Is your organization doing Service Design?
It seems like it’s one of the hottest new trends in the User/Customer Experience arena. Where I work, not only have we been introduced to the concept, we are being encouraged to carry out the process on our products.
What is a Service Design Blueprint?
Yeah that was my question too when I first heard the term some time back. Does it have to do with architecture? Is it only for the service industry? How does this play in to UX? Yes I had all of these questions and many more.
OK, really, What is Service Design?
According to Wikipedia, Service Design is:
- Involves the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service.
- To improve its quality and the interaction between the service provider and its customers.
- May function as a way to inform changes to an existing service or create a new service entirely.
- The purpose is to establish best practices for designing services according to both the needs of customers and the competencies and capabilities of service providers.
- The service will be user-friendly and relevant to the customers, while being sustainable and competitive for the service provider.
Ok, this all sounds good right? So how do I get started? I am lucky enough to have attended the Adaptive Path Service Design seminar which gave me a grand introduction to the value and process. I am going to share a great asset they provided to me so that you can share it with your teams. (PDF is attached at the bottom of the article.)
Now that you have a bit of foundation of what it means, I suggest you start creating Service Blueprints for the various products and services that your organization produces. You would be amazed the opportunities and caps you will discover from a Service Design blueprint exercise. Give it a try!