Design: Service Design

This is a sample chapter from the new Rosenfeld Media book Service Design: From Insights to Implementation. ©2013 Rosenfeld Media.

If we are looking to improve an existing service, our blueprint has given us a pretty good overview of the component parts of the service and how these are experienced over time. If we are developing something entirely new, we may have less detail but some idea of people’s needs and what some of the key touchpoints might be. Before going further into the details and committing significant resources to the project, we need to develop the service proposition. Read More

When thinking about service design, we might envision seamless customer experiences, digital products for consumers, or frictionless interactions. But what if the customer isn’t a consumer but a refugee seeking asylum, a scientist trying to communicate his research, or a volunteer struggling to find a meaningful role within a nonprofit. In the corporate world, service design can be a huge competitive advantage. In the nonprofit world, service design can be a force multiplier—yet organizations often overlook its value.

Magda Jagielska, a Customer Experience System Manager at Rockwell Automation, joins me for this column. We’ll take a rare detour outside the large, for-profit, enterprise environments that my columns typically cover. I believe that Magda’s insights can benefit any UX design professional, working within any context. Magda will describe her experiences applying service design within two nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) focusing on science communications. Her goals were to enhance customer engagement, reduce inefficiencies, and create lasting impact. Magda will take it from here. The rest of this column is in her words. Read More

If you’re like me, you have a mini-library of those user experience books that are most meaningful to you. No, not the ones hidden away on your eReader, reminding you of their presence only when you see their titles on the screen. Rather, I’m referring to those tangible books, sitting on your office bookshelf or on a side table at home. Perhaps some remind you of the time when you first entered the field of user experience, wanting to absorb everything about the topic. Or maybe everyone raves about a book as being seminal to the user experience discipline, but you keep the fact that you’ve never read it a secret. Regardless of why you have them, where they live, or how much you recall of their content, these books are important to who you are as a UX professional.

I’ve recently finished reading what is now the latest addition to my own professional mini-library: This Is Service Design Thinking, by Marc Stickdorn, Jakob Schneider, and numerous collaborators and co-authors. This book is likely to become the quintessential service design textbook for students, educators, and professionals alike. In this column, I’ll share highlights from the book, along with some of my own interpretations, and tell you why you should add this book to your own personal collection. Read More