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Service Design

Service design is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between the service provider and its customers. Service design may function as a way to inform changes to an existing service or create a new service entirely.

The purpose of service design methodologies is to establish best practices for designing services according to both the needs of customers and the competencies and capabilities of service providers. If a successful method of service design is adapted then the service will be user-friendly and relevant to the customers, while being sustainable and competitive for the service provider. For this purpose, service design uses methods and tools derived from different disciplines, ranging from ethnography to information and management science to interaction design. Service design concepts and ideas are typically portrayed visually, using different representation techniques according to the culture, skill and level of understanding of the stakeholders involved in the service processes (Krucken and Meroni, 2006).

Service design practice is the specification and construction of processes that delivers valuable capacities for action to a particular customer. Service design practice can be both tangible and intangible and it can involve artifacts or other elements such as communication, environment and behaviors. Several authors of service design theory including Pierre Eiglier, Richard Normann, Nicola Morelli, emphasize that services come to existence at the same moment they are being provided and used. In contrast, products are created and “exist” before being purchased and used. While a designer can prescribe the exact configuration of a product, s/he cannot prescribe in the same way the result of the interaction between customers and service providers, nor can s/he prescribe the form and characteristics of any emotional value produced by the service.

Consequently, service design is an activity that, among other things, suggests behavioral patterns or “scripts” to the actors interacting in the service. Understanding how these patterns interweave and support each other are important aspects of the character of design and service. This allows greater customer freedom, and better provider adaptability to the customers’ behavior.

Early contributions to service design were made by G. Lynn Shostack, a bank and marketing manager and consultant, in the form of written articles and books. The activity of designing service was considered to be part of the domain of marketing and management disciplines in the early years. For instance, in 1982 Shostack proposed the integration of the design of material components (products) and immaterial components (services). This design process, according to Shostack, can be documented and codified using a “service blueprint” to map the sequence of events in a service and its essential functions in an objective and explicit manner. A service blueprint is an extension of a customer journey map, and this document specifies all the interactions a customer has with an organization throughout their customer lifecycle.

Servicescape is a model developed by B.H. Booms and Mary Jo Bitner to emphasize the impact of the physical environment in which a service process takes place and to explain the behavior of people within the service environment, with a view to designing environments that accomplish organizational goals in terms of achieving desired behavioral responses.

In 1991, service design was first introduced as a design discipline by professors Michael Erlhoff and Brigit Mager at Koln International School of Design (KISD). In 2004, the Service Design Network was launched by Koln International School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, Linkopings Universitet, Politecnico di Milano and Domus Academy in order to create an international network for service design academics and professionals.

In 2001, Livework, the first service design and innovation consultancy, opened for business in London. In 2003, Engine, initially founded in 2000 in London as an ideation company, positioned themselves as a service design consultancy.

The 2018 book, This Is Service Design Doing: Applying Service Design Thinking in the Real World, by Adam Lawrence, Jakob Schneider, Marc Stickdorn, and Markus Edgar Hormess, proposes six service design principles:

In the 2011 book, This is Service Design Thinking: Basics, Tools, Cases, the first principle is “user-centred”. “User” refers to any user of the service system, including the organization’s customers and employees. Thus, the authors renewing “user-centred” to “human-centred” in their new book, This is service design doing, to make the meaning clearly that human includes service providers, customers, and all others relevant stakeholders. For instance, service design must consider not only the customer experience, but also the interests of all relevant people in retailing.

“Collaborative” and “iterative” come from the principle “co-creative” in this is service design thinking. The service exists with the participation of customers, and is created by a group of people from different backgrounds. In most cases, people tend to focus only on the meaning of “collaborative” emphasizing the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of service design, but ignored a service only exists with the participation of a customer. Therefore, in the definition of new service design principles, the “co-creative” is divided into two principles of “collaborative” and “iterative”. “Collaboration” is used to indicate the process of creation by the entire stakeholders from different backgrounds. “Iteration” is used to describe service design is an iterating process keeping evolve to adapt the change of business posture.

“Sequential” means that service need to be logically, rhythmically and visually displayed. Service design is a dynamic process of a period of time. The timeline is important for customers in the service system. For example, when a customer shop at an online website, the first information showed up should be the regions where the products can be delivered. In this way, if the customer finds that the products cannot be delivered to their region, they will not continually browse the products on the website.

Service is often invisible and occurs in a state that the user cannot perceive. “Real” means that the intangible service needs to be displayed in a tangible way. For example, when people order food in a restaurant, they can’t perceive the various attributes of the food. If we play the cultivation and picking process of vegetables in the restaurant, people can perceive the intangible services in the backstage, such as the cultivation of organic vegetables, and get a quality service experience. This service also helps the restaurant establish a natural and organic brand image to customers.

Thinking in a holistic way is the cornerstone of service design. Holistic thinking needs to consider both intangible and tangible service, and ensure that every moment the user interacts with the service, such moment called touchpoint, is considered and optimized. Holistic thinking also needs to understand that customers have multiple logics to complete an experience process. Thus, service designer should think about each aspect from different perspectives to ensure that no needs are missing.

Together with the most traditional methods used for product design, service design requires methods and tools to control new elements of the design process, such as the time and the interaction between actors. An overview of the methodologies for designing services is proposed by Nicola Morelli in 2006, who proposes three main directions:

Analytical tools refer to anthropology, social studies, ethnography and social construction of technology. Appropriate elaborations of those tools have been proposed with video-ethnography and different observation techniques to gather data about users’ behavior. Other methods, such as cultural probes, have been developed in the design discipline, which aim to capture information on customers in their context of use (Gaver, Dunne et al. 1999; Lindsay and Rocchi 2003).

Design tools aim at producing a blueprint of the service, which describes the nature and characteristics of the interaction in the service. Design tools include service scenarios (which describe the interaction) and use cases (which illustrate the detail of time sequences in a service encounter). Both techniques are already used in software and systems engineering to capture the functional requirements of a system. However, when used in service design, they have been adequately adapted to include more information concerning material and immaterial components of a service, as well as time sequences and physical flows. Crowdsourced information has been shown to be highly beneficial in providing such information for service design purposes, particularly when the information has either a very low or very high monetary value. Other techniques, such as IDEF0, just in time and total quality management are used to produce functional models of the service system and to control its processes. However, it is important to note that such tools may prove too rigid to describe services in which customers are supposed to have an active role, because of the high level of uncertainty related to the customer’s behavior.

Because of the need for communication between inner mechanisms of services and actors (such as final users), representation techniques are critical in service design. For this reason, storyboards are often used to illustrate the interaction of the front office. Other representation techniques have been used to illustrate the system of interactions or a “platform” in a service (Manzini, Collina et al. 2004). Recently, video sketching (Jegou 2009, Keitsch et al. 2010) and prototypes (Blomkvist 2014) have also been used to produce quick and effective tools to stimulate customers’ participation in the development of the service and their involvement in the value production process.

Public sector service design is associated with civic technology, open government, e-government, and can be either government-led or citizen-led initiatives. The public sector is the part of the economy composed of public services and public enterprises. Public services include public goods and governmental services such as the military, police, infrastructure(public roads, bridges, tunnels, water supply, sewers, electrical grids, telecommunications, etc.), public transit, public education, along with health care and those working for the government itself, such as elected officials. Due to new investments in hospitals, schools, cultural institutions and security infrastructures in the last few years, the public sector has expanded. The number of jobs in public services has also grown; such growth can be associated with the large and rapid social change that is calling for a reorganization. In this context, governments are considering service design for a reorganization of public services.

In 2002 MindLab, an innovation public sector service design group was established by the Danish ministries of Business and Growth, Employment, and Children and Education. MindLab was the one of the world’s first public sector design innovation labs and their work inspired the proliferation of similar labs and user-centered design methodologies deployed in many countries worldwide. The design methods used at MindLab are typically an iterative approach of rapid prototyping and testing to evolve not just their government projects, but also government organizational structure using ethnographic-inspired user research, creative ideation processes, and visualization and modeling of service prototypes. In Denmark, design within the public sector has been applied to a variety of projects including rethinking Copenhagen’s waste management, improving social interactions between convicts and guards in Danish prisons, transforming services in Odense for mentally disabled adults and more.

In 2007 and 2008 documents from the British government explore the concept of “user-driven public services” and scenarios of highly personalized public services. The documents proposed a new view on the role of service providers and users in the development of new and highly customized public services, utilizing user involvement. This view has been explored through an initiative in the UK. Under the influence of the European Union, the possibilities of service design for the public sector are being researched, picked up, and promoted in countries such as Belgium.

Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) (also known as Nudge) was originally part of the UK cabinet and was founded in 2010, in order to apply nudge theory to try to improve UK government policy, services and save money. As of 2014, BIT became a decentralized, semi-privatized company with Nesta (charity), BIT employees and the UK government each owning a third of this new business. That same year a Nudge unit was added to the United States government under president Obama, referred to as the ‘US Nudge Unit,’ working within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Clinical service redesign is an approach to improving quality and productivity in health. A redesign is clinically led and involves all stakeholders (e.g. primary and secondary care clinicians, senior management, patients, commissioners etc.) to ensure national and local clinical standards are set and communicated across the care settings. By following the patient’s journey or pathway, the team can focus on improving both the patient experience and the outcomes of care.

A practical example of service design thinking can be found at the Myyrmanni shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland. The management attempted to improve the customer flow to the second floor as there were queues at the landscape lifts and the KONE steel car lifts were ignored. To improve customer flow to the second floor of the mall (2010) Kone Lifts implemented their ‘People Flow’ Service Design Thinking by turning the Elevators into a Hall of Fame for the ‘Incredibles’ comic strip characters. Making their Elevators more attractive to the public solved the people flow problem. This case of service design thinking by Kone Elevator Company is used in literature as an example of extending products into services.

Retail Design

Retail design is a creative and commercial discipline that combines several different areas of expertise
together in the design and construction of retail space. Retail design is primarily a specialized practice of architecture and interior design, however it also incorporates elements of industrial design, graphic design, ergonomics, and advertising.

Retail design is a very specialized discipline due to the heavy demands placed on retail space. Because the primary purpose of retail space is to stock and sell product to consumers, the spaces must be designed in a way that promotes an enjoyable and hassle-free shopping experience for the consumer.
For example, research shows that male and female shoppers who were accidentally touched from behind by other shoppers left a store earlier than people who had not been touched and evaluated brands more negatively. The space must be specially-tailored to the kind of product being sold in that space; for example, a bookstore requires many large shelving units to accommodate small products that can be arranged categorically while a clothing store requires more open space to fully display product.

Retail spaces, especially when they form part of a retail chain, must also be designed to draw people into the space to shop. The storefront must act as a billboard for the store, often employing large display windows that allow shoppers to see into the space and the product inside. In the case of a retail chain, the individual spaces must be unified in their design.

Retail design first began to grow in the middle of the 19th century, with stores such as Bon Marche and Printemps in Paris, “followed by Marshall Fields in Chicago, Selfridges in London and Macy’s in New York.” These early retail design stores were swiftly continued with an innovation called the chain store.

The first known chain department stores were established in Belgium in 1868, when Isidore, Benjamin and Modeste Dewachter incorporated Dewachter freres (Dewachter Brothers) selling ready-to-wear clothing for men and children and specialty clothing such as riding apparel and beachwear. The firm opened with four locations and, by 1904, Maison Dewachter (House of Dewachter) had stores in 20 cities and towns in Belgium and France, with multiple stores in some cities. Isidore’s eldest son, Louis Dewachter, managed the chain at its peak and also became an internationally known landscape artist, painting under the pseudonym Louis Dewis.

The first retail chain store in the United States was opened in the early 20th century by Frank Winfield Woolworth, which quickly became a franchise across the US. Other chain stores began growing in places like the UK a decade or so later, with stores like Boots. After World War II, a new type of retail design building known as the shopping centre came into being. This type of building took two different paths in comparison between the US and Europe. Shopping centres began being built out of town within the United States to benefit the suburban family, while Europe began putting shopping centres in the middle of town. The first shopping centre in the Netherlands was built in the 1950s, as retail design ideas began spreading east.

The next evolution of retail design was the creation of the boutique in the 1960s, which emphasized retail design run by individuals. Some of the earliest examples of boutiques are the Biba boutique created by Barbara Hulanicki and the Habitat line of stores made by Terence Conran. The rise of the boutique was followed, in the next two decades, with an overall increase in consumer spending across the developed world. This rise made retail design shift to compensate for increased customers and alternative focuses. Many retail design stores redesigned themselves over the period to keep up with changing consumer tastes. These changes resulted on one side with the creation of multiple “expensive, one-off designer shops” catering to specific fashion designers and retailers.

The rise of the internet and internet retailing in the latter part of the 20th century and into the 21st century saw another change in retail design to compensate. Many different sectors not related to the internet reached out to retail design and its practices to lure online shoppers back to physical shops, where retail design can be properly utilized.

A retail designer must create a thematic experience for the consumer, by using spatial cues to entertain as well as entice the consumer to purchase goods and interact with the space. The success of their designs are not measured by design critics but rather the records of the store which compare amount of foot traffic against the overall productivity. Retail designers have an acute awareness that the store and their designs are the background to the merchandise and are only there to represent and create the best possible environment in which to reflect the merchandise to the target consumer group.

Since the evolution of retail design and its impact on productivity have become clear, a series of standardisations in the techniques and design qualities has been determined. These standardisations range from alterations to the perspective of the structure of the space, entrances, circulation systems, atmospheric qualities (light and sound) and materiality. By exploring these standardisations in retail design the consumer will be given a thematic experience that entices them to purchase the merchandise. It is also important to acknowledge that a retail space must combine both permanent and non permanent features, that allow it to change as the needs of the consumer and merchandise change (e.g. per season).

The structure of retail space creates the constraints of the overall design; often the spaces already exist, and have had many prior uses. It is at this stage that logistics must be determined, structural features like columns, stairways, ceiling height, windows and emergency exists all must be factored into the final design. In retail one hundred percent of the space must be utilised and have a purpose. The floor plan creates the circulation which then directly controls the direction of the traffic flow based on the studied psychology of consumer movement pattern within a retail space. Circulation is important because it ensures that the consumer moves through the store from front to back, guiding them to important displays and in the end to the cashier. There are six basic store layouts and circulation plans that all provide a different experience:

Once the overall structure and circulation of the space has been determined, the atmosphere and thematics of the space must be created through lighting, sound, materials and visual branding. These design elements will cohesively have the greatest impact on the consumer and thus the level of productivity that could be achieved.

Lighting can have a dramatic impact on the space. It needs to be functional but also complement the merchandise as well as emphasize key points throughout the store. The lighting should be layered and of a variety of intensities and fixtures. Firstly, examine the natural light and what impact it has in the space. Natural light adds interest and clarity to the space; also consumers also prefer to examine the quality of merchandise in natural light. If no natural light exists, a sky light can be used to introduce it to the retail space. The lighting of the ceiling and roof is the next thing to consider. This lighting should wash the structural features while creating vectors that direct the consumer to key merchandise selling areas. The next layer should emphasize the selling areas. These lights should be direct but not too bright and harsh. Poor lighting can cause eye strain and an uncomfortable experience for the consumer. To minimize the possibility of eye strain, the ratio of luminance should decrease between merchandise selling areas. The next layer will complement and bring focus onto the merchandise; this lighting should be flattering for the merchandise and consumer. The final layer is to install functional lighting such as clear exit signs.

Ambiance can then be developed within the atmosphere through sound and audio, the music played within the store should reflect what your target market would be drawn to, this would also be developed through the merchandise that is being marketed. In a lingerie store the music should be soft, feminine and romanticized; where in a technology department the music would be more upbeat and more masculine.

Materiality is another key selling tool, the choices made must not only be aesthetically pleasing and persuasive but also functional with a minimal need for maintenance. Retail spaces are high traffic area and are thus exposed to a lot of wear this means that possible finishes of the materials should be durable. The warmth of a material will make the space more inviting, a floor that is firm and somewhat buoyant will be more comfortable for that consumer to walk on and thus this will allow them to take longer when exploring the store. By switching materials throughout the store zones/ areas can be defined, for example by making the path one material and contrast it against another for the selling areas this help to guide the consumer through the store. Colour is also important to consider it must not over power or clash against the merchandise but rather create a complementary background for the merchandise. As merchandise will change seasonally the interior colours should not be trend based but rather have timeless appeal like neutral based colours.

Visual branding of the store will ensure a memorable experience for the consumer to take with them once they leave the store ensuring that they will want to return. The key factor is consistency exterior branding and signage should continue into the interior, they should attract, stimulate and dramatise the store. To ensure consistency the font should be consistent with the font size altering. The interior branding should allow the consumer to easily self direct themselves through the store, proper placement of sales signs that will draw consumer in and show exactly where the cashier is located. The branding should reflect what the merchandise is and what the target market would be drawn to.

The final element of a well-executed retail space is the staging of the consumer’s perspective. It is the role of retail design to have total control of the view that the consumer will have of the retail space. From the exterior of a retail store the consumer should have a clear unobstructed view into the interior.