Bringing Design Science Research to Service Design

Abstract

Service design is a multidisciplinary field dedicated to create new and innovative services. To accomplish this goal, service design resorts to contributions from other disciplines such as service management, marketing, information systems and interaction design. However, service design lacks dedicated methods and models that integrate the contributions from these disciplines. Design science research (DSR) offers a solid methodology to develop such artifacts and is already starting to be used in service research. To show how DSR can support service design, this article presents two new service design methods that have been developed using DSR and examines the process followed for developing them. Building on these methods, the article discusses how DSR can leverage service design characteristics of multidisciplinarity, human-centeredness and creativity, to develop further knowledge contributions for service design. Finally, the challenges posed by using DSR in service design and service research are also discussed, as well as ways to address those challenges.