SYNOPSIS
My Independent Research Project for my Master of Arts degree in Experience Design focused on service design as a strategic and holistic practice that should be implemented across departments and roles to foster innovation; acting as the strategic glue between disciplines.
BACKGROUND
Service design first emerged as a practice in the UK around the early 00's as a multidisciplinary approach to enhancing and developing government services.
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With service design being in its formative years, and sprouting from a combination of disciplines (marketing, design, and operations), formulating a concise definition of what is and who does service design and has been difficult for the design community to agree on.
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Likewise, service designers have struggled to communicate their roles and capabilities to teams because their work is not easily categorized within traditional business or design.
Part of the confusion surrounding service design—and an existential issue it faces- is that no two service design roles are the same. Service designers come from different backgrounds and in different flavors; some may come from or be strong in design or research or coding or architecture or management. When you look at other job titles, such as a UX designer, people instantly understands what the person does, the value they bring, the tools they use, and the perspective they present. Service designer struggle with this because it is ultimately a strategic facilitation role.
Additionally, service design relies on co-creation from multiple departments and stakeholders, which further obscures its boundaries. Thus, locating and explaining the activity of service design has proven to be a challenge for both designers and for those outside of the field who encounter it.
OBJECTIVE
The research project set out to answer what service design is, its benefits, and how to apply it as a consultant.
There were six primary areas of research and analysis:
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What are the origins and benefits of service design?
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Where does service design currently reside as a practice and discipline?
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What is the difference between a service designer and a systems designer?
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How might the role of a service designer be present in the role of a manager or consultant?
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How might the industry partner benefit from service design solutions?
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How might service design be framed as a consulting practice to those who are not familiar with it as a discipline or practice?
METHOD
Service design as a practice was explored through a combination of academic literature, interviews, and hands-on experience as a service design consultant to an industry partner.
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The research project provided a unique opportunity to investigate the value of service design in a small start-up organization and gave lessons for how apply it in future situations.
SAMPLE OF RESEARCH METHODS
SERVICE DESIGN BREAKS SILOS
Service design is inherently strategic and stratified across the whole design process of a product or service—as opposed to areas like UX which focus on one area. Due to its multidisciplinary origins and perspectives, service designers are able to work across departments and teams to help break silos.
DESIGN THINKING
To understand what a service designer does versus what a manager does, one should look at the ways in which designers do, think, and research.
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The central difference being how designers make sense of the world and frame problems through their means of observation and action; specifically, a designer's process of sense making and problem defining (design enquiry).
Studies have shown there are distinct ‘designerly’ activities in the context of problem solving. For example, scientists approach problem-solving through analysis (much like a systems thinker), as where designers problem solve through synthesis. This is because the problems scientists solve for are more puzzle-like, as where designers' problems are ill-structured, ill-defined, or generally ‘wicked’.
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Due to the process of constantly defining and presenting solutions at the same time, designers thus must be comfortable with ambiguities and possess a confidence to define and redefine problems as information and solutions arise. Design is thus a pattern of synthesis (making sense), opposed to a pattern of recognition. In other words, the solution is not to be simply found, but rather constructed through efforts on behalf of the designer.
THESE ARE THE PRIMARY BENEFITS & DEFINITIONS OF SERVICE DESIGN TO KNOW
SERVICE DESIGN IS HOLISTIC
Service design is a holistic practice that has grown out of management and marketing, and recently incorporated design thinking. It is an overarching strategy for empowering multiple voices and thus fostering innovation.
SERVICE DESIGN IS INNOVATION
Service design is a distinct multidisciplinary perspective that harnesses innovation through holistic problem solving. The goal of a service designer is bringing clarity to a service by examining all touchpoints of an experience, both digital and physical.
SERVICE DESIGN IS HUMAN-CENTERED
Service designers aim to understand people first and foremost, through a designerly lens. It is through this designerly lens which makes a service designer different from that of a traditional manager. However, a manager can adopt this lens.
SERVICE DESIGN IS ITERATIVE
Service design is not a set formula. It is strategic process that brings multiple perspectives and thus must evolve and respond as information develops. It differs from standard design thinking as it prioritizes co-design and focuses on solving both front and back-end issues simultaneously.
SERVICE DESIGN IS INTERACTION
Service design is different from systems design because of its roots in marketing and communication. Service design focuses primarily on information exchange in the sense of dialogue versus language. It is about how people interact with service, including employees.
TITLE OF THE CALLOUT BLOCK
LESSONS LEARNED
Educate stakeholders up front about the philosophy and process of service design to help define expectations.
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Develop a brief which is fluid and allows for identifying the core issues, not the perceived issues.
Linear styles of management and problem solving have been the baseline in business for many years, and thus poses a challenge when stakeholders are not familiar with design thinking, agile, or service design as a philosophy. Explaining up front how iterative processes work and are suited to identifying core issues and user needs will help secure stakeholder participation and understanding of methods.
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For example, what someone might think is a UX issue may actually be a branding issue. Developing a brief that allows for exploration to first happen will ensure the core issue is identified and prioritized. Depending on the client and situation, having an interview with the client first and identifying their assumptions will help shape the problem scope and identify biases through research and testing down the line. At the same time, the researcher should develop assumptions to test through a combination of interviews, co-design exercises, and service and UX audits.