain
complex intangible concepts. It helps to envisage
future ideas mostly in visual and tangible ways.
In Service Design animations and lms can show
scenarios that highlight how a service would
work. Image montages can very simply create the
impression that certain Touchpoints exist and
how they work. That can be used to discuss and
develop detailed solutions of parts or the overall
service experience or as Visioning discussion base
to discuss what could be achieved in the future.
Sensualisation can help to develop Service Prototypes of different complexity and level of detail.

Market research
To nd out what kind of similar offers are already
on the market, to identify market gaps and to
know about trends market research is a very
important eld. Also benchmarking is important
to nd principles and offers that companies from
other elds provide. For any Service Design project
it is important to nd out about the context that
the service is going to live in.

Marketing
Marketing is often described as the techniques
that are used to attract and to persuade consumers. That means that marketing encourages
recipients of targeted communication messages
to purchase or use products or services. n

53

In any organisation a strategy is an elaborate and

systematic plan that species the way certain objectives should be achieved. For example Communication Strategy provides a plan that includes the
alignment of different communication channels.
The strategy would specify different phases and
emphasise certain tactics. Strategy is the overall
vision and the plan how to get there. according
to Dr. Wayne Fletcher, Head of Communication
Strategy at Carat International.1 In Service Design
strategy is a very important element to ensure
consistency and effective planning.

52

Service Design solution

Strategy

Sensualisation

Service Design

might be interested in. Service Design designs the

systems, pathways and interactions for services.
It therefore includes a variety of interfaces or
Touchpoints to interact with clients.

1 Conversation with Dr. Wayne Fletcher, London, 2005-06-07

n Areas with related expertise

Marketing is a huge eld that includes several
different areas. It has succeeded, for example in
the communication between organisations and
(groups of) clients. Mostly marketing is focused
on product-thinking and has experience in
communicating from an organisation perspective
towards clients. Even though Service Design is
based on the organisation-client-relationship and
manages communication and interaction in both
directions, marketing is still involved and elements of marketing are used in a new way.

Process management

Experience design

Summary

This represents the entire cycle of a new product

from concept through manufacturing including
design, engineering, materials selection, component selection, manufacturing process selection,
and documentation. Service Design extends the
principle of developing products to developing
services. In many companies services are developed by product development departments as
they are seen as the products of the company.
Often Service Design at times works together
with internal experts in companies that have been
involved in product development.

Experience Design is an approach to manage the

creation of successful client experiences. This
approach includes consideration and design in
all three spatial dimensions, over time, the ve
senses, interactivity as well as personal meaning
and the emotional context. Designed experiences can use any medium, including spatial /
environmental installations, print products,
hard products, services, broadcast images and
sounds, live performances and events, digital and
online media. To design service experiences this is
needed in many Service Design projects.

Service Design brings together a unique set of

expertise. The eld of Service Design is inuenced
and based on other elds. That means that Service
Design is a multidisciplinary team process.

Communication planning

Service Design
55

The consequence of the structure that Service

Design is based on is that every team member
needs to have a basic understanding of this
portfolio of related elds. For Service Design
therefore a new set of skills as well as tools and
methods is necessary. A very crucial consequence
is a new level of communication that is needed to
link the experience and knowledge of these elds
together. Integration and communication is the
glue that holds Service Design together.

Service Design solution

This area covers all means of providing

information and content to the public,
including TV, radio, Internet, papers, outdoor
and magazines. It plans how to communicate
important messages to key stakeholders of an
organization in the most effective way possible.
In Service Design planned communication is
important towards the client as well as internally
in the service providing organisation.

The margins of these related and linked elds are

rather blurred. Some of the described elds are
areas, some are labels and some are content. But
they establish an overview of this new eld and
support the understanding of the new by showing
the combination of existing and known areas.

54

Development and distribution processes in

manufacturing are managed in order to ensure
effectiveness, security and efciency. Process
management is planning and administering the
activities that are necessary to achieve the best
performance in a process and helps identify
opportunities for improving quality, operational
performance and ultimately client satisfaction. To
deliver services a range of providers and different
people have to work together. Process management is an important factor in the design and
implementation of services. Service Design uses
for example service blueprinting to design and
implement processes.

Product development

Service Design benets

56

Service Design solution

Service Design works across both the organisation and the client(s). Therefore Service Design
benets the organisation and the client at the
same time. The benets that it delivers to clients
have positive effect on organisations as happy
and satised clients are the ultimate goal of any
organisation.
Clients want to maximise the value they can gain
from a service or a product-service combination,
organisations want to increase their success for
example in being more effective, generate higher
prots, better reputation and in developing strong
brands.
The benets of Service Design are summarised
here from the perspective of an organisation. It is
organisations that need to get involved in Service
Design. The advantages for Clients again benet
the organisation as the client is a big measure in
the success formula of any organisation. Service
Design is rooted in client satisfaction.

1. True understanding of market needs

2. Higher value with the resources
available
3. Changes organisational culture
4. New perspectives on future
development
5. Higher effectiveness
6. Better efciency
7. Connects organisation and clients
8. Higher quality service experiences
as basis of success
9. Differentiation against competition
10. Brand afnity

Service Design

It is evident that the growing service sector has

an increasing signicance for our society and
economy. In many countries the service sector is
far less productive than it could be. At the same
time the quality of service that is available to
clients can be considered on average still very
poor. Service Design can address these challenges
and deliver a range of other benets.

Service Design can play a crucial part in the

success of any organisation and can deliver ten
drivers of change:

57

The paper so far has shown that Service Design is

addressing the specic needs of services. It has
shown what is unique about services and what
consequences this has on the design. It has shown
that Service Design is necessary but what are the
specic benets of Service Design?

n Service Design benets

58

1 Rummel, Carlo (1994): Designmanagement: Integration theoretischer

Konzepte und praktischer Fallbeispiele. Deutscher Universitts Verlag.
Wiesbaden.

Service Design helps organisations to utilise their

resources better and more protably. That is
delivered through different methods that Service
Design brings in. One example is that services
that are already provided can be made tangible.
That could be a sign that points to the clean oor
in stating No rubbish we clean for you. Another
example is Line of Balance that can be used to
make sure that all stages of the service process
work in sequence and take the same length of
time. That is very important if technology such
as scanners or experts such as doctors need to be
utilised more protably. Clients benet from less
waiting time and a better service experience.
Service Design benets to organisations in making service businesses more protable (sell more).
In the example of an airport, saving check-in time
obviously gives clients more time to shop in the
airport. The real big difference can be made in
getting those clients quicker and easier to the
plane, get more planes through the airport and
therefore more people to shop in the airport. It
can be assumed that on average people spend not
that much more money in ten more minutes. If
more people spend some time in the airport they
will spend more money in total.

3. Changes organisational culture

For any organisation to offer successful services
means that a lot of different people need to
work together. Service Design integrates people
from several levels of the organisation in the
design process. That not only offers the best
knowledge and experience across the organisation
to be utilised in the project. Also it ensures that
everybody is on board and supportive to make
changes happen. That is crucial to the delivery of
new services.
In most organisations still it is the least experienced and least trained people that have the most
client contact. The more senior people are the
less they are in direct contact with clients and the
actual delivery of services.1
In call centres for example calls are generally
handled by staff with basic experience. Only after
a client has called a few times or cannot be helped
the client is passed on to experienced members of
staff.2
Only if the organisation has a service minded
culture and everybody treats clients as important
individuals and guests the service experience
can be excellent. Often the atmosphere and
the services that are provided within a service
organisation are good indicators of a service
culture. Service Design changes the organisational
culture by including people in the project and by
providing maps and tangible explanation that help
everybody to understand, share and contribute to
the Service Design.

1 Conversation with Birgit Mager, Cologne

2 Conversation with research specialist Phil Gullen, London
3 Mager, Birgit: Exhibition guide. Wanderausstellung. Service ein Produkt.

4. New perspectives of future

development
Designing services starts with the development of
client oriented strategies. It takes into consideration the market, client needs as well as economic
and ecological factors and the possibilities of
technologies.
Service Design will ensure that new services that
reach the market will be competitive, safe, satisfy
clients and be protable. Furthermore, as markets
change, continuing design supports the future
success of organisations.
Understanding true market and client needs
gives organisations the opportunity to offer new
successful services. Instead of reacting to new
offers of competitors it is possible to lead the
market through Service Design. For example the
Inconvenience Analysis highlights the potential for
new services in creating value by making clients
lives more convenient. Given that services do not
need necessarily long development, engineering,
production or testing times, they can be improved
far more quickly than products.
In thinking beyond products, organisations can
utilise Service Design to nd new use for existing
knowledge, experience, resources and networks.
A German plumbing company for example used
the access they had to various data about the
houses they worked in. They offer a new service
that bundles their knowledge to a database that
contains data about the house and gives all
building companies and the house owner access to
data and plans.3

Service Design

Service Design solution

Traditionally suppliers orient themselves on the

market which means that they offer only as much
quality as necessary. In case of products the client
can estimate the real value of usage only in the
actual consumption after the product has been
already bought. The client therefore has to rely
on aesthetic or brand promises that the product
or its marketing give.1 Service Design delivers
on methods that help organisations understand
true market needs. Given that clients are part of
the service delivery they can be part of the design
process as well. The value of a service is estimated
by clients mostly whilst they are using the service.
The quality needs to be treated differently with
services than it used to be with products. Organisations are facing the challenge to offer service
quality on an individual ongoing basis. Service
Design helps to manage that.

2. Higher value with the resources

available

59

1. True understanding of market needs

n Service Design benets

5. Higher effectiveness

6. Better efciency

7. Connects organisation and clients

Service Design manages the achievement of

intended results. The objectives that an organisation sets are based on understanding the
market and client needs as well as the resources
and constraints inside the organisation. The
objectives are specied and implemented in the
service strategy and specication documents.
Through the iteration of testing, evaluation and
development Service Design ensures effectiveness throughout the process. For example service
prototypes are used to ensure that a solution is
effective and delivers against the strategy. The
connection to real client needs makes sure that
the service provided is the service that satises
clients. Service Design ensures that the objectives
of the organisations are met.

Service Design reduces costs of development, support, training, documentation and maintenance,
shortens the development time and improves
marketability. For any organisation it is crucial to
not waste resources and to make the most out
of what is available. That sometimes contradicts
with providing quality service experiences. Service
Design balances the effort to develop and provide
services with the maximum impact and the best
experience possible. Often client segmentation
can be used to ensure the appropriate level of
service quality. Some passengers need the shuttle
from the parking to check-in to be quick and
frequent and are happy to pay for this service
feature. Other passengers have time and would
prefer a cheaper service offer. A bigger bus that
goes every half-hour could be combined with
small shuttle cars that can leave immediately.

Good service leads to satised, purchasing as well

as returning clients. Service Design raises client
satisfaction in providing the alignment of all
Touchpoints and providing quality service experiences. It manages expectations in aligning the
interface of the service. It ensures that feedback
from clients is used to constantly improve the design of the service. Bad service on the other hand,
leads to angry clients and a loss in sales. Service
Design manages a very special relationship.

60

Like a personal relationship between people not

with the rst problem the relationship will be at
risk. But it is crucial that the other side recognises
the problem and does something about it. As in
any relationship once the partner is not satised
and chooses to use another service it is going to
be very difcult to re-establish the relationship.
There is not only a big opportunity in maintaining
satised clients. If clients trust one service and
are satised they usually spend more time and
purchase more. In the future trust and time are
most likely going to be even more important than
purchase.

Service Design

Service Design solution

Service Design ensures that the resources available can be used to the full.

Products and entertainment can be sold as one

of the experiences. A service needs to full client
expectations and needs on an ongoing basis.

61

The way sensualisation can be used in Service

Design helps to establish a new level of communication inside the organisation and with clients.
It provides the possibility for experts that speak
different specialist languages to communicate
about one future concept and establish shared
understanding. For example the tools of Visioning enable an organisation to talk about future
possibilities from a future standpoint. If a short
lm shows how a service would work in the future
it can be discussed as a specic vision, including
what the advantages and further possibilities
would be. From that standpoint it can be worked
back to work out how to get there. All hurdles like
but we dont have the legal possibilities to do
that can be overcome and if the concept is good
they can be solved together as everybody is on the
same page.

n Service Design benets

62

Service Design represents clients in different ways

all along the process. Personas are one tool that
is used to establish research based archetypes
that represent certain types of clients. The design
can then be based on those clients proles to
make sure the service is going to strengthen this
relationship. From the clients perspective Service
Design provides a consistent service and brand
image and experience.
A strong relationship between organisations and
their clients is a crucial factor of success. Service
Design can help to build that relationship.

Even though services are intangible and virtual

Service Design creates desirability. Every detail of
the overall presentation of a service works as a
part in setting expectation and to shape an experience that is desirable.
In service quality there are different levels of quality that are appropriate. Service Design is facing
this by making sure that the clients expectations are monitored and fullled. All details are
designed in a way that is in line with the specic
service and adopt to individual needs as much as
possible.
Often service quality means that clients are in
control and get to choose. It is not always the
waiting time that needs to be cut on all cost.
Often it is enough to inform clients about the
reason and the waiting time that is left.

9. Differentiation against competition

10. Brand afnity

As products and also services are becoming

increasingly commoditised, designing a desirable
experience becomes the competitive advantage
and source of better margins. Kevin Gavaghan

Bad service causes a bad client experience. A bad

client experience inuences the experience of the
brand. Clients are more satised when a system
offers relevant services that match their needs
and expectations.

Service Design can be used as a key differentiator

against competition. The idea for services can be
the same and still the experience can be designed
to be very different. Often it is the little things
that make the big difference. Service Design does
not only help to craft this differentiation at the
same time it develops means to communicate the
difference in the right way to clients. Car-sharing
is a concept that exists in many cities. Details
such as naming cars or providing community rules
and a thought through web-site can make all the
difference.

A majority of clients are loyal only to a few service

brands and buy repeatedly these services.

Quality service experience gives clients the feeling

that somebody is thinking about them, imagining
to be in their shoes and provides a service for
them.
Service Design delivers business value in enhancing the clients experience. The service strategy
aligns all details and delivers a consistent quality
experience that only surprises if it is going beyond
expectation.
Service Design

Service Design solution

Often clients do not know what they want yet.

Once they can try a new service they might appreciate a side of this service that was underestimated by the organisation. Text messaging is one
example of a new service that was underestimated
and just tried out. We all know how successful it
is today.

8. Higher quality service experiences

as basis of success

63

Service Design identies new areas to offer

services and to extend the service. It therefore
represents the potential to convince and attract
new clients. Designing services always integrates
clients in the design process. That means that the
new level of relationship manifests itself also in
the way the design works. The service is not only
judged by clients in questionnaires. Constant testing of new ideas and solutions and the evaluation
of success enables clients to experience what they
could not imagine useful.

65

64

Service Design

Service Design solution | Service Design evolution

SERVICE DESIGN
EVOLUTION

Service Design to date

A well designed service can

provide great competitive
advantage for a business, even
if that business isnt a service
provider.

The basic concept of Service Design is the recognition that Services have quality problems which
can be addressed with the same principles of
design that are used to improve products. There
have been papers and books on Service Innovation
and Service Marketing that looked at the innovation, improvement and communication from an
organisations perspective. However, the paper
that is recognised to have rst brought together
the terms Service and Design is Designing Services
that Deliver from G. Lynn Shostack in the Harvard
Business Review in 19841. This paper introduces
the Blueprinting tool to design services. Later, Gill
and Bill Hollins included a Design-Management
perspective on Service Design in the book Total
Design in 1991.
In that same year, 1991, Michael Erlhoff and Birgit
Mager established Service Design as one of the
elds of education and research in the model
design school KISD at the University of Applied
Sciences Cologne, Germany. The Kln International
School of Design2 was the rst university worldwide that offered Service Design education.

In 1995 Birgit Mager became the rst professor of

Service Design and her lectures, publications and
projects have continuously supported the recognition of the immaterial aspects of design.3
Birgit Mager worked on several publications that
have been published in German. Some elements
of those were included in Service Design a Review
which was published in English for the tenth
anniversary of Service Design in Germany. Mager
has been working on university and consultancy
projects with Siemens, Provinzial and SwissComMobile as well as massive research projects for the
German Ministry of Science Research.
In England Live|Work4 launched a Service Design
consultancy in 2001. From a pre-dominantely
Interaction-Design background they work for
clients such as Orange, Telecom Italia, BBC and
Sony Ericsson.
The Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea, Italy has
set up a department that researches and develops
service interaction5. The Institue is moving to
the new premises of the Domus Academy in Milan
as Domus has made Service Design part of their
education too.
Since 2002 the international design consultancy
IDEO6 has included Service Design in their offering. Fran Samalionis is Head of Service Design. For
IDEO the move into services was a progression
after they decided to not only design products but
client experiences. IDEO offers their clients help in
innovating and improving the design of experiences across products, services and spaces.

There is an urgent need for

professional exchange in order
to better and faster develop the
eld of Service Design.
Birgit Mager (Co-founder of the Service Design Network)

The London based consultancy Spirit of Creation7

was asked to develop a strategy to help the
economic development of the North East region
of England. They successfully pitched the concept
of a Service Design education centre for managers
and together with a network of 200 experts they
have developed the concept and the business plan
for a Service Design education centre.
In the summer of 2004 Spirit of Creation and Birgit
Mager established the Service Design Network8.
A growing international network of academics,
practitioners and businesses establish codes of
conduct for the theories, methods and practices
of Service Design.
A committee including Bill Hollins from the
University of Westminster and Lavrans Lvlie from
Live|Work are currently working on a paper for
British Standards that gives a recommendation on
the denition of Service Design.

67

66

Service Design solution | Service Design evolution

http://design-council.net

Today it is easy to recognise the vast growth of

the service sector. However, even though Service
Design is considered a new fast growing eld,
forward thinking experts did recognised and
established its principles over ten years ago.

Service Design

Its only recently been recognised that services as much as

products have to be designed.
[...]

1 Shostack, G. Lynn (1984): Designing Services That

Deliver. Harvard Business Review.
2 The Kln International School of Design (KISD) used to
be called Fachbereich Design (FB07) at the time
http://kisd.de

3 http://service-design.de

7 http://spiritofcreation.com

4 http://livework.co.uk

8 http://servicedesignnetwork.org/

5 http://interaction-ivrea.it
6 http://ideo.com

Service Design players

Orientation
Academic

To visualise the current ecology of players in the Service Design eld, two
different approaches have been chosen.
University of Westminster

KISD*

Carnegie Mellon Univ.*

Domus*
DSchool

68

Business

Design

Live|Work*

It is worth noting that the mind-map visualises a personal perspective and

is not absolute. However, nonetheless it gives an overview of one model of
perception of the current Service Design industry. For this paper the overview
also represents the network of resources and interview-partners.
Service-Design Gbr*

IDEO*

Service Design ecology matrix

Key institutinons that are involved in Service Design
* Member of the Service Design Network

In Service Design a Service Ecology Map is the visualisation of a system of actors

that form a service and the relationships between them. A Service Ecology Map
represents a systemic view of a service and the context it will operate in.

Spirit of Creation*

Commercial

[ model seven ]

The second approach is a mind map of the current Service Design ecology
(please see model eight on the following pages). Given the development of the
Service Design Network the natural differentiator of the different player is their
geographical origin. The mind map shows different institutions and companies
connected to the countries that they are currently most representative of.

Service Design

Service Design solution | Service Design evolution

Background

Ivrea Institute*

69

Politecnico di Milano*

Some key institutions that are involved in Service Design have been mapped
in a matrix against their orientation and background (please see model seven).
The matrix shows the current ecology as either more academic or commercially
oriented. Furthermore, it highlights that some institutions have more of a
classic design and others a business background. There are other companies
and institutions involved in improving and innovating services, some of which
might have a different background than design and business but they have not
been mapped here. This matrix is not scientic or absolute, however it gives a
helpful overview and understanding of the current ecology and background of
the institutions considered throughout this paper.

[ model eight ]

Service Design mind map

Michael Erlhoff
Elena Pacenti

Astrid Van der Auwera

Daniela Sangiorgi

Birgit Mager

Ezio Manzini
KISD

Domus
Politecnico di Milano
Simona Maschi

Stefan Moritz

Italy

Interaction Design Institute Ivrea

Germany

Stefan Holmlid

Service Design

Linkpings University

Sean Blair

Kevin Gavaghan

Vijay Kumar

US

Illinois Institute of Technology

Spirit of Creation

UK

University of Westminster

Carnegy Mellon Univ.

Live|Work

Shelley Evenson
RSA

British Standards

Chris Downs

Fran Samalionis

Bill Hollins

Marc Jones
Lavrans Lvlie

Service Design competition

71

Service Design

Design Council

IDEO

70

Service Design solution | Service Design evolution

Sweden

The Service Design Network

The international pool of Service Design experts
are joining forces. The international Service Design
Network is a network of academic and commercial
institutions.
The network initiated by Spirit of Creation, Birgit
Mager and others was founded last Summer in
London.

Further meetings took place in Chicago in the end

of 2004 and in Cologne in the beginning of 2005.
These meetings included members from IDEO,
Carnegie Mellon University, Linkoping University,
Domus Academy, University of the Arts London and
Politecnico di Milano to state but a few.

http://servicedesignnetwork.org

Service Design

The Service Design Network is a growing international panel of universities, research centres and
design studios. All of them are working on, and
have experience in, Service Design. They all are
passionate about developing and strengthening
the knowledge and expertise in this new eld.

73

72

Service Design solution | Service Design evolution

It developed through a panel of experts discussing

the speed and momentum of the service economy
growth, the attractiveness of a framework to help
the more rapid and assured growth of the new
community of practice, and the benets to all of
establishing a Service Design Network.

At some time in the future,

the Service Design Network
may consider providing access
to an innovative worldwide
network for the wider
dissemination and
exploitation of their
know-how and their
Intellectual Property.

Examples of outstanding services

Service

Activities related to the:

Wholesale and retail trade

Sale of goods

Transportation and warehousing Distribution of goods

Information

Finance and insurance

Facilitation of nancial transactions, including those related to risk

management
Temporary transfer of property, and the temporary or denitive
transfer of real estate

Professional, scientic and

technical

Provision of specialised, generally knowledge based, expertise

(e.g. legal, accountancy and engineering)

Management of companies and

enterprises

Management of companies and enterprises, such as holding

companies

Administrative and support, and Day-to-day support of other organisations (e.g. clerical assistance
waste management
agencies, travel agencies and personnel rms)
Education

In model nine on the left a general list of services has been provided. It
shows the breadth of services. However, only some companies pay special
attention to the services they provide to make them truly outstanding.
To show the variety of possible contributions the following examples highlight details and the difference that elements of Service Design can make.
A few short case studies were chosen in order to give an insight in the broad
range of Service Design contributions.
The case studies show that research, development, improvement and innovation is part of businesses reality. However, the examples show elements
of Service Design and are not all achieved in a systematic way. Not in all of
the examples the design is an ongoing activity.
Therefore the following case studies help to understand some of the elements that Service Design integrates into a systemic ongoing practise.

Provision of instruction and training (e.g. schools and specialised

training centres)

Provision of entertainment in a broad sense (e.g. museums, opera,

theatre, sports and gambling establishments)

Accommodation and food

services

Provision of lodging, or the provision of meals, snacks or beverages

Public administration

Governing or administration of public entities and programmes

Other

Provision of personal services, repair and maintenance activities,

professional societies, religious institutions, etc.

75

Arts, entertainment and

recreation

Service Design

Heath care and social assistance Provision of health care and social assistance (e.g. doctors, hospitals and clinics)

74

Service Design solution | Service Design evolution

Real estate, rental and leasing

Gathering and dissemination of written, audio or visual information, including lms and records

To illustrate how Service Design can contribute to the success of an organisation some example projects and case studies have been collected and are
presented on the following pages.

[ model nine ]

List of services Source: Based on US Bureau of Census, 1999.

Virgin door to door service

Orange future experience strategies

Web tracking of packages

Bank without branches

Even though it is not part of an holistic programme Virgin Atlantic uses the Service Design
concept of the Extended-Client-Journey. Travelling
Upper Class with Virgin Atlantic the service begins
from the moment clients leave their home or
ofce.

New technologies often drives businesses strategies while clients experiences seldom do. The
London based group Live|Work worked on a project
for the Orange Innovation team which translated
assumptions by the business to direct impacts on
the future customer experience.

In 1994 Federal Express launched a service that

tracks packages online. It allows the 900,000
packages that go through their system each
month to be tracked at will via the internet.

Virgin offer to arrange for complimentary chauffeur driven car service to collect their clients and
their baggage from work or from home.

A range of artefacts were developed that projected

the assumptions into future client experiences.
The project helped to uncover differences in
strategic outlook within the business with reality.
The artefacts that the team developed included
magazine articles, packaging, web sites, newspaper advertisements, letters and television news
item. These acted as tangible evidence of future
service Touchpoints, and were used as discussion
points and provocations for the innovations team.

First Direct created a revolutionary banking service

launched in October 1989. An internal project at
Midland Bank investigated what the bank could
do to react to a complex, deregulated environment and increasing competition. Many surveys,
benchmarking and research of other banks helped
the team to identify crucial insights where identied and through their research Project Raincloud
found that a lot of customers did not like to come
in to the bank.

> More information:

http://virgin-atlantic.com

> More information:

http://livework.co.uk
http://orange.com

This system saves FedEx $4million per year in

answering telephone queries. This showcases
how an extension of a service through innovative
design can both save money and improve the
client experience.
> More information:
http://fedex.com

The concept created was a 24/7 bank without

branches. Telephones were identied as a low
cost and exible delivery system to deliver the
new service. When launched, phonelines opened
at midnight to make the point that this bank is
available at all times. Today First Direct has more
than one million clients.
First Direct had to establish a totally new customer
centric culture. One of the ways they did that was
by hiring people for the call centres that had backgrounds such as nurses, remen and teachers.
> More information:
http://rstdirect.com

77

Service Design

The driver checks in the passenger on the way

and drops them off for a special high speed walk
through customs. The baggage is taken care of by
the driver. After a relaxed and enjoyable wait in
the lounge and high quality in-ight service the
passenger is met by his luggage and a car waiting outside the airport to take him or her to the
desired location.

When a package is sent clients are automatically

emailed to inform them of the packages transit
details. The tracking number supplied enables
the package to be tracked via the web whenever
required.

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Service Design solution | Service Design evolution

n Examples of outstanding services

C http://sevenstarsandstripes.com/content/airline/
virginatlantic/VirginAtlantic-01.jpg
9 http//virgin-atlantic.com, Conversation with a passenger

C http://livework.co.uk

C http://unbecominglevity.blogharbor.com/pix/fedex_tracking.gif

C http://wolff-olins.com/rstdirect.htm

9 http://livework.co.uk

9 http://designcouncil.org.uk

9 Conversation with Kevin Gavaghan

http://rstdirect.com

n Examples of outstanding services

AT&T treasure hunt

Lufthansa scenarios

From ownership to usage

Airport express train

For the project Intercont.innovation a

multidisciplinary team led by Birgit Mager
developed innovative service concepts for the
Lufthansa airline.

The Service Design consultancy Live|Work provides

ongoing support to the car-sharing network Streetcar in London . Streetcars eet of cars are located
around London, bookable online or over the phone
and accessed with a special card and PIN. Clients
pay by the hour and receive a monthly bill.

The British Airport Authority is responsible for the

client experience at Heathrow Airport in London.
The Design Director Raymond Turner and his
team used elements of Service Design to launch
the Heathrow Express service. The new rail link
between Heathrow Airport and central London was
introduced in 1999.

The exercise was designed to teach the team that

knows a lot about mobile applications about
experiencing the experience. Based on ndings
they then developed together with IDEO three
guiding principles: Time-slice (think less about
where you are but when you are), Relevancy
(Whats the question in a persons mind at any
given time, whats their context), Social (Mobile
communication is inherently social so we need to
empower the social part for it to be compelling).
These have since become essential for the further
development of AT&T services.

Initially the service procedures, behaviours,

products and technology have been thoroughly
analysed. Based on principles of drama different
service worlds have been designed and innovative
scenarios developed.
Clustered into different idea pools the scenarios
helped bring the recommendations and ideas to
life. This completely new format included future
products, stage-designs, role scripts, props and
technologies and more. The visionary Service
Design scenarios developed have been integrated
into Lufthansas corporate direction, strategy and
has set triggers for the airlines service offering.
Scenarios developed have been supplied to
Lufthansa in a book that introduces the features in
a story format like a theatre play in different acts.
Its emphasis lies on the clients perspective.

Live|Work provides input as the service grows an

ongoing practice of service innovation and design
throughout the life of the service. The Service
Designers are providing an ongoing analysis of
the clients experience of the service, reporting
usability, accessibility and satisfaction from the
clients perspective.
For Streetcar they design the service experience on
an ongoing basis. A special blueprint is used as a
live, operational document that evolves through
the incremental improvement and scaling of the
service.

The service concept is based on a quick 15 minute

journey. The research showed overwhelmingly
that customers were prepared to pay a high price
for saving time and having a more luxury experience. This is a very good example that market
research and understanding client requirements
can be key drivers for Service Design. The insight
that there is an existing segment of clients that
is able and willing to pay a high price has made a
service possible that nobody would have thought
is feasible.

New service processes are prototyped with real

clients to improve them and to solve potential
problems.

The Heathrow Express is now used by almost

20,000 people every day. After the new service has
proven to be successful, many European cities are
introducing very similar services.

> More information:

http://lufthansa.com

> More information:

http://streetcar.co.uk
http://livework.co.uk

> More information:

http://heathrowexpress.com

C http://rsa-design.org

C http://konzern.lufthansa.com

9 Presentation at RSA-Design Service Design seminar. October 2004

http://rsa-design.org

9 Conversation with Birgit Mager

C Presentation at RSA-Design Service Design seminar. October 2004

http://rsa-design.org

It is essential to involve experiences in the Service

Design process.
> More information:
http://ideo.com

79

Service Design

IDEO worked with their client AT&T in San

Francisco to stage an analogy experience. IDEO
prepared a set of different tasks connected to
nding out about movies. The AT&T people found
that data services around movies can only answer
two questions on a phone: 1. What is happening at
a particular movie theatre and 2. Where can I nd
this particular lm. For pretty much every other
question it is quicker to get a copy of TimeOut.

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Service Design solution | Service Design evolution

9 http://rsa-design.org; http://livework.co.uk; http://streetcar.co.uk

C http://o-keating.com/hsr/gb_lhe_1.jpg
9 http://designcouncil.org.uk

Juniper redesigning a bank

Credit card voting

Community service

The Oyster card

The Juniper banking service has been redesigned

by IDEO. One of the ndings that IDEOs research
has unveiled is that people keep their bills in
stacks somewhere in a shelf. They then pay bills
when the stack falls over. That is the reminder that
it is time to pay the bills.

Black & White is a new concept that allows clients

to vote for the service experience with their credit
card.

The German student project Wir Hier shows very

impressively how Service Design can be applied for
social and society aspects too. For the RSA Design
Directions competition the students were asked to
identify a contradiction, and then design a service
that helps people better deal with that contradiction (by nature contradictions cant be solved) and
designed ways to communicate this new service.

The Oyster card was introduced by London

Transport at the end of 2003. It is a travel pass that
makes it easier, more comfortable and quicker to
enter and exit the tube or to board a bus.

> More information:

http://ideo.com

Black & White isnt in the credit card business;

its in the business of empowering consumers, of
giving them voice. say Richard Monaghan and
Amanda Nicholls who developed the new concept.
Black & White is among the rst new business
ideas welcomed onto the Creative Pioneer Programme in 2004 by Nesta1, the organisation that
invests in UK creativity and innovation.
> More information:
http://nesta.org.uk

Wir Hier has won the competition in the new

Service Design category. The service concept deals
with the fact that we only appreciate what we
have when we lose it. The concept covers different
stages including awareness, changing relationships, creating community and continuity. In a
magazine that is dated from 2006 the students
show how this service would work and how it
would affect life from a future point of view.
> More information:
http://rsa-design.org
http://wir-hier.org

The Oyster card can be used across the whole bus

and tube network in London. It is possible to load
either period tickets (e.g. for one month) or
pre-paid money on an virtual account. The linked
reference to the account works through a RFID
chip of the card. People generally dislike queuing
and the Oyster card addresses that problem.
A research project at the University of Westminster
is currently analysing the amount of time that is
saved through the Oyster card. The card is a great
example of how a service can be made tangible.
For London Transport clients the Oyster card is
literally a service Touchpoint it is a symbol of their
freedom and the innovative Service Design.
> More information:
http://t.co.uk
http://oystercard.com

81

Service Design

The bill cycle is usually two weeks. Based on the

research IDEO had identied the latent behaviour
and habit of collecting bills. They developed a
system as part of the Juniper service that gently
reminds clients to pay their bills.

The concept is based on the idea that clients

get two credit cards, one black, one white. With
paying with either card they have a very subtle
but effective way of leaving the message that
they had an excellent or disappointing service
experience. Every time clients pay for something
they vote.

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Service Design solution | Service Design evolution

n Examples of outstanding services

C http://ideo.com/portfolio/

1 The National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts

C http://wir-hier.org

C http://oystercard.com/ press_3.php

9 Presentation at the RSA-Design Service Design seminar.

October 2004. http://rsa-design.org

C http://pro.corbis.com

9 http://rsa-design.org
http://wir-hier.org

9 http://oystercard.com

http://ideo.com/portfolio/

9 http://nesta.org.uk

83

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Service Design

Service Design solution | Service Design reality

SERVICE DESIGN
REALITY

Who is designing services now

Service Knowledge

Service Design

The University of Westminster in London has undertaken a research project

to investigate how services are designed and managed in the service sector.
Questionnaires were sent to managers that are operating in the service sector in London. The purpose of the questionnaire was to determine aspects
of design management within companies that operate in the service sector.
The analysed companies are in the areas transport, charities, health, banking, insurance, public and private services. n

85

So far, I looked at our

services with what you
would call common sense,
I never thought of myself
as a designer.

One example of a service organisation that was not aware of the fact that
they design services was the Finnish airline Finnair. In a 2003 research
project within the Strategic Design department of UIAH in Helsinki the design
process at the airline was investigated.1 Finnair develops their services
between the product development and the research department. Until they
were approached about the UIAH research it had never occured to them that
the products that they developed are actually services. Finnair is working
with an interactive service guideline system. That means that they conduct
training sessions where clients are represented in interview videos, they
conduct prototyping sessions on, for example, the experience of their food.
Different channels of client feedback are used as the basis for improving
services. The system is very reactive and relies on client complaints or
suggestions to stimulate and direct change. Even though the team was still
working with product thinking a lot of the methods and tools of Service
Design have been used.

84

Service Design solution | Service Design reality

A majority of companies in our economy are involved in services. And

even though Service Design is a new eld that does not mean that these
companies have never thought about their clients or the services that they
provide. So how have these practitioners been designing services so far?

1 Moritz, Stefan et. al. (2003): Presentation: Design in Organisations

Product or Service Development. UIAH. Helsinki.

In manufacturing the most costly part of the process is tooling up for

manufacture. That typically takes about half of the total design cost. With
service design there are currently no gures available for the cost of the
various stages of the process. This is partly due to the fact, as previously
stated, that most people in the service sector do not consider themselves
to be designing. Therefore, they are not able to identify the costs of the
various stages of the process. Although no gures exist, and although there
is great variation between types of services, it can be estimated that the
latter stages of the process are the most expensive. Rather than tooling up
for manufacture in services costs are likely to come from implementation.

48% percent of the companies have not seen a specication for the development of a new services in the past seven years. Of those who have, in only 16%
of the companies did this specication appear to be adequate.

From these ndings it can be concluded that services are not always understood to the full. Design is not known as a possible solution. Therefore
Service Design has a long way to go to be integrated in these organisations.
It seems that understanding, recognition and acknowledgement of Service
Design is still the biggest barrier to success.

What the research did show though is that the few companies that did appear
to be effective (about 16%) were very good. This was further shown in the fact
that 16% generated greater than 30% of their turnover from services developed
in the past three years. Unlike manufacturing organisations, in service design
specications (the controlling documents) tend not to be written. As a result,
such companies are not in control of their design function.

Service Design

Surprisingly, more than half of those questioned from the service sector didnt
know what design was. Slightly more than half knew what innovation was.
It was found that most managers are operating at a very basic level and as
such, are not in control of the future of their organisations. says Bill Hollins.
One third of the companies questioned do not have a strategy document and
only one fth have a written process for the delivery of new services. 48% do
no research new services prior to their development. As a source of new ideas
several stated that they copy from their competition or from market leaders.
Quite a few companies seek ideas only from inside, such as ideas from directors, senior managers and suggestion boxes.

87

86

Service Design solution | Service Design reality

n Who is designing services now

University of Westminster (2003): London Aiga Experience Design. Design

Council. London.
Hollins, Bill (2003): How Are You Managing Your New Services? Colombo.
Hollins, Bill; Blackman, Carol & Shinkins, Sadie: Research into Design Management in the Service Sector. University of Westminster. London.

Workshop with practitioners

Introduction

Agenda

Newcastle, April 2005. A two day Service Design

workshop was prepared and co-conducted with
Sean Blair of London based Spirit of Creation. The
opportunity arose from Business Link1 commissioning the workshop in order to offer Service
Design to innovative UK businesses. Also it was
intended to use the workshop to develop concepts
for business support services.

The two day Service Design workshop was structured in to three parts. A half day introductory
course on Service Design, an exercise project to go
through the four phases of the Spirit of Creation
DGSE2 process and a half day with reection and
exercises to evaluate how Service Design can be
useful for each of the participants businesses.
The introduction to Service Design had a business
school feel to it and used a case study of Service
Design at the First Direct Bank as a framework. The
DGSE phases were prototypically used to develop
a new Business Support Service and familiarise the
participants with this process.

The people that attended the workshop are

considered part of the target group for this
work they are all practitioners in organisations
involved in services. The preparation of the
workshop was therefore interesting and relevant,
and learnings from Seans experience valuable
input for the paper as a whole.

WORKSHOP AGENDA
Pre-reading (First Direct case study)

Day one

Service Design introduction

Lunch
Discovery (exercises)
Generation (Open Space Technology)

89

Synthesis (discussions)
Enterprise (business plan)
Lunch
Discovery, Generation, Synthesis &
Enterprise for every participants
organisation

Service Design

Day two

88

Service Design solution | Service Design reality

Spirit of Creation has developed the concept of

the Design Innovation Education Centre and so the
methodology of the workshop was based on the
experience of the partners, as well as work done
by them in co-operation with 200 specialists from
around the globe.

1 Business Link is a business support, advice and information service

with local presence across England, managed by business people for
business people. It is uniquely placed to identify business support
services from across the government, voluntary and private sectors.
http://businesslink.gov.uk
2 Spirit of Creaton DGSE process
Discovery, Generation, Synthesis & Enterprise

n Workshop with practitioners

Participants

What was tested?

The workshop was attended by fteen people that

are involved with or want to be involved in, the
design of new or existing services. Most of them
from a business background. They ranged from
architects, technology providers, a call centre CEO
to representatives from Serco (one of the largest
service organisations in the world).

The tools that were tested in the workshop

included different elements linked together.
As underlying structure the four Spirit of Creation phases Discovery, Generation, Synthesis &
Enterprise were used.
The following tools were developed and tested:
1. Service Phase Cards

90

3. Service Wallchart
4. Service Grid Cards
5. Character Proles
6. Service Method Cards

Goal for this work

Challenge

The opportunity of this workshop for this work

was to talk to, observe and work with practitioners. It was helpful to further understand the
dynamics of teamwork in Service Design projects.
At the same time it was a possibility to test tool
prototypes, learn how the tools work and to
collect feedback. It offered, besides insights in the
project environment of business practitioners,
a reality check for concept and practical applications. As for the content of the workshop it gave
many insights into the requirements of business
support services and innovative service ideas.

Given that Spirit of Creation was commissioned to

run the workshop, all material is branded Spirit of
Creation. The DGSE model was used throughout
all materials for consistency. The challenge was
to prepare a workshop that brings the essence
of Service Design across and to offer hands on
practical learning for business in only two days.
Everything needed to be thought through in detail
to ensure success. That meant that the preparation functioned as an actual prototype ensuring
that the workshop had a quality worthy of a valid
end result. It was challenging to face unknown
people from different backgrounds and to
immerse ourselves in the normal external factors
that such a workshop situation will inevitably
present.

Service Design

Service Design solution | Service Design reality

The main goal of the workshop was to give

practitioners an overview and insight into
Service Design and the potential of it for their
business. Simultaneously, the team developed a
concept for a business support service useful for
Business Link who sponsored the workshop.

2. Service Exercises

91

General workshop goal

The preparation

92

It was agreed that a useful tool for the participants would be a summary card for each of the
four phases with practical guidelines to excellence. A grid system was developed that would
help give the DGSE process a tangible interface. It
consisted of a big wall chart and cards that can be
stuck on the chart in the different phases.

Personal expectations

The cards prepared took much more time to

complete and write in a way that can be easily
understood than initally anticipated. Whilst
preparing the cards it became clear that the cards
that had already been given a lot of time and energy were probably not going to be that important
to the workshop given the fact that it would be
facilitated anyway. In addition, for the system
Wallchart, Grid Cards and activity integration still
needed a lot of ne tuning to work safely in the
workshop.

The Method Cards tool was my main focus before

the preparation of the workshop. But I soon
realised that they were to become something
like place holders as we were going to be there to
explain everything anyway. I was aware that the
Wallchart grid system would be a helpful platform
to share and produce an overview, and ideally I
would have liked to have more exibility with
the space for each phase. I was imagining that
the participants would take a mental picture of
the Wallchart home with them and expected the
Method Cards to be questioned on their practical
use.

In the end the Method Cards that had originally

been the focus were not used in the workshop,
while the Wallchart system initially not really
acknowledged as a tool became the main focus.
It is therefore fair to say that during the preparation the view and approach to tools changed and
evolved.

All conversations and the work with Sean Blair and

Spirit of Creation has been very interesting for the
further development of this paper.

Service Design

Service Design solution | Service Design reality

Initially, a wide range of tools, methods and

techniques were reviewed and grouped into six
clusters. Once the agenda and the structure of the
workshop was agreed with Sean Blair and Simon
Haslam, tool concepts that could be tested were
developed: Inconvenience Analysis, Service Ecology
Map, Character Prole Modules and Visioning.

Learning

93

The workshop created an opporunity to develop functional tools of an appropriate quality.

Envisioning the room, the people and the process
thinking widened from method cards to a broader
scope. In the discussion about the needs of the
workshop the idea of a wall chart was developed.

1. Service Phase Cards

Tool purpose
A tangible and useful tool that participants can
take with them after the workshop was developed.
It consists of a set of four Phase Cards, one for
each DGSE phase. It works as a reminder and at
the same time as a check list with practical advise
for each of the four phases.
Tool design
Like all tools developed, the set follows a colour
code green for Discovery, red for Generation,
cyan for Synthesis and dark blue for Enterprise.
Each card has a coloured header with the name
of the phase on either side. The front of the card
contains an iconic image with a visual metaphor
for the phase and a short denition of the phase.

Service Design solution | Service Design reality

The back of the card contains basic principles and

guidelines for excellence of each phase. The bottom shows the visual model of the DGSE process.

Tool use
The Phase Cards were used in the workshop as
tangible manifestations of the four phases. The
short denition summaries have been used by
participants for clarication. Every participant
took a set of Phase Cards with them. The tool
helped to establish a tangible reality of a Service
Design model while at the same time functioning
as a helpful tool.
Tool evaluation
The cards helped to make the DGSE model and
each phase more accessible. The principles on the
back of the card have been considered helpful
in the workshop. A follow-up survey would be
required to investigate the use and practicality of
the cards once the participants were back in their
ofces.

Service Phase Cards Developed by Sean Blair and Stefan Moritz for the Business Link Service Design workshop, Newcastle, April 2005.

95

94

The Phase Cards are a very useful

and simple device that enables me to
explain the principle and the basics of
those phases in my organisation.

Service Design

The cards are placed in a layout that makes it

possible to produce the card post-workshop in any
ofce from a PDF template.

2. Service Exercises
Tool purpose
For the workshop a series of exercises and methods were designed to practise and bring to life the
four different phases. They were designed to help
participants imagine that they were working as a
hand-picked team of experts on the development
of a business support service.

Service Design solution | Service Design reality

Service Design
97

Tool evaluation
All exercises have been understood and were completed on time. Some difculty was experienced
in the Discovery and Generation phases. Discovery
is particularly difcult to accomplish in a short
time. In the case of this workshop Discovery could
therefore only be made in reecting and exploring
existing knowledge.

96

Tool use
In each phase several tasks needed to be accomplished. In a real life Service Design project
several different methods and techniques would
for example be used in the area Discovery. To run a
draft version of the Discovery process the exercises
for the workshop were designed to have similar
effects. Taking new angles to look at things and
identifying and specifying key implications and
potential starting points in order to develop ideas
for the Generation phase.

Tool design
Methods and exercises were explained in a screen
presentation. Each one was clearly named and a
time for completion and essential guidelines were
provided. For every exercise a example was shown
and explained. The participants wrote their results
or ideas for each exercise on a Grid Card and then
posted them on a workshop Wallchart.

3. Service Wallchart
Tool purpose
To make the four phase process tangible and
to create a shared working platform a special
Wall Chart was developed. The Wallchart supports
the understanding of the different phases by
visualising how for example some insights can be
used to generate a lot of ideas and how a set of
criteria in the Synthesis phase work as a lter etc.

Tool evaluation
The Wallchart was a very dominant tool in the
workshop and helped to make the DGSE model
tangible. It was a shared platform that sensualised
the achievement of the two days by turning it
from an empty to a completely lled Wallchart.
One improvement could have been to have more
space for the Generation ideas.

Service Design

Tool design
The Wallchart is a six by two meter wall chart.
It has four big colour coded areas for Discovery,
Generation, Synthesis and Enterprise phases. In the
background the graphic model of DGSE visualises

99

98

Service Design solution | Service Design reality

Tool use
The Wallchart is a grid platform to post Grid Cards
(see pictures below). Each phase is divided in several rows for the different exercises. The Grid Cards
from Trends & Drivers for example will be posted
underneath each other in this section. The chart
is empty in the beginning of the workshop and in
the end represents the work that has been done
through the addition of Grid Cards.

the stages of generating and ltering like light

that goes through a lens. Thin lines assemble the
grid. The header of this chart is exible so that
it can be used in a number of workshops. The
surface is coated so that Grid Cards can be stuck
on temporarily. Under the phase headings there is
a space for exible title cards.

Service Wallchart
Designed by Sean Blair and Stefan Moritz for the Business Link
Service Design workshop in Newcastle, April 2005.

Service Design

Service Design solution | Service Design reality

101

10 0

Wallchart including the sections Discovery, Generation, Synthesis & Enterprise

4. Service Grid Cards

Tool purpose
The Grid Cards have been used in each phase to ll
in the results of the various exercises. Each card
was then posted on the Wallchart.

Tool design
The Grid Cards were produced in the four DGSE
colours. Each card included the title of the phase, a
eld for the participants name and lines that help
to write straight and suggest the size of writing.

Service Design

Tool evaluation
Like tailor made post-its for this process the
Grid Cards worked very well. The name eld on the
bottom of the cards was not used very much and
could have been moved to the top where many
participants spontaneously wrote their names
anyway.

103

102

Service Design solution | Service Design reality

Tool use
The Grid Cards were used throughout the workshop and all important insights, thoughts, ideas,
criteria and elements were written on them. Writing a card meant that the content was considered
a valuable asset in the process. The posting on the
Wallchart made it a visual part of the total result.
Even though the end results is of course what
counts the most, the Grid Cards are like pixels that
together give the complete picture of the process.

5. Character Proles
Tool purpose
Character Proles have been prepared for the workshop as a start and client
reference point. Four ctional characters have been created to represent
target stereotypes for the new business support service. They helped set a
framework for the kind of people that should be addressed through the new
service. They also provided the possibility to check insights, ideas, criteria
and concepts against the proles by asking probing questions such as
What would Norman think about that?
Tool use
The four proles were posted on the left of the Wallchart. They were
introduced to the participants once they received the design brieng. They
help present the fact that the new service is for actual users and to give a
focused starting point to work effectively in the short time.

Service Design solution | Service Design reality

Tool design
Each of the proles consisted of a big image of the character in question,
as well as the name on one side and a description of the person and their
business on the other. This information was very basic, including age,
experience, passion, name of the business, nature of business, turnover,
number of employers and expertise.

105

104

Service Design

Tool evaluation
The Character Proles helped to establish clarity and were well received by
participants. However, they were not referred to at any point of the project
and were therefore not a crucial element for the success.

Character Proles Designed by Sean Blair and Stefan Moritz for the Business Link Service Design workshop in Newcastle, April 2005.

6. Service Method Cards

Tool purpose
Descriptions and instructions of key methods were formulated in the form
of Method Cards. Every card represented a method used at one or several
points of a Service Design project. The set of Method Cards helped to
establish Service Design in a tangible and credible way. Designed to help the
team, they quickly establish shared understanding of a method and a basic
ability to use it.
Tool use
The Method Cards were not used in the workshop. As the workshop was
facilitated and all exercises and methods have been introduced and
explained in person it was not necessary to use the cards for explanation.
The cards have been shown to the participants to underline that Service
Design includes a lot more than what was covered in the two days.

Service Design

Tool evaluation
It can be assumed that the cards alone would not be sufcient material to
carry out the methods without further facilitation, but they worked well as
tangible representation of further possibilities within Service Design.

Examples of Service Method Cards

Designed by Sean Blair and Stefan Moritz for the
Business Link Service Design workshop in Newcastle, April 2005.

107

106

Service Design solution | Service Design reality

Tool design
Each card has a symbolic image, the name of the method on one side and
a description and an example of the outcome on the other. The description
includes a short summary, the results and what the method is used for. It
also includes the key steps to follow and important considerations.

The workshop

For me the preparation of the workshop was

the rst reality check. I had imagined that the
tools Inconvenience Analysis, Service Ecology Map
and Visioning could be used effectively in this
workshop. I had done some thinking about how
cards could work that changes methods to tools.
We decided not to use those methods or the cards.
This was disappointing given the work and time
I had invested. But most importantly for me, the
question then became if the workshop would
really be useful for this paper at all? The Wallchart
was for me a really straight forward element. Even
though weeks of thinking went into it, to me it
was simply a big poster that would help to share
the different elements in a tangible way.

It was only in the workshop I realised the immense

importance and potential of the Wallchart system
as a tool.
The participants were rather tired in the afternoon
of the rst day and had some difculties with
the Discovery and Generation exercises. They had
enjoyed the First Direct case study and Kevin
Gavaghans insights and stories. Lunch and the
Open Space Technology sessions were used to get
to know other participants and to share information. It was very challenging for the participants
to learn, reect, meet new people, share work
experience, see the relevance of the examples
for their businesses and to develop a concept for
a new business support service in just two days.
The participants had difculties with Discovery
and Generation whereas Synthesis and Enterprise
seemed rather easy to them. Perhaps this was due
to the fact that they all have a business background and are more familiar with this type of
activities from their day to day jobs. With a group
of designers this might proved to be the opposite.

The DGSE process is quite broad. The advantage is

that every project ts in. The disadvantage is that
it needs very specic guidance to be used successfully. The four phases worked really well in the
context of this workshop and more phases would
not have been possible to go through. For most of
the participants the most surprising element was
the Synthesis stage, while everybody was aware
that research and Brainstorming are important to
improve or innovate Services.

During the workshop it occurred to me that

it would be interesting to do an Inconvenience
Analysis for Service Design itself to nd out what
people nd difcult.
While rst in doubt, the workshop proved to be a
helpful way to step back and reect on what I am
trying to achieve.

In my point of view this workshop built very much

on existing ideas which in turn means limited
innovation. This was in part due to the limited
possibilities in the Discovery phase but also to
the Open Space Technology. The participants were
naturally discussing more than sparking new
ideas.

Service Design

Preparation

109

108

Service Design solution | Service Design reality

Personal evaluation & reection

Access to Service Design

Service Design

110

111

ACCESS TO SERVICE
DESIGN

Bridging the gap

As explained in earlier parts of this paper, services
are an important part of the economy. To make
services more productive, efcient and effective
for organisations and more satisfying, useful,
usable and desirable for clients they need to be
designed. Service Design is a new eld that does
just that. It provides the expertise and tools
required to design services and furthermore, undertakes research to address the unique features
of services.
Even though some organisations have already
been using Service Design successfully it is
still not an established and known eld or a
recognised new holistic business practice. The
suggestion here is that Service Design needs to
be proled. Service Design will be an important
function in most companies in the near future.
The eld needs to provide clear communication
and establish a recognisable prole.
The remainder of this paper will attempt to
establish such a prole by further exploring the
following areas:

Existing Resources
What resources are already available and can be
collected and reviewed?
Structure for Service Design
Can we clearly dene a simple framework that
explains what the areas are that Service Design
covers?
Sharing
How can the Service Design Network play a bigger
part in connecting the current Service Design
players? How does it help in sharing experience,
resources and creating common references.
Tools and methods
What tools and methods are suitable to ll
the structure or framework created for Service
Design? What tools and methods are available and
needed to design services?
Service Design overview
What would a simple diagram outlining the most
important elements and functions of Service
Design look like?

Access to Service Design

Service Design

112

113

Service Design process

Can the Service Design process be mapped out?

Service Design framework

Set-up

Framework

To give practitioners an understanding of what

Service Design is about a framework that structures the different areas of expertise and the key
tasks that belong to Service Design is needed.

To develop a framework that covers the different

areas and tasks that Service Design offers, the
following approach was chosen: Several processes
and models were analysed. These included the
Service Design Methodology that Birgit Mager
developed, the process that the Service Design
consultancy Spirit of Creation works with, the
process that the Service Design department at the
design consultancy IDEO works with, the process
that the unit RED at the Design Council uses, the
process that Bill Hollins suggests in his book Total
Design, the process model that the committee
for the Service Design standard recommendation
for British Standards developed and processes and
models that show what related disciplines cover.

114

In the same way that a geographical map gives an

overview of an area (all villages and towns need to
be explored to produce the map) it is necessary to
explore the different parts that make up the whole
of Service Design. Several resources have been
used to create the overview. Various models and
processes that exist within Service Design as well
as in related elds have been analysed. Service
Design experts have been consulted to understand
the way they work and the ground they cover.
The developed framework provides the base to
develop a process or a simplied representational
model of Service Design.

Conversations with Sean Blair, Lavrans Lvlie, Bill

Hollins and Birgit Mager helped to gain detailed
understanding of the importance and signicance
of the different areas. Looking at different examples of Service Design projects as well as projects
that have been undertaken in related areas has
helped to add to the ndings.

Service Design

Access to Service Design

In addition, to establish a practical way to access

Service Design it was found necessary to create
an overview that enables easy understanding of
Service Design.

115

A list with the main areas that Service Design

includes, and examples of tasks and tools that
are used in Service Design creates a base to
further build upon. The framework is the starting
point to develop tools and services that can help
practitioners understand and assist to use Service
Design in their organisations.

Analysing processes and models

The rst model looked at was the Service Design
methodology (model ten) that Birgit Mager
developed. It contains nine segments that cover
analysis, innovation, strategy, specic development, testing, environment analysis and client
typology. It can in itself be considered a framework, however, it was found that this model is a
useful overview but that it is tailored more for
insiders in Service Design than general practitioners and decision makers. The nine segments have
been used to develop an initial list of tasks that
are important in Service Design. This methodology
gives a compact overview of the different stages
that Service Design covers without relying on a
time based process. The model is generic and does
not mandate how different stages link into each
other and which areas iterate. It therefore provides

a very useful overview of specic stages but is not

self-explanatory or easy to understand. Another
process explored is the one used by the Service
Design division at IDEO (model eleven). It is
divided in three main segments. The rst segment
covers observing and understanding people,
business and technology. All insights lead into the
development of a strategic framework. The second
segment includes the principle of iteration. Idea
development and prototyping help to develop a
nal concept. This is then translated into product,
service and space solutions. This process was very
helpful to gain understanding in what type of
tasks need to be accomplished in the course of a
Service Design project. However, rather than an
overall framework it provides a working process
tailored specically to IDEO.

[ model ten ]

Service Design

This model was developed by Birgit Mager based on her extensive research
and experience with Service Design projects. It provides a systemic view and
shows different stages of the Service Design process. Any process is framed
by Environment analysis and customer typology. Based on the analysis
of the Service Interface the Innovation process develops new ideas and
impovement solutions. Details of the Service Interface are modelled in line
with the strategic positioning and the Service Experience Specication. The
service experience is tested and the performance developed.

[ model eleven ]

IDEO design process

The process that the design consultancy IDEO uses for services, products
and spaces. The process is divided in three main stages. The rst one
Understand & Observe builds a strategic framework based upon insights
into what people want, what is feasible for business and what is possible in
technology. The second stage Visualise & Rene is developing nal concepts
through iteration of Brainstorming and Prototyping. Based on the insights
and in line with the strategy, ideas are developed and tested. In the third
stage Implement the nal concept is translated and implemented into
products, services and spaces.

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Access to Service Design

Service Design Methodology

Plan for
service
design

Develop the
business

Identify
and
develop
options

Detail
Service
Design

Design and develop the

service

Optimise

Operate
and
optimise
potential

STAGE GATEWAY
2

Triggers

[ model twelve ]

The Service Design process (model twelve) developed by the committee that wrote a new Service
Design recommendation for British Standards. It is
divided in four main stages.

Operate/
Review

Deliver and
Support the
service

ACTIONS
1

Implement
and
launch

Plan for
service
design

Identify
and
develop
options

MS/4/-/8

Service Design

Draft version

09

Service Design process

Date model

Detail
Service
Design

Implement
and
launch

Operate/
Review
Optimise

25/09/2003

Author
Approved by

118

Access to Service Design

28/10/2003

[ model thirteen ]

Spirit of Creation DGSE process

Stage one Develop the business develps a plan

for service (conguring the project, planning
resource, process design & controls) based on
triggers (shortcomings, gaps, prompts, opportunities, ...). A project proposal leads into
stage two Design and develop the service. This
stage identies and develops options (generate
options, evaluate and select the best options,
develop solution concepts, select nal concept)
and leads into Detail Service Design (development
of all components, experience specication, etc.)
A detailed service design approval leads into stage
three Deliver and support the service. This stage
helps to implement and launch the service (ensure
completeness, introduce to market, launch plan).
Stage four Operate and optimise potential
is about operation, delivery and review (delivery,
feedback, maintenance, etc.)
The Service Design model developed by Spirit
of Creation (model thirteen) is a visualisation of
the complex eld Service Design. The core of the
model is the DGSE process; Discovery, Generation,
Synthesis and Enterprise. Many conversations
with Sean Blair and Kevin Gavaghan as well as a
workshop designed in co-operation with Spirit of
Creation helped to gain an in-depth understanding
of the DGSE process. In the model this generic
process is surrounded by components that contain
other important elements such as experience
modelling or assessing the consequences that
a service would have. Spirit of Creation are very
successful in using this process as the basis for
explaining and proling Service Design.

The desk research and conversations with experts

have been particularly helpful to deepen the
understanding of the various elements that are
needed to accomplish Service Design. Reviewing
and analysing models used by various people has
also led to further thinking about what an ideal
framework might look like.

Grouping
The paper set out to create a task-list overview
which is as useful and practical as possible. Therefore it was considered to group the list of tasks
into sensible units or segments. This was based
on the kind of tasks that are used to achieve the
same kind of results. The models were analysed
to nd what units have already been formed to
enable a compact overview. For example it was
found that in the processes the same kind of
segments are often used.
From comparing the different models it could be
clearly identied that there is a pattern emerging
in the processes. Sometimes named differently
and sometimes with different focus points some
commonality can still be found. From analysing
the processes an understanding of the kinds of
things that are covered could be gained. It was
found that four segments are used throughout a
lot of processes in design and innovation.
Four phases cover four Ds: Discover, Dene,
Develop and Deliver.1 These can be seen as the
design equivalent to the four Ps of Marketing.
They cover the basic steps but do not do justice
to the extended areas that Service Design covers
beyond traditional design.

Service Design

Triggers

119

1 The four Ds are coverd for example in the process of the

Design Councils unit RED: Discover, Dene, Develop and Deliver

Service Design overview

Unique for Service Design

The solution

It was clear that areas of research, idea development, selection of ideas and implementation are
crucial for Service Design. These areas are covered
in every model. The area that is not specically
mentioned in all models and that takes Service
Design beyond Service Innovation is the area of
strategic thinking and planning. Before ideas are
developed in Service Design a strategy or specication document needs to be written.

Through critical analysis it was decided that

a grouping of four segments is not specic
enough for Service Design and does not include
all essential parts in the overview. But too many
segments would not be easy to oversee or
remember. Therefore six categories have been
further explored: SD Understanding1, SD Thinking,
SD Generating, SD Filtering, SD Explaining and
SD Realising. These categories cover everything
that Service Design delivers.

Bill Hollins and Fran Samalionis highlighted that

the rst steps in a Service Design project are very
similar to that of a design project not specically
looking at services. However, Fran Samalionis
nds that one of the main differences when designing services is the different approach required
to explain and test ideas with service prototypes.

One advantage of this formation is that somebody

that wants to understand Service Design has the
possibility to explore and understand what Service
Design entails. It needs to be noted however that
this model is generic and even though it can cover
more than four categories it is still a simplied
structure.

Which tasks are important for

Service Design?
Different projects, case studies and processes have been analysed and experts have been
interviewed to identify which tasks are important
and crucial parts of Service Design projects. Even
though every Service Design project is different,
this list of tasks has be established as an overall
overview. It helps to understand what Service
Design is about in detail. The list of tasks has been
discussed with some Service Design experts again
to add tasks that they felt should be included.
This is the beginning of a list of tasks which does
not claim to be complete. It nonetheless gives
a detailed overview and provides a practical
checklist for Service Design tasks. To achieve
these tasks a series of tools and methods can be
used and different skills are needed they too are
described here. The suitablity of tools and methods selected will be depending on the project.

121

12 0

Service Design

Access to Service Design

On the following pages the six categories are

explained in more detail with a view to establishing a complete overview of Service Design.

To give practical access to Service Design this

task-overview has been developed. It is a list of
the different tasks that are part of Service Design.
It gives a holistic view of Service Design that is
easy to understand. Based on the tasks, various
tools and methods that are helpful to accomplish
these tasks are listed later on.

1 The abbreviation SD is used for Service Design. It gives the

six categories unique names. It means that the descriptions are
not about tasks but about the tasks in specic relation to
Service Design.

Service Design (SD) tasks

Learning about clients, contexts, the service provider

and providing insights.

Giving strategic direction

SD
Thinking

Strategic and analytical tasks that help identify, plan,

set, review, analyse and give a project direction.

Developing concepts
SD
Generating

Developing relevant, innovative ideas and concepts.

Creating solutions.

Selecting the best

SD
Filtering

Selecting ideas and combining concepts. Evaluating

results and solutions.

Enabling understanding
SD
Explaining

Sensualisation and mapping. Making concepts tangible, showing future possibilities and giving overviews.

Making it happen

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Access to Service Design

SD
Realising

Implementation and delivery. Providing guidelines

and plans.

On the following pages a more in-depth overview

of the six categories is provided through descriptions and a list of tasks and tools / methods.

It was an insight from the research, that Service

Design covers different stages and that each
of them requires a different mind-set. In the
prototypical workshop it was found that it is
important to switch mind-sets within a Service
Design project. That means that the category of
SD Generating requires a different mind-set,
attitude, focus and environment than for example
SD Explaining. Furthermore, in every category
the constellation of the team might change to
accommodate the skill prole needed. Still the
categories can interlink and overlap. Generating
ideas can help to raise new questions for research
and in the research new ideas for solutions can
come up.

Service Design

Finding out and learning

SD
Understanding

The categories enable easier application of the

list of tasks and tools to projects. Every task (e.g.
interview) is an intermediate step that helps to
reach a goal (e.g. understanding clients). The goal
stands for a crucial step in the Service Design
process and at the same time it represents a
specic mind-set. Every goal might be achieved by
a number of tasks. The Service Design categories
have two functions. One is to create a simple
and generic framework that helps to understand
Service Design. The second one is to establish
what different mind-sets are needed for Service
Design.

123

The tasks that need to be undertaken in different

stages of Service Design (SD) have been grouped
into six categories: SD Understanding, SD Thinking,
SD Generating, SD Filtering, SD Explaining and
SD Realising described below

SD Understanding

description

Researching the clients latent and

conscious needs. Finding out about
context, constraints and resources.
Exploring possibilities.

This is a broad area that underlies the

Service Design process. SD Understanding is the connection between a
project and its reality. SD Understanding generates insights that identify
areas the company should be going
for, according to what is right for the
organisation. SD Understanding goes
beyond things that people are already
familiar with. Like, what are the things
that people dont like? Exploring the
clients wants, needs, motivations
and contexts. Investigating business,
technical and domain requirements
and constraints. Taking into account
the clients goals in a systematic way.
What do people desire? What are
the possibilities? What will sustain a
business?

Requirements

Examples of SD Understanding

Project objectives are needed.

To nd out how clients should nd their way

to the parking facilities of an airport the client
journey was tested and documented in the form
of photo journals. To make the conference service
of a hotel more exible a circus was analysed. To
investigate how people pay their bills interviews
were conducted in peoples homes. To understand
how a complex system works teams from
different departments played all functions in a
bodystorming session. To explore peoples mood
in the morning, a series of wakeup-call interviews
have been conducted. To understand how much
people value a service that they usually take for
granted, they were payed as much as needed to
not use the service.

Relevance to Service Design

SD Understanding is important for Service Design
to make sure results are true to reality, relevant
and appropriate.

Considerations
Quantitative market research and market segmentation is useful for selling products and services
but falls short of providing critical information
about how people actually use services especially services with complex behaviors. Most
traditional methods don not provide a means of
translating research results into design solutions.
Most people are incapable of accurately assessing
their own behaviours.
Self-referential design occurs when designers
project their own goals, motivations, skills and
mental models onto projects.
Always verify assumptions and interpretations
(but do not forget to read between the lines!).

Service Design

definition

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Access to Service Design

> Finding out and learning

SD Understanding

Tasks

Tools & methods

A non-exhaustive list of various tools and methods
that could be used to generate SD Understanding *

1. Understanding clients

3. Understanding providers

Exploring the following areas can help to better

understand a client or clients:

What factors are inuencial to the project, person or organisation:

Values
Needs
Behaviour
Problems
Group dynamics
Interaction
Demographic
Psychographic

2. Understanding contexts
Access to Service Design

Technological

126

What considerations need to be made with regards

to the following:

Competition

Political

Resources

Benchmarking

Market segmentation

- Technology

Client segmentation

Mystery shoppers

- Personal

Context analysis

Net Scouting

- Finance

Contextual interviews

Observation

- Knowledge

Contextual enquiry

Probes

- Skills

Critical incident technique

Reading

Politics

Ecology map

Service status

Short- & long term goals

Ethnography

Shadowing

Constraints

Experience test

Thinking Aloud

Responsibility

Expert interviews

Trend Scouting

Processes & systems

Focus groups

User Surveys

Language

Gap Analysis

5Ws

Key desicion makers /

Historical analysis

Insight matrix

Inconvenience Analysis

Tested and tried components

Interviews

Inspirational specialists

stake holders

Legislation

Service Design

Goals

Economic
4. Understanding relationships
Is there something to be gained from:

Opportunities

127

Social

Other providers

History
Culture
* The tools and methods are further explained in the Appendix

SD Thinking

description

Identifying criteria, developing

strategic frameworks, specifying and
scoping out of details. Turning complex data into insights.

SD Thinking includes all strategic

considerations and the identication
of direction and scope of a Service
Design project. It sets the parameters
for the other categories. SD Thinking
often has a transitional role between
other categories. For example after
working in SD Understanding it is
necessary to specify which elements
should be used, and in what way in SD
Generating. SD Thinking is the category that identies the purpose of SD
Understanding for the project. It can
be important before SD Understanding
or generally in the beginning of a
Service Design project to review or
set objectives and to make sure that
all other categories work in line with
the strategy. SD Thinking is the area
that gives Service Design direction and
guidelines.

Requirements

Examples of SD Thinking

Information about context, client, service

provider, constraints and market place.

It was revealed that for mobile phone services

only a very limited portfolio of scenarios can
satisfy true client needs. It was recognised that
professional expertise is crucial to trust a business support service and that ideas need to be
generated how to enable access to high quality
expert knowledge. It was recognised that for
a community service a four stage strategy of
Attention, Change Relationship, Create Community & Continuity needs to be employed. It was
decided that for a project in a hospital the focus
and emphasis of the service is going to be on the
quality of care rather than to make the experience
as pleasant as possible. It was decided in a project
to involve clients and external experts to work
together. It was identied that a service does not
have to be re-invented and that its design would
only have to be improved.

Relevance to Service Design

To direct, control, structure and aligne.

Considerations
SD Thinking is always based on information. The
strategy and direction is only as good as the
facts they are based on. It links into several other
categories in a Service Design project.
In a short or small project SD Thinking will most
likely be done with natural common sense. But
it is important to be aware that this category is
crucial and needs to be taken seriously.
SD Thinking often requires buy-in on a senior level
of an organisation. Only if the service strategy is
relevant and true to the context and needs of the
organisation will the project be successful.

Service Design

definition

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Access to Service Design

> Giving strategic direction

SD Thinking

Tasks

Tools & methods

A non-exhaustive list of various tools and methods
that could be used in SD Thinking *

1. Identifying

4. Analysis

Criteria

Competition

Problems

Content

Focus
Underlying motives
5. Reviewing
Insights
2. Setting

Related components

Objectives

Specication

CATWOE

System thinking

Brutethink

Think tank

Fishbone diagram

Touchpoints

Lateral thinking

Total quality ow charting

LEGO Serious Play

Visual thinking

Mindmap
Parallel thinking

Goals
Vision

Afnity Diagrams

6. Direction
Time plan

Personality matrix
Priority matrix

Team setup

Requirements

Specication

Service Design

3. Planning & feasibility

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Design guidelines

* The tools and methods are further explained in the Appendix

SD Generating

> Developing concepts

definition

description

Developing relevant, intelligent and

innovative ideas. Creating role-,
design- and concept-alternatives.
Crafting details and consistency.

SD Generating is about doing, creating and coming up with ideas and

solutions. In a Service Design project
relevant ideas need to be developed
and combined into strong concepts.
Solutions need to be found and processes set up. The service experience
needs to be designed in every detail
and objects, spaces and other elements need to be developed.

Requirements

Examples of SD Generating

SD Generating requires professional creativity.

The work is always based on information and
direction from the other categories. Even though
it is possible to develop random ideas in general
SD Generating is based on insights and in line with
strategy.

To develop concepts for a new train service an

actual train was used as the work environment.
To explore different possibilities how to solve a
problem in a water cleaning plant, Bodystorming
was used to resemble all parts of the system.
To develop great ideas IDEO has the ve most
important rules of Brainstorming written on the
walls of their board rooms. To come up with new
ideas for a service, different elements have been
combined with a special software randomly. Kids
have been invited into a Brainshaping session to
build new ideas with simple tools in play-do.

Relevance to Service Design

To produce great service experiences different
challenges need to be addressed with innovative
and sensible ideas, concepts and solutions that are
true to the needs of clients and organisations and
in line with the developed strategy.

It is important that SD Generating is not a random

idea session. It always needs to be based on
insights and strategy. Still SD Generating should be
free, innovative and visionary. It helps to use SD
Explaining to make ideas as easy to understand,
visual and tangible as possible.

Service Design

For SD Generating it is important to nd the

right people for the team and to select the right
environments to work in.

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Considerations

SD Generating

Tasks

Tools & methods

A non-exhaustive list of various tools and methods
that could be used in SD Generating *

1. Developing

4. Implementing

Ideas

Corporate Design

Solutions

Bodystorming
Brainstorm

Processes

Brainwriting, -shaping, -racing, -station

5. Crafting
Evidences

2. Creating

Touchpoints

Concepts

Interface

Scenarios

Experiences

Experience sketching
Feature tree
(Group) Sketching
Idea interview
Open space technology
Parallel design
Randomiser

3. Finding
Environments

Think Tank
Unfocus group

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Service Design

Ways to work with clients

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Access to Service Design

Inspiration

* The tools and methods are further explained in the Appendix

SD Filtering

description

Selecting ideas and combining concepts. Evaluating results and solutions.

Identifying clusters and segments.

From a range of solutions or ideas

the best and most relevant should
be selected. That means that they
are chosen by experts or that they
are selected against specic criteria.
The performance or quality is tested
and measured. That is true for prototypes, existing elements as well as
people. Ideas, concepts, solutions and
performance are evaluated against different measures. For example It could
be assessed if an idea works against
the legal requirements or which idea
will require less technical effort.

Requirements

Examples of SD Filtering

SD Filtering is always based on the results of other

categories of the Service Design project. Elements
and contexts are necessary to evaluate and select.
SD Filtering follows strategies established in SD
Thinking.

To identify the best idea, different cards with

descriptions have been created to choose from.
Experts were asked separately to highlight the
advantages and obstacles of various concepts.
Scenarios have been walked through step-by-step
from different clients points of view to evaluate
potential problems. To nd the best concept,
different idea-tree pathways have been tested to
create a chain of ideas. The existing service in an
airport has been evaluated to select all features
that people like. Components of a service have
been taken away to evaluate the impact on clients.

Relevance to Service Design

To identify the best and most appropriate solutions and ideas. To make sure that service components are evaluated in order to be improved.

Considerations
To proceed with a project it is important to make
decisions. It is important to involve key decision
makers as much as possible.
Ideas and solutions that have been cut out do not
have to be deleted forever. Often it is good to keep
them somewhere so they are not lost completely.
Service Design

definition

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> Selecting the best

SD Filtering

Tasks

Tools & methods

A non-exhaustive list of various tools and methods
that could be used in SD Filtering *

1. Selecting

3. Evaluation

Ideas

Subjective

Concepts

Heuristic

Solutions

Economic
Technical
Legal

2. Test & measure

Performance
Quality

Card sorting
Character proles
Cognitive Walkthrough
Constructive Interaction
Diagnostic evaluation
Evaluation review
Expert evaluation
Feasibility check
Focus Groups
Heuristic evaluation
Personas
Pluralistic Walkthrough
PEST analysis
SWOT analysis
Task analysis

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Service Design

Sticker vote

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Access to Service Design

Retrospective Testing

* The tools and methods are further explained in the Appendix

SD Explaining

description

The sensualisation (visualisation for all

senses) of ideas and concepts, mapping of processes and illustration of
potential scenarios. Giving overviews
and showing future possibilities.

SD Explaining can give a team, decision

makers and other stakeholders access
to abstract future concepts. It provides
a discussion base that is accessible for
people with various backgrounds also
as people with different levels of imagination. SD Explaining can work with
different principles and techniques.
It always aims to create a shared
understanding in a multi-disciplinary
team. From hand sketches, Photoshop
mock-ups, video montages to real life
prototypes, different levels of abstraction and detail can be shown. It is possible to stage the service experience
in a Beta-launch to test how it works.
Processes and models can be explained
with animations or maps. Different
scenarios can show the different ways
in which a service could be used. SD
Explaining is usually connecting SD
Generating with SD Realising but is
important in combination with SD
Understanding and SD Thinking also.
Sometimes SD Filtering can be based
on SD Explaining too.

Requirements

Examples of SD Explaining

For successful SD Explaining a thorough understanding of the ndings, ideas or processes

is necessary and it needs to be clear what the
purpose, target group and context of the results
are.

To show how a new polymer-ticket would change

the experience of entering a club, different
animated scenarios have been produced. To show
how a concept works across different media channels, Photoshop mock-ups were used to show the
different application. To highlight to the team how
elderly people experience the service, different
Empathy Tools have helped to feel the struggle on
their own skin. An animated map was projected
on the oor to illustrate the behaviour in a waiting
room. To test a wake-up call service, participants
have been woken up every morning for a week
with different messages. Client archetypes
have been created to test different ideas on the
reaction that would be assumed for the different
characters. SD Explaining was used to stage the
elements of a service as if it would already exist.

Relevance to Service Design

SD Explaining is necessary for shared understanding and to test service experiences.

Considerations
Given that in SD Explaining decisions about details
need to be made (e.g. the porter had a yellow
name tag) it is important that it is seen as a
discussion platform by the whole team. It then
provides the possibility to discuss with a what-if
perspective.

Service Design

definition

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> Enabling understanding

SD Explaining

Tasks

Tools & methods

A non-exhaustive list of various tools and methods
that could be used in SD Explaining *

1. Ideas & concepts

3. Interaction

Sensualisation

Animation

Camera journal

Persona

Character prole

Rough prototyping

Empathy tools

Role play

Experience prototype

Scenario

4. Experiences

Informance

Storyboarding

Prototypes

Metaphors

Social network mapping

Scenarios

Mock-ups

Tomorrows headlines

Moodboard

Try it yourself

Moodlm

Visioning

Role play
2. Processes
Maps

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Service Design

Access to Service Design

Models

* The tools and methods are further explained in the Appendix

SD Realising

description

Developing, specifying and implementing solutions, prototypes and

processes. Writing business plans and
guidelines. Conducting training.

SD Realising makes a service happen.

It provides whatever is needed to
implement the dened and selected
concepts. SD Realising the service
can either mean to test an experience prototype or the actual service.
Various means are used to realise a
service depending on its complexity
and if it is implemented in different locations. SD Realising includes
everything necessary to plan, specify
and roll out a service. A business plan
often is provided in combination with
a blueprint to direct how the service
system will work in every detail. Training and guidelines are used to ensure
that staff is able to put the service into
action. Briengs and specications
ensure consistent Touchpoints.

Requirements

Examples of SD Realising

To realise a service it needs to be clear what

the concept and purpose is and how different
components link into each other.

A business plan was written to explain and specify

all details of the basic principles a service would
work upon. A blueprint was made to plan how all
processes and components link into each other.
An intranet was provided to give staff the information and templates needed to provide a service.
Role descriptions were written for staff to imagine
and perform their role in the service delivery.
A game was built for staff to play through different scenarios and to learn about the principles of
a new service.

Relevance to Service Design

SD Realising is taking a service to market. All
details are established, nal checks and plans are
made and all means developed to ensure a consistent and quality service delivery.

Considerations
A service is likely to never be perfect and can
therefore always be improved. SD Realising ensures
the best possible service performance. But as systems are complex and the environment changes
it will always be necessary to test, improve and
maintain the service. SD Realising should therefore
not be considered the end of Service Design. It is a
new beginning.
Service Design

definition

145

14 4

Access to Service Design

> Making it happen

SD Realising

Tasks

Tools & methods

A non-exhaustive list of various tools and methods
that could be used in SD Realising *

1. Testing

3. Providing

Prototypes

Training

Models

Guidelines

Processes

Templates

Experiences

Instructions
Specications

Behaviour sampling

Service prototype

Blueprint

Simulation

Business plan

Specications

Guidelines

Templates

Intranet

Wizard of Oz

Line of balance
Mind map

Business Plan

Performance testing

Blueprint

Post release testing

Processes

Role script

Touchpoints

Scenario testing

147

14 6

Service Design

Access to Service Design

2. Developing

* The tools and methods are further explained in the Appendix

Considerations

[ model fourteen ]

A different model will be required to truly

represent the essence of Service Design as well as
the workings of it. The following pages have set
out to do just that.

Service Design

Service Design categories

149

Access to Service Design

14 8

Overall, Model fourteen is conceptional rather

than practical. It does not show any denite
direction or order and requires imagination on
behalf of the interpreter as it is not self-explana-

But, beside the fact that the categories can be

used in any required order and time, the model
does suggests through a spiral arrow that Service
Design projects are mostly iterative, meaning
that some categories will be used several times
throughout the course of a project.

Service Design projects are often very different

and there are no absolute rules about in which
order categories should be used. Just like production, consumption and design can happen all at
the same time, in a Service Design project the six
categories often overlap and inter-link with each
other. Model fourteen is a visual representation of
how the categories overlap. It shows in a simple
way that the various tasks in each category can be
undertaken simultaneously and in a exible order.
Imagine for instance that a Service Design project
starts with an idea, could be the result of observing a situation and thinking of a solution, however
the idea might still need to be prototyped and
tested and different executions be developed,
selected and prepared for implementation.

tory. However, it does show that Service Design

is a complex, iterative and ongoing process. It is
interesting to note that designers who have been
shown this model nd it relatively easy to see
and understand how the six overlapping layers
represent the different areas of Service Design
tasks.

The framework and the content of the six categories have been established to work as an overview
of the various tasks that Service Design covers. For
each category, several tools and methods that can
be used for support when designing services have
been put forward. In addition to being an overview, the descriptions can be used as checklists
to understand Service Design and to put it into
practise.

Service Design overview model

In this paper it has been suggested that showing the essence of Service
Design in an overview would be helpful to enable access and understanding.
The model on the left (please see model fteen) has been developed to give
this overview. It is based on research previously mentioned in this paper,
and has been evolved through discussions with various Service Design
experts.

150

In an organisation Service Design supports and helps to establish strategy,

develop service concepts, solutions, designs processes and guidelines.
It helps change a culture towards a service minded, client focused and
innovative one. It sets out to grow a talent pool of people that are part of
ongoing service improvement. Service Design helps design all Touchpoints
that a client encounters and so improves the overall experience that clients
have with a service. In creating innovative service ideas and fostering the
relationship between organisation and client Service Design increases
brand afnity. Part of the relationship is the way Service Design manages
feedback and integrates people from the organisation and clients in the
design process.
Service Design designs the interface between organisations and clients. The
diagram shows how Service Design operates as an interface itself. It works
across both the organisation and the client from investigating insights
through to service delivery. It creates a win-win situation for organisations
and clients.

Please see fullscreen on the next double-page

Service Design

Access to Service Design

The grey arrows in the top show how Service Design explores organisations
and considers their resources, constraints and the context they operate in.
This context, which is shown as grey circle, consists for example of staff
working for the organisation, suppliers that are or could be used, partners
that are available, the market the organisation operates in, the competition and relevant technologies. At the same time Service Design develops
insights based on client and market needs. It investigates the clients
context, such as the market, community, society, politics, economy and
trends.

151

It illustrates how Service Design operates as a mediator between organisations and clients. It shows in the bottom with orange arrows that Service
Design delivers higher productivity to organisations in making their
services more effective and efcient. Raising client satisfaction in designing services that are more useful, usable and desirable.

Service Design

Access to Service Design

152

[ model fifteen ]

Service Design overview model

153

Service Design process

154

It was found in the development that the joining

of management, marketing, research and design
would need to be reected in the execution of this
process. Crucial is to explain the most important
elements without being too detailed. The process
should be easy to follow and build on what this
work has put forward earlier on. How can this be
achieved? Please refer to model sixteen on pg. 155.
The six categories of Service Design have been
used as the basic structure to set up this process. They have been recognised as playing an
important role in any Service Design project. There
is a natural order that can be recognised through
analysing the different out- and inputs that are

In the beginning of a Service Design project the

leaders in an organisation need to make decisions
and initiate preparations. The project team for
a Service Design project needs to be chosen to
ensure both that the internal knowledge is used to
its best and that a feasible implementation can be
ensured. People in a Service Design team can come
from different levels and areas of the organisation
or from outside the organisation. There should
be a core team but other people can come in
at specic points of the project for example to
generate ideas. (Further details on pg. 157)
It is important to set the objectives for a Service
Design project. The project usually starts based on
a reason like market changes, need for differentiation, improving efciency or increase value for clients. For the success of the project it is important
to specify these as well as the scope and direction
of the project. Based on these a timeline should
also be put forward. All these initially specied
guidelines can of course evolve and change in the
course of a Service Design project. The guidelines
will be the base of an initial meeting of the project
team to discuss and plan the next steps, open
questions and the course of the project. The next
step is to identify what knowledge, insights and
resources are available. After this review it will
be decided what tasks should be undertaken in
the category of SD Understanding (See pg. 125). As
specied earlier the different tools and methods

can be used for nding out and learning. This will

help the team to better understand market needs,
client needs, their own organisation, the overall
context and relationships available.
The material, ndings and insights that are
available from this are the basis for work in
SD Thinking (pg. 128). Based on the review the
tools and methods of SD Thinking are used to set
criteria, objectives, set the service strategy and
rene the direction. The leaders of the organisation should be involved in at this point to ensure
that the initial objectives and the new insights
are combined to a relevant and approved strategy,
criteria and project framework. Sometimes at this
point different tools and methods of SD Explaining
(pg. 140) can help to create practical overviews
and to question and support strategic decisions.
For example the creation of Character proles or
Personas can help to sharpen the idea of the client
prole.
The Service strategy, objectives and criteria that
have been established in SD Thinking and had senior leader approval are the foundation for SD Generating (pg. 132). After establishing the appropriate
environment, involving relevant people, preparing
research insights and inspiration, a huge amount
of ideas, solutions and concepts are developed.
This can happen in one or in many sessions lasting
from one hour to several days. The basic principles
of a brainstorm can be used as guidelines in SD
Generating in general. That effectively means that
any idea is allowed at this point.

The amount of ideas, solutions and concepts

is cut down based on the established criteria,
strategy and factors (e.g. legal restraints) to
those which are relevant and t the prole. In this
analytical part of the process another iteration
of SD Generating might be required to ensure
that enough high quality and relevant results
are achieved. Sometimes tools and methods of
SD Explaining (pg. 140) can help to inspire and support this. For example a mood-lm that illustrates
how one of the ideas could be the basis of another
SD Generation workshop.
The ideas, solutions and concepts that were
selected are translated into formats that can be
easily shared within and outside the organisation.
SD Explaining tools and methods are used to
enable understanding of the ideas, solutions and
concepts developed. Service prototypes, scenarios, mock-ups, maps and role plays are some of
the possible results. These represent the basis for
insights and for specifying the strategic direction.
The results of SD Explaining tasks are used as the
basis for SD Realising (pg. 144).
The different formats that explain ideas, solutions
and concepts are used to further evolve details.
The tools and methods in SD Realising are used to
specify and plan service business plans, specications, guidelines for implementation, training and
service blueprints. These will either be approved
to be put into action or be tested and evolved further. While put into action the tools and methods
of SD Understanding are used to get feedback

Service Design

Access to Service Design

In a conversation with Lavrans Lvlie and Chris

Downs at Live|Work it was discussed how a process
for Service Design would look like. The conceptual
model (please see model fourteen on pg. 149)
that has been discussed earlier was conrmed
by both. For them it is important to ensure that
Service Design is understood as different. In their
view there is no linear process existing in Service
Design unlike when dealing with products. The
various tasks can happen in different order and
sometimes at the same time. Service Design is
not a short project to launch a service but rather
continues to evolve the service on an ongoing
basis. But to explain what Service Design does the
model is not really helpful. So how can a general
overview on the process of a Service Design
project be given?

required and achieved. Even though this process is

simplistic and generic it can be easily understood
and is easy to follow. It is mainly a tool to develop
a shared understanding of the stages of the
project and how they can link into each other.
What does it include?

155

It is important that we do
not rationalise back in a linear
process. Chris Downs, Live|Work

n Service Design process

and to ensure that the service works sufciently.
It will provide new triggers, raise questions and
provide insights that can be used for another
iteration of the full process.

Criteria

Market needs
Project team

Client needs

Objectives

Service ideas

Objectives

1.
sd understanding

Service provider

2.
sd thinking

Time plan

3.

Service strategy

sd generating

Context

Direction

Relationships

Selection

Service solutions

4.
sd filtering

Service concepts

Scope

Environment

Depending on the size of a Service Design project

the pictured process can be used in parts, as a
whole or in several iterations. It needs to be noted
that it is not only used to innovate new services.
The same process is used for improving the design
of existing services too.

Strategy

Legal

Criteria

Involvement

Inspiration

Service
business plan

Service prototypes

Service
specification

Service scenarios

Mock-ups

Maps

Role plays

5.

6.

sd explaining

sd realising

Service
guidelines
Training
Service
blueprint

ITERATION

Access to Service Design

Service Design

156

157

Please see fullscreen on the next double-page

Criteria

Market needs

Criteria

Client needs

Objectives

Strategy

Legal

Project team

Service ideas

Objectives

1.
sd understanding

Service provider

2.

Time plan

3.

Service strategy

sd thinking

sd generating

Context

Direction

Relationships

Selection

Service solutions

4.
sd filtering

Service concepts

Scope

Environment

Involvement

Inspiration

Service prototypes

Service
business plan

Service scenarios

Service
specification

Mock-ups

5.

6.

sd explaining

sd realising

Service
guidelines
Training

Maps

Service
blueprint

Role plays

159

158

Service Design

Access to Service Design

ITERATION

[ model sixteen ]

Service Design process

Service Design role description

160

Access to Service Design

Service Design has been introduced in this paper

as a broad eld that incorporates and co-operates
with different related disciplines. The role prole
that is offered here helps to manage skills that are
available in an organisation and which skills might
need to be acquired from outside the organisation.
In practical terms there are three different models
how the Service Design role can be applied in an
organisation.

An outside consultant that helps the organisation to run Service Design projects. This person
is a facilitator that manages different outside
resources together with a contact person in the
organisation that is not necessarily trained in
Service Design.

2. The Service Design Scout

One person in the organisation is trained or hired
to represent Service Design in the organisation.
This person would help identify possible projects
and manage internal projects. When necessary
outside resources can be brought in for the different stages of the project.

3. The Service Design Manager

One person is trained or hired to oversee, direct
and manage a multidisciplinary team. This role can
be extended in hiring a small team that covers the
main skills and that is then complimented with
external consultants and experts.

In any of these three principle models the combination of in-house staff and outside Service
Design consultancy need to cover a specic set of
skills. To enable understanding in the following
the skills are listed under the six SD categories. n

Service Design

To explore the skill set that is needed to accomplish the different tasks in Service Design this role
description for Service Design has been developed.
It is a helpful tool to understand the different
skills that are needed for Service Design. It can
be used as the basis to plan how a Service Design
project could be undertaken in an organisation.

1. The Service Design Guide

161

How can the role of Service Design in an organisation be described? What skill set is needed for an
organisation to get involved in Service Design?
This paper has identied the different categories
that Service Design needs. It has investigated the
most important tasks that need to be achieved
within each of them. On that basis different tools
and methods have been offered to help achieve
these tasks.

 Must be generally service minded

Good ability to develop hypothesis

Excellent social skills are needed

Experience in developing alternative decision

models

Outstanding communication skills are required

Good negotiation skills are a big plus
Great facilitation skills and experience are
needed
Must be able to be a good team player
Generally needs to be curious and open minded
Overall understanding of economy needed
Excellent organisational skills required
Comfortable with working on high visibility
projects and with all levels of management
Professional who can lead a team or be part of
a team to humanise complex interactive
experiences
Must have awareness and point of view on
industry developments and market needs

162

Access to Service Design

Experience in proposal writing and development

of new client relationships
Recognised expertise in one or more business
areas: HR, management, research, marketing,
design, technology and other related disciplines
Proven ability in leading crossfunctional, cross
business project teams through full project
cycles

Able to effectively participate in the

development and implementation of
business solutions

SD Explaining skills
Experience of translating complex information
into simple explanations
Proven ability to identify appropreate means of
sensualisation

Able to conduct and manage qualitative as well

as quantitative research

SD Generating skills
Outstanding ability to develop ideas

Ability to identify metaphors

Solid in distilling complex information and

transforming it to simple insights

Ability to be creative and associative

Experience in bringing ideas and concepts to life

Trained fresh and visual thinking

Excellent ability to imagine the future

Ability to see unusual an unique angles

Experience with fresh and visual thinking

Profound brainstorming experience

Working knowledge of prototyping tools

Excellent problem-solving skills

Ability to develop overviews and maps

Ability to identify inspirational environments

and methods

Experience with stories, scenarios and

animation

Experience in translating insights into relevant

innovative ideas, concepts and solutions

SD Realising skills

Deep expertise in user behavior and human

factors techniques for design and marketing
Expertise and experience with a variety of user
research and usability testing approaches
Exemplary interviewing skills

SD Thinking skills
Proven expertise in strategic thinking
Ability to understand complex systems
Experience in establishing frameworks and
setting the boundaries

Proven ability to design and craft Touchpoints

Experience in creating scenarios

Proven expertise in developing complex

processes
Experience in implementing services and service
components

Comfortable in synthesising and leveraging

research and data in order to identify key
insights

SD Filtering skills

Experienced in dening target audiences,

segments and opportunities for strategic
development

Ability to work with selection criteria

Experience in developing instructions,

guidelines, blueprints and business plans

Good systematic thinking

Ability to manage training

Observant and critical attitude

Experience in testing service prototypes

Solid time and project management skills

Ability to obtain relevant information and think

through situations, problems or processes to
identify core issues, patterns or trends

Good ability to multitask in a fast-paced

corporate environment

Proven ability to understand business strategic

and tactical goals

Experience in analysing and synthesising

research ndings

Experience in testing and measuring

performance and quality
Proven experience in evaluation

Ability to developing details in line with the

bigger picture and strategy

Service Design

SD Understanding skills

163

Service Design basic skills

Conclusion

Service Design

164

165

CONCLUSION

Conclusion

But still services have a massive problem. The

productivity of this sector is poor. The quality
that is provided overall is at a low standard and
client satisfaction generally low. Even though the
pressure rises and with some innovative organisations making a difference their competition tries
to catch up in mostly copying what they are doing,
there is a problem.
This paper suggests that it is a design problem.
Services are currently not designed in the way
they could be.

166

Conclusion

Earlier in the paper it was discussed how the

design eld has opened up towards new roles for
designers and towards integrating people that
traditionally were not considered as designers.
That is true for all different areas in design. But
where would it make more sense to put this new
understanding of design into action than in the
design of services?
Integrating clients in the design process that is
especially relevant in designing services where
clients are anyway involved in production and
delivery. Design has developed other competencies like the design of interactive complex
systems. Services are nothing else than that.

This paper has recognised that services are

different. It has discussed the unique features and
the implications they have on designing services.
To address this problem different academics and
consultants have worked towards offering a new
practise that takes this into consideration. Service
Design brings together elements of management,
marketing, research and design.
Even though Service Design has been developed
for more than ten years it is still a young eld
which seems to be blossoming right now. In the
last years Service Design has undertaken research
to address the challenges that this new concept is
facing. For example the design of intangibles and
interaction was developed further. New methods
needed to be developed and the practice from designing needed to be adopted to design services.
The integration of other areas of expertise was an
important factor to shaping this new eld.
Many projects have proven the principle and
helped to further develop the methodology and
to take the eld to the next level. These develop-

Service Design

The importance of the service sector is without

question. Policy makers and organisations on all
levels recognise that services are the area that
needs to drive forward to be successful in the
future.

Design has excellent experience in designing

details and human interfaces. Those are needed
at different parts of the service offering and
make up the Touchpoints that clients experience.
Design can look after these details with the big
picture in mind like it does in designing corporate
identity systems. In doing so the design tradition
has worked closely with experts from other elds
and it almost seems like a natural development
to integrate all this into a new eld and practise
that addresses the unique challenges that we are
facing in the new service world. But how is Service
Design answering these problems?

167

In the rst chapters of this paper the changes in

the economy have been discussed. It is clear that
services play an increasing role and are the essential sector for our future society and economy.

168

Conclusion

So far practitioners in service organisations have

mainly tried to help themselves. Process reengineering, service marketing, total quality management and other concepts are used to solve the day
to day problems and to in fact design services.
Some of the achievements are remarkable and
whether they call it Service Design or not it proves
the point and direction.

One example of a huge success of Service Design

was the creation of First Direct an innovative
banking service that is hugely successful. At the
time we didnt know that, but looking back now
we have done Service Design and the success we
had was denitively based on some of the Service
Design principles. says Kevin Gavaghan who was
Marketing Director at Midland Bank and one of the
leading heads behind the revolutionary service.
But if the need is there and Service Design can
offer solutions for what is needed to bring this
together?
Looking at the service sector it becomes evident
that Service Design is not yet established and
well-known. It seems that Service Design is the
solution that everybody is waiting for. Somebody
just needs to go and tell them. But of course it is
not as simple as that.

For organisations to get involved in Service

Design means a change of thinking. And changes
are always difcult. The people that work with
services, the people that work client facing and
the people that inuence the structure and design
of all the Touchpoints that clients encounter
hardly work hand in hand. They all do their best
but Service Design can only be achieved together.
This and some other factors mean that people
in a service organisation are not likely to make
the move to nd out about Service Design and to
change their structure to accommodate the new
solution. It needs to be Service Design that offers
a service that is satisfying, usable and useful. And
as we know ideally it will be so desirable that it
overcomes barriers and problems and will be put
into action.
The suggestion here is that it is necessary to
review the available resources in Service Design
and to nd ways to make Service Design more
accessible. When it is possible to create a simple
overview of what it is that Service Design has to
offer and how it works this would be a fantastic
base to prole Service Design and to establish it as
a well known eld. It would help to confront these
results with practitioners in service organisations
and to nd ways to make this access as practical
as possible.
To move this forward this paper provides some
thoughts, resources and recommendations on
how that can be achieved. The main principles are
summarised here. The ultimate goal is to prole
Service Design and to enable practical access.

Sharing
At the moment the Service Design landscape is
spread and in the various countries and institutions it has been approached differently. Language
therefore is a barrier in two different ways. Most
of the papers in Germany or Italy for example
have not been written in English. Therefore the
material is difcult to share. Beside the language
of different countries, Service Design includes also
different technical languages that are the result
of the different backgrounds that come together.
It is therefore needed to further develop a shared
Service Design vocabulary, preferably in English.
This paper has given an overview of the institutions, resources and the eld as such. For the close
future the Service Design Network could become
the base to make a difference. Sharing is going
to be crucial to set up a structure that unites
Service Design as a strong eld. Methods and best
practise need to be shared also as knowledge and
experience.

Service Design

The need for Service Design is growing. Service

Design projects have been undertaken on different levels together with different organisations.
The north region of England has invested in a
concept to use Service Design to support their
economy. The concept that was developed by
Spirit of Creation proposed a highly innovative
Service Design education centre for top level
managers. Together with 200 specialists they
redesigned design education to match up with the
unique challenges that we are all facing.

This paper suggests that the developments in

service organisations and in Service Design need
to come together to really make a difference.
There are more and more examples how Service
Design was used in very successful ways in
organisations of very different structures and
markets. In different projects and Service Design
workshops for practitioners it becomes clear that
it is well received and it was proven that Service
Design can make a difference.

169

ments have been mainly separate from each

other. Most of them in different countries. The
breakthrough for the eld seems to have been the
point when the islands of Service Design research,
thinking and practice in different places joined
together. The Service Design Network enables this
new eld to drive forward together. Based on
this development different synergies have been
established and the eld seems to head forward as
one. But whilst Service Design is getting ready, are
not service organisations doing it already?

Existing resources

Framework

Collect tools and methods

Service Design overview

It is important to review the existing resources

that have been developed, tested and are available. This provides the manifestation of Service
Design and is the essential foundation to explain
and prole what can be achieved with Service
Design. The resources that are available range
from papers, research and project results to
methods, processes and models. To establish
this eld it will help to review and discuss the
similarities and differences. This paper has set out
to give a starting point of an holistic view on the
resources available. The goal would be to establish
a shared set of resources that can be used across
the network.

To enable cooperation and sharing and to establish

an overview of Service Design a structure is
needed. Given that Service Design is a eld that
integrates different areas of expertise and people
from different backgrounds this framework is an
essential working platform. This paper has put forward a structure that is easy to understand. The
six category framework is able to accommodate
different elements like what it does, how it does it
and what is needed. Based on this framework different materials can be structured and provided. It
is almost the equivalent to Gutenbergs typesetter
frame where every letter is stored in a structure.
The Service Design framework in this case is not a
theoretical model but more a practical workable
structure. This can be to explain Service Design
and it can be futher lled with methods and tools.

The structure that has been developed can

accommodate the various elements. Everythin
that needs to be achieved within Service Design is
covered by this structure. It is helpful to provide
tools and methods that can be used to help and
support in a Service Design project. The list of possible tools and methods is obviously endless. They
very much depend on context and circumstances.
In this paper a set of tools and methods has been
useful to explain and enable practical access. They
are a huge support to understand what needs to
be achieved at different stages of a Service Design
project. The tools for Service Design therefore help
to explain the framework and make Service Design
tangible and practical at the same time.

An overview diagram for the essence of Service

Design was suggested earlier in this paper to
be very helpful. The diagram that has been put
forward earlier in this paper has set out to explain
the complex interactive process in one page. This
overview accommodates the most important
elements. It shows how Service Design acts as
an interface between organisations and clients.
The diagram has been discussed with some of
the experts in the Service Design Network. If the
other members can agree or adopt this overview
so it becomes an agreed diagram it could be one
of the elements that can be used to prole Service
Design and explain what it is.

Conclusion

Service Design

170

171

These resources could then be made available to

service organisations and to business-, marketingand design-education. The review would also help
to identify needs for further development. As for
the integrative nature of the Service Design eld
it is important to include existing resources of the
areas with related expertise.

Service Design process

Pool of competency

What next

To explain what Service Design exactly does in

detail has been recognised to be essential. To
prole how Service Design works it is necessary to
make a process diagram available that shows how
the different elements of Service Design link into
each other. The process that has been introduces
in this paper is a blueprint for Service Design.
It is easy to follow and at the same time not to
generic. It shows how Service Design works, what
it covers and what can support this approach. It
is a map of the complex and interactive process.
Given that people from different backgrounds
have to work together in Service Design this is not
only an important tool to explain and prole the
eld it is a very valuable tool that enables shared
understanding in a Service Design project.

At the moment the pool of Service Design experts

is still limited. Given that Service Design is a
approach that integrates people from different
backgrounds it can be assumed that these people
could learn the additional skills and the pool of
competent people would grow quickly. At the
same time of proling and spreading Service
Design there is a responsibility to make sure that
different educational institutions are supported to
make skilled people and training for professionals
available.

The change from agriculture to manufacturing and

to industrialisation was not quick and easy. It was
difcult, took time and inuenced everything.
Some patience is needed. However, it is important
to recognise that change in our times happens
differently than it used to be.

It is a very different way of approaching the way

we think of the relationship between organisations and clients. It is not about reinventing the
wheel, but about nding a new way to travel.

Service Design needs to become recognised and

proled. It will struggle in positioning as the new
model that everybody should adopt to the holy
grail of business success.

Service Design

To prole Service Design and to make it accessible it is necessary to establish a very good
understanding of the professionals in the service
sector. What are the problems that they perceive
the strongest? What are the constrains they have
to face? If Service Design can be seen as a service
itself it needs to consider its clients, involve them
in the process and develop a service concept that
works for them. Not only research and observation
but also workshops together with practitioners
will help to reveal what they are most interested in
and how it can be offered.

To design services the classic project structure

is not always adequate. Service Design needs to
offer organisations different modules that address
the ongoing and iterative nature of services but
that are compatible with the way the organisation
works.

The suggestion here is that Service Design is not

about doing more research. It is not about designing scripts for phone operators. It is not just about
doing extensive service testing:

173

172

Conclusion

Understanding audience

The conclusion here is simply: Services are an

important part of the economy, they are not as
productive and satisfying as they should be and
therefore they need to be designed better.

It needs to pick up the people that work in organisations, that are smart and that already think
about what they do. They know their organisation
and are key for Service Design to be successful.

Appendix

Service Design

174

175

APPENDIX

Glossary
The following is a selection of terms that are
relevant denitions for this paper and for Service
Design.

A
Added value
Over and above the norm delivery. The possibility
for an organisation to delivery beyond client expectations. Service Design can create added value
for example in showing to clients the intangible
service that they already get in a new way so they
can perceive it.

B
Behavioural mapping
Photographing people within a space, such as a
waiting room, over a period of time.

Business plan
Financial and economic case with narratives and
numbers, tables and spread sheets to validate the
concept and assess the viability, returns and risks.

C
Character prole
Please see tools & methods

Client
In this work the word client is used consistently
instead of customer, consumer or user. This is
representing the change of thinking in Service
Design towards seeing and treating clients as
important and part of the process. The word client
is more formal than customer. It gives the client
more respect and a special role.

Customer
Blueprinting (Service Blueprinting)

Someone who purchases or rents something

from an individual or organisation. Therefore this
person pays for goods or services. Informal for
client.

Consumer

Appendix

Service Design
177

Someone who uses services or products. Not

necessarily at the same time the customer who
pays for it.

176

Mapping a service journey, identifying the

processes that constitute the service, isolating
possible fail points and establishing the duration
of the various stages for the journey. Method for
exploring the (mainly) qualitative components
during different experiences with the service.
A Service Blueprint is an operational tool that
describes a service in enough detail to implement
and maintain it.

Client journey

Design process

Experience Design

All the interactions a client has with a product,

service or space over a certain period of time.

Stages that a product or service will pass through

during its design. The stages are generally shown
in chronological order but the process is, in
practice, highly iterative.

Approach to creating successful experiences for

people in any medium. This approach includes
consideration and design in all 3 spatial dimensions, over time, all 5 common senses and
interactivity.

D
Design
Translating a problem into a solution for a specic
user group. This is true for products, spaces
and services. Design deals with researching,
understanding, analysing and solving problems,
achieving improvements in a commercial environment and is always addressing users. Designers
create multi-dimensional concepts that add value
to peoples lives, are desirable, useful, viable
and commercially successful. Design provides a
holistic perspective on life, society, economy and
on what drives people it therefore is about the
understanding of complex issues.

178

Appendix

Design management
Totality of the design activity, its administration
and contribution to an organisations performance. Design management includes the organisation and implementation of the process for
developing new and improving existing products
and services.

Self knowledge about characteristics and features.

A collection of channels that work together to
create an image.

Desirability
The quality of being worth desiring.

E
Effectiveness
Ability to achieve stated goals or objectives,
judged in terms of both output and impact.

Efciency
The ratio of output to input. Making the most of
resources and investment.

Ethnography
The systematic and immersive study of human
cultures (from Anthropology).

Emotions
Feelings clients experience and attach to events,
people, products and / or services. Emotions
describe clients emotional attachment and
understanding of people, artefacts and events.

Experience
Clients sensation of the interaction with services
through all senses, over time and on both physical
and cognitive levels.

Experience prototype

Interface

Simulation of the anticipated experiences of

those who deliver and use the service including
all Touchpoints during the service experience.
Enables a Service Design team to gain appreciation
of existing or future conditions through active
engagement with prototypes.

The boundary or surface between two different

distiguishable entities.

Extreme User Interviews

Talking to people who really know or know nothing about a product or service and evaluating
their experience using it.

Internal customer
One who is inuenced or affected by an organisation, or who directly works within it.

L
Launch champion
Person who organises or oversees all aspects of
the service launch.

Evidences
Show the effect and difference that a Service
Design will make.

M
Market

G
Goals
Driven by human motivations, which change very
slowly, if at all over time. Goals are end conditions,
whereas a task is an intermediate step that helps
to reach a goal.

Mechanism which allows people to trade, normally

governed by the theory of supply and demand.
The service sector accounts for almost 80% of
UK employment and contributes to 67% of the
economy, yet receives just 16.5% of research and
development investment. Across the EU, service
growth is at 15%, while manufacturing is growing
at just 5%.

Service Design

A combination of ideas formed in the mind.

Something conceived in the minds such as a plan,
a design, a mental image or a thought. Describes
a set of ideas for a service design component or
system.

Identity

179

Concept

Mock-up

Prototyping

Service Design

Service Design Scout

Models, illustrations, collages that explain

concepts, ideas and visions.

A scaled down system or portion of a system is

constructed in a short time, tested, and improved
in several iterations

Service Design is planning and shaping useful,

usable, desirable, effective and efcient client
experiences across Touchpoints and over time.

A person dedicated to identify and organise

Service Design projects in an organisation.

R
RATER

Multi-disciplinary
Several professions working together toward
common goals.

O
Offering
Provided value (product or service).

P
Perception

180

Appendix

Process by which customers organise and

interpret their sensory impressions in order to
give meaning to their environment. Perception is
affected by attitudes, motives, interests, pastexperience and expectations.

Common reference to the ve dimensions of

service quality. It refers to reliability, assurance,
tangibles, empathy and responsiveness. It has
been dened in SERVQUAL by Zeithaml et.al.

S
Scenario
Description and conguration of what the user is
likely to do with the service.

Documentation that describes the primary purpose of a service and gives guidance in a Service
Design project.

Service Design data mining

Service
Intangible, interactive client experience across
different Touchpoints and over time.

Quantitative data on aspects of a service. This

could relate to service use, conguration, market
and technological trends etc.

Service Blueprinting

Service Design Guide

Please see Blueprinting

Outside Service Design consultant that helps a

dedicated in house person with the facilitation of
workshops or projects.

Project

Service Ecology

A complex assignment involving more than one

type of activity and production.

A service ecology is the system of actors and the

relationships between them that form a service.

Plan
To have the will and intention to carry
out some action. A series of steps to be
carried out or goals to be accomplished.

Service Design brief

Service Evidences
Show the effect and difference that a Service
Design will make.

Service Design Manager

A project leader who is a constant member of the
Service Design team and outside experts. Responsible for ensuring effective communication,
co-ordination of the Service Design process and
decision maker.

Service sector
Defence, Health, Manufacturing, Education, Law
& order, Telecommunication, Transport, Leisure,
Environment & agriculture, Taxation, Banking &
nance, Retail.

SERVQUAL
Method for measuring service quality. The model
is based on the premise that the best way to
measure service quality is to base it on the customers experience of quality. SERVQUAL breaks
service quality down to ve basic dimensions,
often referred to as RATER.

Stage gateway
Milestone and decision point relating to continuation, or otherwise, of service development
projects.

Stakeholder
Individual, either from inside or outside an organisation, who needs to be considered, is involved
with, has an interest in or could be affected by a
service.

Service Design

Denition of experiences of the service that make

a signicant impression on the customer.

Improving an existing or developing new kinds

of services. Service Design is the eld concerned
with the development of services to meet specic
needs. These services may make use of different communication media (including online,
telephone, in-person, etc..), may or may not be
automated, and may or may not use products as
part of the service experience.

181

Moments of truth

Service specication

Sensualisation

Usefulness

Documentation that prescribes the requirements

to which the service has to conform. A service
specication should refer to or include drawings,
patterns or other relevant documents and should
also indicate the means and criteria whereby
conformity can be checked.

Extends the concept of visualisation to all other

senses (hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, moving, etc.). The sense of sight is the strongest sense
for most human beings. Hearing is the next most
signicant channel of information for humans.

The quality of being of practical use.

Usability
The ease with which a service component can be
used.

Service components

Unique selling proposition

Parts that assemble a total service.

Team

Statement that identies what makes a service or

organisation different from competitors.

Servicescape
The role of physical surroundings in and how
physical environments relate to a service.

Service evidence

Group of professionals that can include various

experts and clients.

Touchpoints
Individual tangibles or interactions that make up
the total experience of a service.

V
Videography
Short lms that depict the consumer experience
or illustrate a scenario.

People, process, and physical cues.

Tool

Storytelling
Promting people to tell personal stories about
their consumer experiences. Also a method to
explain scenarios.

Appendix
182

Precisely specifying implementation steps and

requirements.

Make intangible complex concepts visible. Helps

to envisage future ideas in visually illustrating
how it would work.

U
User
The person that uses a product, system or service.

User Centred Design

Specication

Visualisation

User Centred Design is an approach that supports

the entire development process with user-centred
activities, in order to create applications which are
easy to use and are of added value to the intended
users.

Service Design

Observing people using products & services (going to hospitals, shopping, taking the train, using
their mobile phones etc.).

Device or item used to perform or facilitate work.

Used in (improving) the performance of an operation. Tools are always suitable for a particular job.

183

Shadowing

Service Design tools & methods

In the section that specied the framework of
Service Design tasks several tools and methods
have been put forward. The list of tools and
methods available is endless. The main reason to
add this element was to the overview as it makes
it very clear what the six categories are about in
practical reality.
In the following section of the appendix all the
tools and methods that have been listed will be
explained in a very short format. Some of the tools
and methods are existing in some of the elds
of related expertise, some have been adopted for
Service Design and some have been developed
new. The index in the bottom helps to identify
this.

http://mycoted.com/creativity/techniques
http://nada.kth.se/cid/usor
http://www.dsr-group.com
http://goodgestreet.com
http://smart.uiah./luotain
http://bmrc.berkeley.edu
http://www.interaction.rca.ac.uk
http://www.hcibook.com
http://hostserver150.com/usabilit/tools
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://thinking.net
http://ideo.com
Please see bibliography for further sources

Adopted tool or method

New tool or method

Service Design

185

Existing tool or method

Appendix

184

It needs to be noted that it was chosen to describe

these tools and methods to support the overview.
Some of them are very easy to understand and
to use, whereas some others are more complex.
To use any of the tools they can easily be found
online. Some of the most useful sites have been
listed here. It is recommended to get help from
Service Design consultancies or expert companies
from the respective backroundds to assist in using
these tools and methods. These professionals
will be able to help nding additional tools and
methods as well as ensuring that they are adopted
to the individual situation and project.

Sources for tools and methods online:

Context Analysis

Benchmarking

Looking at providers that offer a different

service but with similar characteristics. Service
Design can identify general principles and
look for areas that address these principles
already. It is helpful to look at the service that
is developed from a different perspective as
well as to learn from experience that other
companies have in providing services with
characteristics that are the same to the service
that is developed.

Method to understand the overall context of

the service. All variables are collected that can
affect on the organisation, the client or the
service.

For example an airport modied the software

that is used in a hospital to allocate patients to
beds to allocate planes to parking positions.

Contextual interviews

For Service Design client segmentation helps

to identify different types of clients, ages,
incomes, attitudes, needs, frequency of use,
etc.

It is important that the observer is familiar

with the domain the service is operating
in. The results need to be documented and
interpreted.
This is a very good way to get qualitative data
about the usage of services. In Service Design
contextual interviews give rich insights into
clients behaviour and environment and their
interaction with a service.
Service Design

For example economy class versus business

class services are based on different client
segments.

Clients are interviewed in the relevant

environment. The interviews take place as
close to where the client is in contact with a
service as possible. Data is generated whilst
clients perform real tasks. The interview takes
place based on the client using a service.
The interviewer nds out why they are doing
certain things or what their expectations
are for example. The information is captured
either in audio, video or note format.

186

187

For most services it helps to identify different

client segment groups. It is the process of
splitting existing clients, or potential clients,
in a certain market into different groups, or
segments, within which clients share a similar
level of interest in the same or comparable set
of needs satised by a distinct service proposition. Segmentation based on client needs
and wants helps to understand the potential
different types of services are needed.

Appendix

Client segmentation

Ecology map

A service ecology is a mapped out system of

actors within a service and the relationships
between them.
Mapping service ecologies is a process that
helps to establish a systemic view of the
service and the context it will operate in. The
Service Ecology maps actors affected by a
service and the way they relate to each other in
order to reveal new opportunities and inspire
ideas. This helps to establish the overall service
concept. This systemic view helps for example
to create service ecologies that are sustainable, where the actors involved exchange value
in ways that is mutually benecial over time.

188

For example the loss of electricity could be

very limiting or even eliminate parts of a
service. Service Design could make sure that in
this case alternative solutions are provided.

The systematic and immersive study of human

cultures (from Anthropology).

Service Design

Analysing factors that could threaten a

service or that could go wrong. By looking at
the journey that a client goes through when
a service works, all elements are identied
and listed that are critical to the service but
that would damage the service experience if
they didnt work. For the design of services
it is an opportunity for ultimate involvement
to eliminate as many of these problems as
possible or to develop solutions to better cope
with such eventualities.

Ethnography

Critical Incident Technique

Appendix

The ecology map gives everybody in the

Service Design project a good overview of the
stakeholders, clients and suppliers of a service
system. The map is designed based on desk
research and interviews and can be discussed
with the different actors to establish a correct
understanding.

189

Contextual Enquiry

A specic name for a style of user interview,

conducted within the context of the customers activities. This approach enables
and combines the benets of observational
approaches and the standard face-to-face
interview. It is intended to be an interactive
exploration of the issues, hence the reason for
being called enquiry rather than interview.

Focus groups

A small group of people is selected to have

a guided discussion about a selected idea or
issue. This qualitative method is used to learn
from clients sharing their thoughts, opinions,
feelings, attitudes and misconceptions about
an issue in an intimate setting. A facilitator or
moderator is required. Focus groups deliver
insights to peoples views and opinions and
for Service Design it is an interesting method
to identify what people really think about a
service and get their opinions on new ideas,
improvements, barriers etc.

Focus Groups have been used to talk to a

group of clients about their experience with
service hotlines to identify what is perceived
as important service features. This method
of investigation can be used to generate and
lter ideas, too.

19 0

To interpret the market expert interviews

is important as pitfalls, trends, problems,
important constraints as well as possible solutions for the Service Design project can often
be found within them.

The mix of outside perspective with the

knowledge of experts can help to establish a
new network of understanding. The experts
need to be carefully selected and questions
should be based on criteria as well as focused
on one aspect of the service.
E

Gap analysis

Talking to specialists and experts with experience from the eld a Service Design project
aims to improve can reveal insights and help in
a very short time to understand essentials of
a new environment. Designing a service often
takes a team into new areas, and talking to
experts helps to gain understanding and views
on the subject.

The analytical process focuses on identifying

gaps, inefciencies, inconsistencies and
variances, and other weaknesses in service
delivery.
It is likely that the customers are realistic
about some services and very demanding
about others. Knowing this allows facilities to
invest resources in the areas where expectations are the highest. Once expectations are
known, the gap between the levels of service
expected and the levels of service delivered
can be measured.
Negative gaps need to be addressed by
improving the service levels and/or inuencing
expectations by very effective communica-

tions about circumstances affecting service

levels.
The Gap Index is the difference between the
level of service that the customer expects to
receive as versus the level of service that the
customer evaluates as received. For example,
if a customer evaluates a certain service at a
4 level more than satisfactory while they
expect service to be delivered at a 3 satisfactory level, there is a positive gap. If their
expectation is higher at the 5 excellence
level, there is a negative gap.

Service Design

Appendix

Expert interviews

191

Experience test

To test how a service is experienced a test person is observed and interviewed afterwards.
To nd out what clients do, what they think
and how they feel. The experience is tested in
an environment that is as close to reality as
possible. Sometimes this can be also reality.

Interview

A face-to-face discussion with usually one

person to collect information or opinions.
Interviews can be recorded in video, audio
or note format. They need to be analysed
afterwards. Questions are prepared before the
interview. It is a quick and very qualitative
way of getting to know more. Sometimes it
is valuable if the interviewer is able to read
between the lines. Interviews are used in
Service Design to get peoples opinion or to
learn about their experience, expectations etc.

192

Market segmentation

To discover gaps and opportunities in clients

lives. By analysing a situation that clients
perceive as inconvenient this method helps
to understand potential service offering
opportunities. The service opportunity lies
in resolving the inconvenient situation. The
journey of (potential) clients is analysed over
time using other methods (e.g. Thinking
Aloud, Focus Groups, Interviews, etc.). Issues
which could cause inconvenience are identied
and various possible causes determined. The
driver of inconvenience is an insight that can
help to offer a new service that resolves this
inconvenience.

For clients it could be very inconvenient that

their lawyer is not available immediately to
nish an urgent contract. The insight that
clients sometimes need unpredicted urgent
help can lead to a new feature or a complete
new service. This method helps to identify
things and areas that clients may not think
about or are not consciously aware of.

Any market can be divided into different areas

or segments. This can be based on geographic
areas, amount of purchase or other factors. For
Service Design the segmentation into different
parts based on relevant criteria is important to
address the different needs, opportunities and
constraints of these different segments with
the service concept.

Service Design

Appendix

Inconvenience Analysis

193

Historical analysis

Looking at the historic development or

background of a service, need or solution. By
researching and analysing the roots and the
progress a lot can be learned about different
constraints, inuences and drivers for change
in an environment and / or context. Historical
analysis needs to be focused on one question
that is relevant for the Service Design development and always involves understanding the
different tangents and historical contexts too.
It delivers a broad understanding of the nature
and context of the service as well as a different
perspectives. In Service Design this view can
for example help to solve old issues with new
technologies.

Mystery shoppers can be used also to test

what services are being offered by competitive
organisations.

Clients and their behaviour is ovserved. This

can happen either in a person watching them
or in installing cameras. The advantage of lming the observation is that very rich material
can be analysed afterwards. The observation
technique can be used to identify how clients
use a service. This can reveal for example that
certain factors trigger longer waiting time.
From observing how clients behave many
different service improvements can be considered. It is important helpful if observation is
based on objectives or specic questions.

Observation can be used also to identify

and evaluate how service prototypes work.
But mainly it is a rich source to learn about
behaviour and the way service systems work.

194

It is important that clear questions and

parameters are used as the basis for this
understanding method as the information
available is vast. The ndings need to be
interpreted to establish the relevance for the
project. Important is to check sources carefully
and to take into consideration their quality as
well as that every point has a counterpoint.

Probes

To review sources on the internet is becoming increasingly important. The internet is

a huge historic as well as and up-to-date
resource. Given that Service Design projects
often involve new variants and conditions Net
Scouting is a good initial way of establishing
an understanding of the market conditions
and environment. It can also help to identify
existing solutions in other areas, be a valuable
tool to nd out about statistics, market share
and different development trends and identify
new markets.

Probe packs are used to gain qualitative data

about peoples lives. They are collections of
tasks designed to elicit information. Probes
can include diaries, photo-cameras and other
tools that are supplied to clients together with
instructions. Clients are then asked to document a day in their life or while performing a
certain task, to take photos of good services
etc.

For Service Design Probes represent a simple

way to involve clients and to gain insights
based on real client behaviour and views.
Probes were used by the Royal College of Art
Interaction Design group to study the way
people see their own homes. Volunteers were
solicited through a newspaper advert and the
results used to enable designers to get a feel
of the meaning of home for many people.

A probes-pack and instructions need careful

preparation. The data that is produced can be
very visual, real and can be used to communicate authentically about clients. The packs
need to be analysed and interpreted.
E

Service Design

Appendix

Net scouting

195

This method has been used successfully to

make sure that employees are encouraged to
give their best and to control the client experience. Mystery shoppers reveal insights in the
perception of the service on the front stage.
These ndings can then be used to identify
possible improvements back stage.

Observation

Mystery shoppers

Actors or researchers act as though they

were normal clients. A service is consumed
and then the person reports back on their
experience. This can reveal problems, work
as a quality check or test specic details of a
service. Mystery shoppers are a very useful
way of ensuring service quality and consistent
service performance.

For example to redesign a hospital unit a

overall understanding of the illness that is
treated there is crucial.

It is important that the shadowing activity

is not intruding and does not inuence the
behaviour of clients. Shadowing is a qualitative method where the ndings need to be
interpreted post-research.

196

Appendix

For a Service Design project that can inuence

the starting point and scope of the project. It
is important to identify why a new service is
needed to ensure that the service innovation
project ts into the current offering.

Thinking aloud

Service status

This method identies whether there is the

need for a service to be improved or innovated.
For the design process it makes a difference if
an existing service offer needs to be improved,
or if a new additional service needs to be created. Based on the same principal as Product
Status this method identies if the existing
Service fulls a need in an efcient way or
what new potentials might be. If a new service
potential is discovered it might be possible to
create a new service if the old one is still valid
to exist aside.

Following clients around and observing their

behaviour. Shadowing can be recorded by
a video camera or captured in still images.
Mostly shadowing is done by one researcher
that observes clients in their natural environment performing tasks and consuming
products or services in a natural way. Shadowing can be used with hidden cameras and for
example micro cameras installed in clients
glasses.

Clients are asked to explain and talk about

what they think whilst using a service. This
helps to reveal their expectations, experience
and problems of using the service. The client is
prompted and encouraged to speak out aloud
by the researcher. Questions such as So, what
is your reaction to this message? help to
promt clients think about how their perception
works. It reveals problems and underlying
reasons for difculties.
Thinking Aloud is documenting every step that
the client makes with their explanation either
in video, audio or notes form. Im clicking on
this button because I want to nd out how I
can contact them. I expect them to offer me a

Shadowing can help to gain in-depth understanding of clients natural behaviours. In

Service Design it is a good opportunity to learn
about clients interaction with a service e.g.
to understand how people work in a waterplant they are followed by a researcher with a
camera for one full day.

free phone number so I can give them a call.

could be a potential Thinking Aloud result. The
material needs to be reviewed and interpreted
into insights such as a free phone number is
expected. In the project it could be an idea
to put the free phone number directly on the
home page to save clients clicks and time for
example.

Service Design

At times specic trade literature and specialised material can be very valuable to be read.
It is important to keep in mind objectives,
questions and not to lose the bigger picture.

197

Shadowing

Reading

Even though this might be obvious, reading

is an important source of knowledge, and for
understanding specialist elds. Given that
Service Design reading is crucial as every
Service Design project involves new areas and
the team needs to have an understanding of
clients backgrounds and environments. Reading gives access to understanding the context
of the service that is designed

Trends need to be translated into insights

for Service Design projects so that they
can be used to specify the offer, identify
new markets, new possibilities and the way
services are communicated e.g. the emergence
of customisation can mean that people will
come to expect more tailor-made services.

5 whys

This methods encourages clients to examine

and express the underlying reasons for their
behaviours and attitudes.
The inverviewer askes ve times why. The
client therefore is encouaged to explain the
reasons behind the rst answer.
It was used by IDEO to interview dieting
women around the US to understand their
attitudes and behaviours around weight loss.

198

A small group of people is selected to have

a guided discussion about a selected idea or
issue. This qualitative method is used to learn
from clients sharing their thoughts, opinions,
feelings, attitudes and misconceptions about
an issue in an intimate setting. A facilitator or
moderator is required. Focus groups deliver
insights to peoples views and opinions and
for Service Design it is an interesting method
to identify what people really think about a
service and get their opinions on new ideas,
improvements, barriers etc.

Focus Groups have been used to talk to a

group of clients about their experience with
service hotlines to identify what is perceived
as important service features. This method
of investigation can be used to generate and
lter ideas, too.

Service Design

Focus groups

Information is collected and analysed on

characteristics of clients, purposes for using
the services, reasons for satisfaction or
dissatisfaction, details, patterns, needs and
service priorities.

Appendix

User surveys

199

Trend scouting

Identifying overall trends through holistic

lifestyle observations. By reading magazines,
visiting fairs and researching online, trends
can be identied. Opinion leaders, specialists
and experts can be interviewed to get their
views on the directions that culture, society,
politics and technology are going. Trend
scouting for Service Design helps identify key
changes in social and cultural life that will
affect perceptions.

Everything that is less relevant (has no inuence on the Service Design) is lled in the eld
Open. Issues that still need to be researched
(not known but will possibly inuence the
Service Design) is lled in the eld Research.
This establishes an overview of the status
of research and relevant knowledge for the
Service Design project. It helps to highlight
areas of research that still need to be covered
and then becomes a summary of the insights
and facts that are the basis for the service idea
and / or concept development.

If security is key for the service a special vault

of a bank can be visited and the learnings will
inspire the service design and offer solutions
that can be integrated in the project. Brainstorming can help to identify other elds of
inspirational specialists.

Components that are already used, tried and

tested can be identied to be used in the
development of a Service Design concept. If
an interactive screen works well already for
clients to purchase tickets it can be used to
book a treatment in a hospital.

Service Design

Tested & tried components

If a certain quality is identied for a service

concept the analysis of a very different area
can help to provide insights about this quality.
For example, if it is crucial for a service to be
exible look for other elds in which exibility
is key e.g. a circus could be chosen as specialist
in exibility. Understanding different principles that are used by a circus to be exible
will help from a very different perspective
to translate some of the principles into the
service concept.

201

200

Appendix

Inspirational specialists

Insight matrix

This matrix helps to establish an overview of

the insights available and needed for a Service
Design project. It assesses the insight status
of a Service Design project (what is known,
needs to be found out, can be assumed and
can be left open). The matrix can then be used
to decide whether to conduct more research
or to generate ideas based on existing insights
and assumptions. This matrix is always used
in relation to a specic project, specication
or brief. Everything that can be specied or
decided (clear facts that nobody will question
or disagree with) is lled in the eld Assumptions.

Brutethink

It starts with a clear statement of the problem

or goal and provide a time limit for the session.
Each participant should think of ideas and
write them individually (for example on index
cards). The cards are then arranged into related
groups. For each grouping a title or heading
is created that describes the theme of each
group.

To develop strategic ideas and solutions is a

difcult process in which a team can get stuck.
To open up this situation and the thinking
process Brutethink helps to create a new
perspective with random stimuli. For example
a random word can be brought into a problem
(from a dictionary, magazine or book). The
team brainstorms things that are associated
with the randomly picked word. Then the team
tries to think about connections between the
random word and the challenge and between
the associated things and the challenge. All the
ideas and solutions are listed and evaluated.

C = Clients: those who receive gain or loss from

what the system does.
A = Actors: those who can act in the system.

202

Appendix

T = Transformation: what the system does to

change inputs into outputs.

O = Owners: those with power over the

system, that can even make it stop if they wish
E = Environment: constraints and limitations
for output of the system.
System can equal service.
Out of the CATWOE elements a rich problem
denition can be formulated, which can be
reformulated or shortened afterwards.

A graphic technique for identifying cause-andeffect relationships among factors in a given

situation or problem. Also called Ishikawa
Diagramming.
Helps if a problem needs to be studies or the
couse determined. In Service Design it can be
used for example to identify areas for data
collection an to investigate why a process is
not performing properly.
The diagram, like other problem solving
techniques, is a heuristic tool. As such, it
helps to organise thoughts and structure the
quality improvement process.

W = World view: wider context of the system,

or the values, ethics behind the system

Service Design

A simple checklist that can be used to stimulate thinking about problems and solutions.
The title CATWOE is made up of the rst letters
of the elements of the checklist:

Fishbone diagram

CATWOE

203

Affinity diagram

An Afnity Diagram is a creative process

to gather and organise insights, ideas and
opinions. It helps adding structure to a large or
complicated issue, breaking down a complicated issue into broad categories or gaining
agreement on an issue or situation.

Mind map

Mind-mapping is a special way of documenting

thoughts and their connections. Mind Maps
radiate from one problem or idea at the centre
and use lines, symbols, words and images to
write down a system of connected insights,
ideas and solutions. Mind Maps work in line
with your brains natural way of thinking. They
can be used to draw an overview of a large
complex subject or area. For Service Design
this is important think about services from
a big picture and see the different systemic
connections.

204

Serious Play uses three-dimensional thinking

by creating and constructing metaphors to
describe real situations an organisation faces.
Building landscape models with LEGO bricks,
giving them meaning through storytelling
and playing-out various possible scenarios
deepens understanding, sharpens insight and
creates strong bonds among the group of

participants. The team communicates more

effectively, engages their imaginations more
readily and approach their work with increased
condence, commitment and insight. This
allows for taking dialogues to deeper levels.
In Service Design projects it an ideal way for
all team members to take an active part in
the proces. It is a completely new platform for
thinking and communicating.

Parallel thinking

LEGO Serious Play can be used to explore

relationships and connections between people
and their worlds in new and enlightening ways.
During the process it is possible to observe
both internal and external dynamics, explore
various scenarios and quickly gain an awareness of a variety of possibilities.

With the traditional argument or adversarial

thinking each side takes a different position
and then seeks to attack the other side. Each
side seeks to prove that the other side is
wrong. Adversarial thinking completely lacks
a constructive, creative or design element. It
was intended only to discover the truth not
to build anything.
is a technique of problem solving by approaching problems indirectly at diverse
angles instead of concentrating on one approach at length. This is especially helpful for
a team as it ensures that everybody looks at a
problem from the same angle. What happens is
that a team does not discuss about a problem

from all different angles at the same time

which often can be confusing and unproductive. Every angle is discussed together so that
the reference system is the same.

Service Design

Appendix

LEGO serious play

205

Lateral thinking

Lateral thinking is concerned with the perception part of thinking. It has been established
by Edward de Bono. He denes it as a
technique of problem solving by approaching
problems indirectly at diverse angles instead
of concentrating on one approach at length.
Techniques that apply Lateral thinking to
problems are characterised by the shifting of
thinking patterns away from entrenched or
predictable thinking to new or unexpected
ideas.

System thinking

Systems thinking involves the use of various

techniques to study systems of many kinds.
It includes studying things in a holistic way,
rather than purely reductionist techniques.
It focuses on the interactions in a system.
It aims to gain insights into the whole by
understanding the linkages, interactions and
processes between the elements that comprise
the whole system. Systems thinking can
help in Service Design to understand complex
problems that involve multiple actors and a
great number of interactions.

206

Think tank

A written document that species the scope

of a Service Design project or of a specic
service. The specication can be a growing
document that evolves based on new insights
but is always in line shared and agreed with
the team and based on the Service Strategy.
It represents a detailed goal description and
contains criteria for success. The specication
document is especially important for long
term and big scale projects. It helps the project
team to have a shared focus point and to make
sure that the project stays on track.

An open discussion between experts. Based

on questions, problems or ideas a Think Tank
involves specialists to develop solutions and
share their expertise. A Think Tank can be used
involving senior staff of the organisation to
develop or evolve the service strategy. This is
essential to set objectives, criteria and direction for the Service Design project.

Service Design

Appendix

Specification

207

Personality matrix

A method that is based on the four different

areas of human personalities. This method has
been developed in psychology (C. G. Jung) and
is used in branding to identify the personality
of a brand and to ensure that all communication is inline with this positioning. All Touchpoints of a service are designed to be inline
with the same service personality.

Priority matrix

Touchpoints can take various forms, from

advertising to personal cards, web- mobile
phone- and PC interfaces, bills, retail shops,
call centres and customer representatives.
In Service Design, all Touchpoints needs to be
concidered in totality and crafted in order to
create a clear, consistent and unied client
experience.

Helps to sort tasks by their priority. Draw

two lines in shape of a letter L where the
importance in one direction and urgency in the
other direction. Map out where tasks sit. Tasks
that are important and urgent need to be dealt
with right away. Tasks that are important but
not urgent can wait. Tasks that are urgent but
not important can be delegated. Tasks that are
not important and not urgent can be either
delegated or as well denied.
To design services is a complex team project
over time. To manage priorities is crucial for
the success of these kind of projects.

208

Is a visual thinking method. Elements in a

business process are laid out in a linear fashion
(left to right) using key words and symbols,
with process ows mapped out using lines
and arrows. This powerful visual diagramming
method has been used widely to simplify
business processes, by eliminating steps that
dont add value.

Picture Thinking or Visual Thinking is the

phenomenon of thinking through visual
processing, what most people would think
with linguistic or verbal processing. It is non
linear and often has the nature of a computer
simulation. Where in lots of data is put
through a process to yield insight into complex
systems, which would otherwise be almost
impossible through language.
To share thoughts with a team, organisation and / or clients, visualising concepts,
strategies and thoughts can help to create
an united vision. Words can be a limited tool
and misunderstandings can be bigger when
restricting thinking to only be based on

language. Many elements of Service Design are

difcult to explain with words. Visual thinking
can be supported by drawing, selecting and
combining images or other materials.

Service Design

Visual thinking

Total quality flow charting

Appendix

209

Touchpoints

Individual tangibles or interactions that make

up the total experience of a service.

Brain-writing, -shaping, etc.

Brain-writing, -shaping, -racing, -station,

-charting
Variations of brainstorms (see brainstorm)
that are adopted to specic needs of certain
projects. Somebody in the team can write
down ve ideas. The next person selects one
of these ideas and develops ve ideas based
on that idea. Different materials can be used
in a brainstorm to shape and build ideas and
talk about them. Drawing can be used in a
similar way. Given that Service Design projects
can have different needs and are often about
experiences and complex interactions these
other techniques can be very helpful.

210

A brainstorm needs to be facilitated to ensure

the rules are applied, to make sure all ideas
are written down and to manage timing. A
brainstorm ideally takes place in an inspiring

and positive environment. Depending on the

subject the environment can be themed. Various prompts and objects can help to inspire
ideas. At several stages of a Service Design
project problems need to be solved and ideas
need to be generated. A brainstorm is a very
cheap, fast and effective way to generate a big
number of ideas.

Experience sketching

Developing a large number of ideas with a

group of people. It is a meeting in which everybody is encouraged to have wild ideas and
where no criticism should take place. The goal
is to generate a great number of ideas and all
ideas are written down. Usually a brainstorm
is targeted towards one issue which is then
bombarded with ideas. Ideally the ideas build
on each other. The brainstorm can invite
people with an expert or outside perspective
to inspire the group with surprising ideas.

This is a special form of group sketching that

focuses on the experience that clients have in
using and performing a service. It helps the
team to project themselves in the perspective
of the client and to imagine and plan how they
feel, what they expect and experience. Again
sketching is helpful for the team to share the
same platform.

Service Design

Appendix

Brainstorming

211

Body-storming

The people in a group assemble systems and

try and act out different ideas and possible
solutions. The check-in process in an airport
can be played by a group of people. Every one
person represents one process, function or
touch-point. Different scenarios can be played
through to develop new ways of combining
existing systems and how to adopt and add on
to them. It is a very helpful way of achieving
transparency of complex interactive systems.
It needs to be facilitated and can be documented either by lming or taking photos.

212

maximal fteen people in one session. After

the time of the rst session is over another
set of sessions can be run so that everybody
has the opportunity to host sessions and visit
sessions. There can be as many sets of sessions
as time allows and there are topics, insights
and problems to generate ideas from. Every
host writes up a session report that includes
all the ideas that have been developed. It is a
very good possibility to work together with
different people including experts, clients and
to generate a huge amount of ideas.

Two or more groups are working on the

same design brief at the same time. They
brainstorm, sketch or prototype ideas and
solutions for the same problem. The results
can be compared and build upon. It is possible
to swop teams after a period of time to take
the work that another group has done further.
Not only to have fresh and different views on
the same subject this is helpful. As well to
make sure that the best Service Design can be
identied. The outcome can be several valid
solutions for the same problem. Sometimes
different elements can be combined for one
strong concept that addresses several perspectives.

Service Design

After an idea or a concept has been developed

it can be discussed with either experts or
clients. This helps to gain additional understanding and to develop the idea further. This
interview can be based on a very simple idea
statement or as well on an elaborate prototype
or mock-up.

To generate ideas in a big group of people

this method is used to run several sessions of
brainstorms simultaneously. Different issues
or problems that somebody is passionate
about can be posted. The person that posted a
session will be in one area of a room equipped
mostly with a ip-chart. Everybody that
is interested in a session can go there and
participate. Everyone works only on topics
they are interesting and that they feel passionate about. They can leave a session at any time
to visit another one. Sessions last between half
an hour to one day. There can be three or more
sessions at the same time, depending on the
amount of people available. As a rough guideline there should be about at least three and

213

Group sketching

Open space technology

Parallel design

Appendix

Idea interview

Sketching is a very quick and cheap way of

developing ideas and their explanations at the
same time. It is easier to remember the ideas
and to talk about them. A service idea can
be sketched in a comic format if it is about a
series of events over time. Given that people
from different backgrounds talk about service
ideas, sketching helps to share and discuss.
Designers might have trained sketching as part
of their education. It is important for them
to forget about rendering and to encourage
other team members to draw simple stickmen.
Everyone can draw and sketch to explain ideas
in a symbolic way. For example the game
Pictionary highlights how people visualise
hings diferently. See also Visual thinkning

Feature tree

214

Service Design

Interviewing a very diverse group of people

that are related to the subject in special ways.
Subject experts and people that dont know
anything about the subject are brainstorming
or discussing about ideas and solutions. Given
that the group is mixed and has very different
experience with the subject the results and
ideas are often open, unique and have a fresh
perspective. In Service Design this helps to
come up with innovative ideas for new services
or how to improve existing services.

Appendix

Unfocus group

A tree diagram is drawn that shows different

features (needs, functions or elements of a
service). For each of the branches it captures
different ideas to achieve that. Different
concepts can be created in combining each
one of the idea branches of all the feature
branches. For example a service could have
a waiting area and complaint function. The
different ideas how the waiting are could
look like and how the complaint system could
work can be combined to generate concepts
and new ideas. In Service Design this helps to
create combinations that can incorporate more
than one feature.

215

Randomiser

To create concepts and complex solutions

different ideas can be combined. Randomiser
combines different elements or ideas randomly. The easiest way is to put ideas in card
format and take one random card from each
stack. It can be realised with a software as
well. It helps to develop concepts and generate
more ideas. If a service addresses several issues or problems than the ideas and solutions
for these individual problems can be combined
randomly to develop these combinations
further.

Contrary to personas, character proles are

not based on in-depth research. They are
therefore cheaper and quicker but at the same
time dont represent proles that can be

Cognitive walkthrough

referenced in detail. They help to have a shared

understanding of the clients and to represent
them throughout a project in a tangible way.
In various stages of a Service Design project
they can help as inspiration, criteria in asking
What would Sarah think about this idea?
Would that work for John? etc.

This method is sometimes also called Codiscovery learning. This method is based upon
the client thinking out loud while performing a
specic task, and the evaluator recording this
is some way. By having two users cooperating
instead of one, a more natural way of thinking
aloud is present.
The results from a Constructive interaction
session are a lot of qualitative data. Due to
this fact, the number of clients does not have
to be so large, a lot of important and valuable
information could be obtained with just a few
clients.

Service Design

Help to establish a shared understanding in a

team to who the clients of a particular service
are. A character prole usually is an image and
a short and relevant description of a ctional
character. The purpose is to help the team
understand and imagine what sort of client
that might be and therefore what needs,
experience and expectations can be assumed.
For a project several proles help to reference
individuals that have a face, a job and an
opinion.

Cognitive walkthrough involves one or a group

of evaluators inspecting a service by going
through a the stages of the client journey.
The service can be presented in the form of
a mock-up, a prototype, but it can also be
a fully developed service. The input to the
walkthrough also include the client prole,
especially the knowledge. The evaluators may
include human factors engineers or other
specialists.

217

216

Appendix

Character profiles

The comparison of the way the idea cards have

been sorted gives the team a good indication
of the ideas that best t the criteria or are relevant for different departments or clients. The
advantage is that the sorting is not inuenced
by anybody elses opinion. The ideas have to

be explained in a way that they can be easily

understood. For Service Design projects this is
a very helpful way to understand the criteria
t, the compatibility and the order of quality
of ideas and concepts.

Constructive interaction

Card sorting

Different ideas or concepts are written on

small cards. The cards are sorted into different groups and order. Different stakeholders
such as senior representatives of the service
provider organisation or clients can sort the
cards in order starting with the best idea. The
order of cards can be explained to learn from
the judgement and to make sure ideas have
not been misunderstood.

Expert evaluation

218

Appendix

Already existing services and systems they

are tested and evaluated. This can be either
done by a service expert or by clients, encouraged to observe the experience they have in
using the service and analysing it step by step
afterwards. The point is to understand the
principles that work really well and the things
that dont work or can be improved. This
method can be used for existing services or
competitive services.
The result is an Evaluation review that points
out the strength and weaknesses as well as
an experience description. As services are
more complex and more individual than other
designs this is a very valuable method to

understand the systems and experiences and

as well raise the sensitiveness towards the
detailed and the holistic design at the same
time.

Feasibility check

Evaluation review

To identify the implications and possibilities

of service ideas and concepts internal and
external experts are asked to advise on the
feasibility. It might be a principle, a component or a detail that needs to be reconsidered
to make it work. Service ideas and concepts
may have nancial, resource, legislative or
other implications that need to be taken into
consideration.
Usually it helps to use sensualisation to make
the ideas easy to understand for experts.
Sometime scenarios are necessary to fully
explain and discuss the implications of ideas
and concepts. Depending on the stage of the
project the feasibility check can be used as

input for further design and development or to

make small changes for implementation. Given
that Service Design inuences and interacts
with complex systems over time it is essential
to establish ways to check how feasible ideas
and solutions are and to build on that learning.

Service Design

This method can be used to identfy usability

problems of services. An understanding is
gained of why clients have difculty with
the service. Approximate measures can be
obtained for the clients satisfaction.

An expert evaluation is a quick and cost-efcient way to pre-empt service implementation

and usability problems, obtain a fresh perspective before full testing with real clients.
Depending on the project a range of experts
is brought in to evaluate components, the usability and the feasibility. From the experience
of these people various potentials, problems
and pitfalls can be identied qickly.

219

Diagnostic evaluation

From usablity analysis. User based evaluation

of a working system, where the primary objective is to identify usability problems.

220

Appendix

User archetypes that are based on in-depth

research. They represent patterns that have
been identied based on research insights. A
persona is one ctional character that merges
patterns that occur in the research. Instead of
grouping people in demographic or interest
segments personas help to identify relevant
patterns that cluster qualitative ndings. This
is very relevant to Service Design as it enables
a more detailed and individual understanding
of a group of clients.
In the Service Design process the personas
have a similar role as character proles. They
help the team to see individuals and they can
reference them in different design decisions.

The advantage of personas is that qualitative

and quantitative research is available to back
up the relevance of a certain prole.

Pluralistic walkthrough

Personas

It is a part of the external analysis and gives an

overview of the different macro-environmental factors that an organisation has to take
into consideration. Political factors include
areas such as tax policy, employment laws,
environmental regulations, trade restrictions
and tariffs and political stability. The economic
factors are the economic growth, interest
rates, exchange rates and ination rate. Social
factors often look at the cultural aspects and
include health consciousness, population
growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes

and emphasis on safety. The technological

factors also include ecological and environmental aspects and can determine the barriers
to entry, minimum efcient production level
and inuence outsourcing decisions. It looks
at elements such as R&D activity, automation,
technology incentives and the rate of technological change.v

A method of usability inspection where a

diverse group of stakeholders in a design
are brought together to review the design,
including designers, clients, researchers and
management. The walkthrough is conducted
by identifying primary tasks for the service
system and stepping through those tasks,
identifying potential problems along the way.
The purpose of bringing together various
stakeholders is that each one brings a certain
perspective, expertise, and set of goals for the
project that enables a greater number of problems to be found, specied and documented.

Service Design

The method provides quick and relatively

cheap feedback. The results generate good
ideas for improving a service.

Checklist of the political, economic, sociocultural and technological aspects of the

environment.

221

Usually two to three analysts evaluate the system with reference to established guidelines or
principles, noting down their observations and
often ranking them in order of severity. The
analysts are usually experts in human factors
or HCI, but others, less experienced have also
been shown to report valid problems.

A heuristic or expert evaluation can be

conducted at various stages of the development lifecycle, although it is preferable to
have already performed some form of context
analysis to help the experts focus on the
circumstances of actual or intended usage.

PEST analysis

Heuristic evaluation

A form of usability inspection where usability

specialists judge whether each element of a
user interface follows a list of established usability heuristics. Expert evaluation is similar,
but does not use specic heuristics.

SWOT analysis

A very effective way of identifying an organisations or services Strengths and Weaknesses,

and of examining the Opportunities and
Threats it is facing. Carrying out an analysis
using the SWOT framework helps to focus
activities into areas of strength and where the
greatest opportunities lie.

222

Appendix

To ensure that nobody is inuenced by the

opinion of others, everybody is asked to look
at the cards before carefully and to decide
which ones are going to get the stickers. Then
all put the stickers on at the same time.
It is a very quick and easy way of ltering to
identify the best and most relevant cards. Usually the voting process is based on an earlier
discussion or on criteria that have been devel-

oped and discussed. The process can as well be

repeated with different colours for different
criteria. That helps to focus on one criteria
and after the process every card can easily be
checked against the criteria it matches. If then
the criteria have different priorities the voted
cards can be sorted against those. In Service
Design projects a lot of decisions need to be
made to move on. As Service Design always
works in teams it is important to have easy
and democratic decision processes that involve
the whole group and are transparent.

Task analysis analyses what a client is required

to do in terms of actions and / or cognitive
processes to achieve a task. A detailed task
analysis can be conducted to understand the
current service system and the information
ows within it. These information ows are
important to the maintenance of the existing
system and must be incorporated or substituted in any new system. Task analysis makes it
possible to design and allocate tasks appropriately within the new system. The functions to
be included within the system and the service
interface can then be accurately specied.

Service Design

Different ideas, concepts or criteria that have

been developed are written on cards and
pinned on a wall. Every member of the team
gets three to ve small stickers to vote for the
best ones. The cards with the most stickers
have been voted as the best and most relevant.

Task analysis

Sticker vote

223

Retrospective testing

After a client testing session has been conducted and videotaped, retrospective testing
lets the client look at the just nished test
session on a videotape to make additional
comments while watching. The users comments while reviewing the tape are often more
extensive than comments made during the
actual test session. This also gives the the opportunity to stop the tape and ask questions
about a certain action or comment.

Contrary to personas, character proles are

not based on in-depth research. They are
therefore cheaper and quicker but at the same
time dont represent proles that can be

Empathy tools

To explain how a emergency service for lorry

drivers works it helps to involve oily hands. The
experience can then be addressed in the way
the service works. It is important that empathy tools are used for a clear point. Sometimes
the effort is not feasible and a short video can

referenced in detail. They help to have a shared

understanding of the clients and to represent
them throughout a project in a tangible way.
In various stages of a Service Design project
they can help as inspiration, criteria in asking
What would Sarah think about this idea?
Would that work for John? etc.

make the same point to explain the background, insight or solution. As Service Design
is about the experience that clients have it
helps to have an understanding of special
features in this experience in the team and
explain them to stake holders.

To try and test how service ideas and components work in the context of real life. Given
that services never exist in isolation the
prototyping and testing requires the reassembly of reality to frame the environment and
expectation to ensure the service experience
is overall similar to the one it would be if the
service would exist. Often that means that the
service needs to be put into a temporary existence. People that use it should use it naturally
and under reality conditions. Sometimes that
requires a lot of effort in creating spaces,
atmospheres and settings and sometimes all is
needed is a phone and an actor that pretends
to be the hotline.

Service Design

Help to establish a shared understanding in a

team to who the clients of a particular service
are. A character prole usually is an image and
a short and relevant description of a ctional
character. The purpose is to help the team
understand and imagine what sort of client
that might be and therefore what needs,
experience and expectations can be assumed.
For a project several proles help to reference
individuals that have a face, a job and an
opinion.

To explain and understand special individual

needs these tools are used to experience how
clients experience the service. They can limit
or extend certain senses and features. They are
used to nd out how elderly feel in wearing
weights and glasses that limit vision. This
helps the Service Design team to understand
and explain the problems and possibilities that
a service concept is linking in.

225

224

Appendix

Charactter profiles

The camera journals are very rich and tangible

material to explain the way clients think and
can be used as inspiration for the idea development. Modern camera phones can be used to

take images and to leave voice messages with

an explanation. The clients can be prompted
by SMS to take an image of anything next
to them that reminds them of exibility for
example. Camera journal are a very simple way
of connecting with real clients and to generate
rich qualitative material and relevant insights
in their life, goals and needs. The journal and
the images are a very valuable tool to share
and explain the ndings and later on ideas and
concepts.

Experience prototyping

Camera journal

Clients are given a simple camera and a journal

and asked to document a day, a procedure or
their view. It can be part of a probes pack or
used as separate method. The images combined with the notes give insights in the way
clients see and think. The journal underpins
the images with explanations that explain
their motivations, goals and expectations.
Camera journals can be used to document a
theatre booking, to document good service
experiences etc.

Moodboard

Metaphors
Appendix
226

It sometimes helps as well to learn from

metaphors for the actual service design. In
presentations metaphors can be used to
underpin certain principles in a tangible way.

A chameleon represents exibility and people

will remember that principle of the service
better if metaphors are used to explain the
unique features.

A collage of different images and materials is

used to show a certain mood or atmosphere. It
is the combination of certain images that creates an overall impression. The board overall
represents the mood of a service experience or
of the environment where the service will take
place. It helps to explain unconscious, sensual
and intangible values of a service that are
difcult to capture by words.
Some of the images are conceptual, some
show details and some are metaphoric. To
explain a very friendly and warm service
experience, images of smiles, warm colours,
metaphors like a grandmother and soft images
could be used for example. To show the mood

mock-ups are very strong tools to explain and

sell ideas. But they can often be understood to
be nal solutions. Either the execution reects
this or it needs to be made clear if the discussion is about the principle concept or about
detail elements. With that in mind mock-ups
are very useful to have very tangible and visual
tools in development of services. Mock-ups
can be so elaborate that they can be used as
prototypes to test them as parts of the service
experience. They can be part of scenarios or
used for visioning.

of a new service different elements and

components or touch-points can be integrated
in the mood-board. Given that Service Design
develops and designs experiences that involve
different elements and work with different
people this method helps to establish a shared
understanding of the mood and atmosphere
that a service uses and represents.

Service Design

Sometimes a very rough execution has the

advantage that everybody understands
that the idea is just one possibility. Perfect

To explain service ideas often metaphors

are very useful. They nd an example from
another eld to explain the principle of an
idea or concept. It is easier for people to relate
to metaphors and to remember the idea as
the metaphor bridges the new concept with
a familiar concept. If a service helps business
people to nd partners that they could learn
from a dating site could be a metaphor that
immediately explains the principle how this
service would work in principle.

Mostly mock-ups are photo montages that

illustrate an idea. They use images of existing
situations and scenery to mount elements on
them and combine them in a way that explains
an idea or a service concept. Mock-ups can as
well be prototypes and dummies that illustrate
principles and ideas in creating a model. The
idea of printing individual poems on coffee
cups could be illustrated by digital effects or
could be printed and mounted on an actual
cup to then be photographed. It needs to be
considered what the mock-ups are needed for.

227

Informance can be used to present insights to

the team. It is very engaging, motivating and
the presented facts can be easier remembered.
The different elements such as videos, maps
etc. can be combined to a performance. Clients
can be asked to be part of the performance.

Mock-ups

Informance

Performing insights and information. To nd

unique and relevant ways to act and dramatise
information is a very interesting way of
presenting, explaining and sharing. Depending
on the project this method can be used to
package and stage information. Storytellers
and actors can be involved. It is important that
the way the story is performed is relevant and
supports the content and the message.

Rough prototyping

A very quick and simple way to create prototypes. To represent and test ideas anything
that is available can be used to assemble
components of a service. In difference to
experience prototyping that tries to be as
close to reality as possible, rough prototyping
is quick and dirty. It is used to try ideas out
quickly, develop them further or use the
prototype as manifestation. It helps a team to
have the same reference and to make sure they
are talking about the same thing.

228

Actors or team members act out how the

service works. To show how different elements
of a service concept work it helps to pretend
that it existed and to play out a journey or
one element of the service experience. The
interaction with people can be very effectively
and easily shown. It is possible to play the
same act with different character proles on
the side of the client role and with different
service executions.
This method helps to explain, develop and test
service interactions and experiences. Rough
prototyping can be used together with role
play to show how different components would
work in the context of the service. The role

play can either be performed live or recorded

on video. The role play can be planned and
tested in form of a story-board. In Service
Design many interactions with people are
designed. It is supportive to work with people
in the design and to explain the design in
showing how it would work by acting it out.

Service Design

In the Service Design process the personas

have a similar role as character proles. They
help the team to see individuals and they can
reference them in different design decisions.
The advantage of personas is that qualitative
and quantitative research is available to back
up the relevance of a certain prole.

Role play

User archetypes that are based on in-depth

research. They represent patterns that have
been identied based on research insights. A
persona is one ctional character that merges
patterns that occur in the research. Instead of
grouping people in demographic or interest
segments personas help to identify relevant
patterns that cluster qualitative ndings. This
is very relevant to Service Design as it enables
a more detailed and individual understanding
of a group of clients.

Appendix

Personas

Trying out rough versions often triggers

new ideas and possibilities. It is important
that Service Design works as interactive and
tangible as possible. It enables the team to
understand the service not only in theory. The
hands on experience is important to develop
and explain service experiences.

229

Moodfilm

The next level of a mood board is reached by

adding audio visual elements. The images that
could be used for a mood-board are assembled
according to the atmosphere in the way they
are cut, in the rhythm that is used and in the
music that is used. Footage of the environment and the actions that assemble the
service help to support the specic imagination of the service experience. Mood-lms are
a very strong presentation format for Service
Design concepts.

A story-board is a very useful presentation

format but usually is not self explanatory.
It can be combined with text that explains
each frame and tells the story. Sometimes the
story-board can be divided in a front stage and
back stage area and show the experience of
the client and what happens in the background
to facilitate the service. Given that a story

board is rather rough there is more room for

interpretation which can be supportive or
limiting. It can be helpful that a story-board
has a sketch feel to underline the fact that
it is a concept and not a solution. In Service
Design it is a very useful method to explain
how a service works. Given that every slide or
page can be changed it is very exible and can
be easily adopted. Some parts of the story can
be used several times to show different ideas.
Only some of the slides need to be changed to
adopt the story.

It helps as well to explain how professional

and social life link into each other. Network
maps are very useful to explain what kind of
people a service is working with. It needs to
be considered that sometimes the maps need
additional explanation to make sure that all
systems and components in the map can be

Newspaper and magazine headlines are

written from a future perspective to illustrate
the impact that a service idea or concept
would have. This is a simple and easy way to
use the principle of visioning. The front cover
of Time magazine in 2010 could illustrate how
a new service is going to impact and inuence
peoples lives and its perception in the future.

understood. For Service Design it is not only

important to understand people. It is relevant
to nd ways to explain and share in the team
and with stake holders how these people relate
to networks and systems and how a service
would interact with that.

senger wait less and the airport even makes

prot from it. As services are intangible this
simple method is a good way for a shared
understanding of ideas and the consequent
advantages in the future. Given that it is about
writing everybody in a multidisciplinary team
can easily participate and relate to it.

Often this method gives a strong sense of

shared vision and can help as reminder and
motivation.
It can be used as well to capture what a service
idea is about. It could suggest advantages
like Orgeo-Hospital saved $10m by creating
a fantastic treatment experience. or Pas-

Service Design

To explain a set of events or a story different

key situations are illustrated on each one
screen or sheet. It is a step by step explanation
of a service experience or journey. It is can be
sketched or mocked-up in Photoshop. It helps
to test and explain how different touch-points
work and link into each other.

Every person is involved in several private

and professional networks. To map all these
networks and the way they link together helps
to understand the social system, sources and
needs for service and to explain how clients
live. Network maps are especially interesting
tools when a service has social or communication aspects.

231

230

Appendix

Storyboarding

Therefore the scenario development will

question how the ideas work in context and
is in a way a step towards a more detailed

The story element of scenarios is important

for everybody to relate to it and to support
imagination but it shouldnt distract from
the actual idea. Scenarios is a very powerful
method to explain interactive experiences over
time.

Social network mapping

A redesigned or new service concept can be

explained with different clients (e.g. character
proles) to show how the experience will
differ. In order to develop a scenario several
decisions need to be made beyond the actual
concept.

service design. It needs to be clear what the

idea or concept is that needs to be explained. It
usually is difcult to explain to many things at
once. Several scenarios help to show different
aspects and variations.

Tomorrows headlines

Scenario

Explains a client journey in a story format. A

scenario can be either animated or lmed. It
illustrates an idea or concept in the context
of the clients life. It shows the principles,
features in everyday situations and the
implications on the client.

Try it yourself

Members of the Service Design team try out

services or components themselves. This is a
very simple but highly effective way to test
but as well to imagine to be in the clients
shoes. It can be used to test existing services,
competitive services or service prototypes.
It is a very different experience to observe
clients or talk to clients than testing services
oneself. The test can be documented either
in lm or notes or in a report afterwards. It
is important to try services not as a robotic
neutral observer but as a individual person
with feelings, mood and expectations and to
reect these in the documentation.

These tests not only create a new level of

understanding the domain they provide highly
relevant insights. Especially for people that
work for a service organisation it is interesting
to project themselves in the client perspective
and try to document step by step how they
would try to nd out about the booking line
number. They might be surprised how they
would try to nd out and what is actually
available. Services are individual experiences,
it is important to experience them to understand how clients think and what their
expectations are.

Service Design

The results of visioning are artefacts that a

group of scientists could of brought back from
time-travelling exploration into the future.
For example a TV documentary in the future
could talk about the service and how it works.
As service concepts are often systemic and dependent on certain other factors this method
is very helpful to skip the development in
other areas for example like technology and
social changes.

232

233

Using the future perspective to explain and

discuss the consequence of ideas. Mock-ups,
scenarios, videos and other elements are used
to create a vision that shows how an idea or
a service concept would work in the future.
As well referred to as evidencing, visioning is
a very powerful tool to discuss a how would
that be perspective and to refer backwards
on the consequent steps how to get there
rather than killing ideas with we cant do that
anyway.

Appendix

Visioning

Guidelines

Internal online platform that is used to provide

information and the latest guidelines and
templates within the organisation. It is an
easy way to keep everybody up to date and for
everybody to access the different documents
they need. They can be used to share feedback
and to monitor different stages of testing,
implementing and monitoring services. An intranet can be used as well to share information
about the service that is provided to certain
clients. It is overall a very exible system that
can be adopted and help to provide the service.
It can change very easily which is an important
feature in Service Design.

Service Design

Document that species and plans the

implementation and roll out of a service. It is
a detailed concept that considers and explains
the market the service is going to operate in,
the way the service will be promoted, what
processes and systems are necessary and how
they work together, what kind of people are
required, what virtual and physical space is
needed, which systems are in place to monitor
and evaluate, how the economic model works
and how it is going to develop over time.

It is important that guidelines consider the

recipient and are written and designed to
address the situation they are in. Guidelines
can be provided in various formats but are
usually provided in a simple format that is easy
to understand and actionable. Usually it is
helpful if the format allows that the guidelines
can be easily updated.

235

234

Document that species details, features and

behaviours. A guideline helps to implement
a service. It is an important communication
between the design team and the execution
personnel. It is essential to ensure consistency.
It is as well important to specify and decide
about details. Depending on the service a
guideline can be regarding systems, settings
or staff.

Intranet

Blueprint

ised against the blueprint. A blueprint can

either exist as a two dimensional map or as a
interactive system. Blueprinting is very similar
to information architecture for complex digital
systems. Service Design extends the need of
mapping complex interactive systems. In order
to supply services different systems need to
work together and the behaviour and actions
of staff and clients need to be incorporated.
Blueprints are an essential discussion base
and planning tool. But they are essential to
implement services. And in order to maintain
and improve services blueprints help a Service
Design team to make changes.

Appendix

Business plan

Process diagram and model of all details of

a service. A blueprint shows in a schematic diagram how different service components link
into each other. It is divided in client facing
and backstage processes. It shows different
touch-points and the different options that
clients have to choose from. On a blueprint
all possible client journeys that are possible
within a service can be overseen. The blueprint
is a very essential element to plan and design
services. Along the different pathways it
can be specied, how long processes take,
what they need and what their outputs are.
Blueprints are the basis for planning in order
to put a service into action. All components
and processes need to be aligned and organ-

Service prototype

Bill Hollins suggests that this method is useful

in Service Design to time parts of a process to
ensure the best use of resources.

To try and test how service ideas and components work in the context of real life. Given
that services never exist in isolation the
prototyping and testing requires the reassembly of reality to frame the environment and
expectation to ensure the service experience
is overall similar to the one it would be if the
service would exist. Often that means that the
service needs to be put into a temporary existence. People that use it should use it naturally
and under reality conditions. Sometimes that
requires a lot of effort in creating spaces,
atmospheres and settings and sometimes all is
needed is a phone and an actor that pretends
to be the hotline.

236

A written document that species the scope

of a Service Design project or of a specic
service. The specication can be a growing
document that evolves based on new insights
but is always in line shared and agreed with
the team and based on the Service Strategy.
It represents a detailed goal description and
contains criteria for success. The specication
document is especially important for long
term and big scale projects. It helps the project
team to have a shared focus point and to make
sure that the project stays on track.

Service Design

Specificatioin

Document that species the role within a

service performance. It provides service staff
with a script including the different possible
service scenarios. It helps them to understand
the concept and their role in playing a part in
making it reality.

Appendix

Role script

237

Line of balance

Line Of Balance is a management control

process for collecting, measuring and presenting facts relating to time, cost and accomplishment - all measured against a specic plan. It
shows the process, status, background, timing
and phasing of the project activities, thus
providing management with measuring tools
that help:

Templates

Are useful documents and tools that help to

implement a service consistently. In difference to guidelines templates imply the rules
in the format and the way the templates are
designed allows only outcomes that are in
line with the intended guidelines. Instead of
instructions how to write the job description for counter staff different modules are
provided that cater for the instructions in the
way they are written. Templates are easier to
use than guidelines, ensure that the results are
conform but are less exible.

In Service Design are important for a number

of different activities. They help to translate
the concept together with the detailed design
into action. They can be used as well to provide
a consistent structure but to still allow some
exible and individual adoptions.

In Service Design some of the details of

solutions can be improved and adopted in
faking that they exist. Role play can be used
to pretend to the client that the human side of
the service is already in place which is one of
the advantages in services. If terminal systems
or any other but human interfaces are used the
Wizar of Oz can help to complete the service
experience as if the service would already be
completely implemented.

Service Design

The name of this technique obviously comes

from the lm The Wizard of OZ and is refering
to the man behind the curtain. It has a long
tradition in the computer industry and is used
to test hard to implement features.

239

238

Appendix

Wizard of Oz

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http://nada.kth.se/cid/usor

Magazines
brand1
The Economist
Form: Zeitschrift fr Gestaltung.

http://eias.ie
http://iainstitute.org/tools
http://skymark.com/resources/tools
http://deyalexander.com/resources
http://pers-www.wlv.ac.uk
http://sotech.com
http://design.philips.com
http://graphicguides.grove.com
http://mycoted.com/creativity/techniques

Laubersheimer, Wolfgang et. al. (1998): Gestaltung

von Service Produkten Service Design & Service
Engineering.
Mager, Birgit (1996): Die schlechte Form Klopfen
und Warten. Form 2/96.
Mager, Birgit (2000): Am Anfang ist alles Service.
Der Gehilfe - Vom Dienstboten zum Service-Design, Exhibition catalogue. Museum fr Gestaltung. Zrich.
Mager, Birgit (2001): Wanderausstellung Service
- Ein Produkt. Exhibition catalogue.
Parmenter, Delphine (1997): INSEAD case study. First
Direct: Branchless Banking. INSEAD. France.
Rae, Jeneanne M. & Ogilvie, Timothy J. (2004):
Services Are Different: Heads Up! On Organizational
Innovation. InnovationNetwork.
Sangiorgy, Daniela (2003): Design dei servizi come
design dei sistemi di attivit. La teoria dellattivit
applicata alla progettazione dei servizi. Politecnico
di Milano.
Shostack, G. Lynn (1984): Designing Services That
Deliver. Harvard Business Review.

Other
Papers
Hollins, Bill (2003): About: Service Design, Design
Council
Hugentobler, Hans Kaspar et. al. (2003): Designing
a Methods Platform and Toolbox for Design and
Design Research. Institute of Integrated Design.
Bremen.

IDEO (2003): Method Cards. Palo Alto. Stoutbooks.

Service Design

http://sixapart.com

http://indere.com/en

243

Web links

Acknowledgements
Service Design
Practical access to an evolving eld
Stefan Moritz 11024114 2005 11. Semester

Big thanks,

Kln International School of Design

MEDes MA European Studies in Design

To my family as well as to Kevin Gavaghan, Harvey

Dodgson, Bill Hollins, Lavrans Lvlie, Chris Downs,
Fran Samalionis, Shelley Evenson, Stefan Holmlid,
Daniela Sangiorgi, Elena Pacenti, Astrid van der
Auwera, Vijay Kumar, Oddcast Sitepal, Caroline
Ball, Hans Kaspar Hugentobler, Wolfgang Jonas,
Joshua Rex, Tom P. Schaafs, David Grifths, Ian
Coxon, Wayne Fletcher, Charlotte Freemantle,
Lynette Webb, Nigel Morris, Jerry Buhlmann,
Susannah Outn, Sue Frogley, Stephen White,
Alison Wilde, Rosa Leung, April Simpson, Polly
(soon to be Williams) Ward, Tony Williams, Phil
Gullen, Lennert Dorman, Benjamin Schulz, Nenji
Tsuchiya, Simone Prim, Franz Braunagel, Tom
Bscher, Robert Sucher, Stephanie Jerey, Ian
Crawford & Serita Suman.

University of Applied Sciences Cologne,

Fachhochschule Kln
Faculty of Cultural Sciences,
Fakultt Kulturwissenschaften
Prof. Birgit Mager
Head of department for Service Design
Versicherung
Hiermit versichere ich, dass ich die Arbeit
selbststndig angefertigt habe und keine anderen
als die angegebenen und bei Zitaten kenntlich
gemachten Quellen und Hilfsmittel benutzt habe.

Especially to Birgit Mager, Michel Erlhoff,

Sean Blair & Elin Falk!

Appendix

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Stefan Moritz, London, 2005-06-24