Service Design Practices Research Articles

Service orientation–based tool for assessing and improving service design and development practices in manufacturing industry

Service orientation–based tool for assessing and improving service design and development practices in manufacturing industry

Co-creation and co-destruction of experiential value: a service perspective in projects

PurposeOne way in which to induce an advantageous position is to improve the value outcomes experienced from commissioned projects. The purpose of this paper is to consider project stakeholders, such as end-users, as active co-creators of value. This may be achieved by taking into account interactive capabilities and service design practices. This may influence experiential and financial value outcomes for a range of project stakeholders.Design/methodology/approachA single case displayed as a pilot study helps to establish the transferability of the co-creation and the service experience to the construction context.FindingsFindings show that project managers pay insufficient attention to the service experience. The analysis demonstrates users are treated as destroyers of value, rather than as co-creators of value. In addition to this, the findings suggest contextual aspects, such as unethical behaviour, misalignment of values, power asymmetry and lack of contextual awareness, may ultimately affect the project outcomes.Practical implicationsThe implication for the construction context is to create awareness of interactive capabilities and service design practices, which permit the enhancement of experimental value outcomes.Originality/valueService-dominant logic is used as a variant perspective to analyse the project usefulness and benefits for a range of stakeholders. The originality comes from the initial exploration of how benefits could be collaboratively configured through interactive capabilities and service design practices with a range of stakeholders.

Reshaping mental models – enabling innovation through service design

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze how service design practices reshape mental models to enable innovation. Mental models are actors’ assumptions and beliefs that guide their behavior and interpretation of their environment.Design/methodology/approachThis paper offers a conceptual framework for innovation in service ecosystems through service design that connects the macro view of innovation as changing institutional arrangements with the micro view of innovation as reshaping actors’ mental models. Furthermore, through an 18-month ethnographic study of service design practices in the context of healthcare, how service design practices reshape mental models to enable innovation is investigated.FindingsThis research highlights that service design reshapes mental models through the practices of sensing surprise, perceiving multiples and embodying alternatives. This paper delineates the enabling conditions for these practices to occur, such as coaching, diverse participation and supportive physical materials.Research limitations/implicationsThis study brings forward the underappreciated role of actors’ mental models in innovation. It highlights that innovation in service ecosystems is not simply about actors making changes to their external context but also actors shifting their own assumptions and beliefs.Practical implicationsThis paper offers insights for service managers and service designers interested in supporting innovation on how to catalyze shifts in actors’ mental models by creating the conditions for specific service design practices.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to shed light on the central role of actors’ mental models in innovation and identify the service design practices that reshape mental models.

Co-designing services with vulnerable consumers

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how vulnerable consumers can be involved in transformative service design and how this approach may enhance the design of such services. The study also analyzes how co-design with vulnerable consumers differs from existing user involvement processes with the purpose of developing a co-design framework.Design/methodology/approachA case study approach was employed, with six high schools in Australia identified as sites to conduct co-design sessions for a school-based alcohol education program. Adolescents were invited to review and (re)design an existing alcohol education program.FindingsThe study indicates that co-design with vulnerable consumers cannot be approached in the same way as conventional user involvement processes. Based on the insights generated from six co-design sessions as well as the examination of user involvement and co-design literature, the authors propose a six-step co-design framework. The six steps comprise resourcing, planning, recruiting, sensitizing, facilitation and evaluation.Research limitations/implicationsThe co-design framework illustrates important differences to conventional user involvement processes. However, the generalizability of the research findings is limited to a specific study setting and a narrowly defined sample. Future research in a different setting is needed to further validate the presented findings.Practical implicationsFor service design practice, this study provides guidelines on how co-design activities with vulnerable consumers can be effectively resourced, planned, recruited, sensitized, facilitated and evaluated. The framework outlines how co-design may be applied so that vulnerable consumers can become empowered participants during the design process.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the knowledge in transformative service research – a priority in service research – and service design by extending the boundaries of our understanding of processes and tools for the involvement of vulnerable consumers in transformative service design.

A multilevel consideration of service design conditions

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to advance the current understanding of organisational conditions that facilitate service design. Specifically, the focus is on organisational capabilities, interactive practices and individual abilities as units of analysis across service system levels. Grounded in design principles, the paper conceptualises and delineates illustrative service design conditions and introduces a respective service design capability-practice-ability (CPA) portfolio. In doing so, an emerging microfoundations perspective in the context of service design is advanced.Design/methodology/approachConceptual paper.FindingsThis paper identifies and delineates a CPA that contributes to service design and ultimately customer experiences. The service design CPA consists of six illustrative constellations of service design capabilities, practices and abilities, which operate on different organisational levels. The service design CPA builds the foundation for in-depth research implications and future research opportunities.Practical implicationsThe CPA framework suggests that if an organisation seeks to optimise service design and subsequent customer experiences, then individual- and organisational-level (cap)abilities and interactive practices should be optimised and synchronised across specific CPA constellations.Originality/valueThis paper provides the first microfoundations perspective for service design. It advances marketing theory through multilevel theorising around service design capabilities, practices and abilities and overcomes extant limitations of insular theorising in this context.

東京国立博物館・特集展示「伊能忠敬の日本図」とミュージアムシアターを活用したサービスデザインプラクティス( デジタルミュージアムの展開)

東京国立博物館・特集展示「伊能忠敬の日本図」とミュージアムシアターを活用したサービスデザインプラクティス( デジタルミュージアムの展開)

What if the Library … Engaging Users to Become Partners in Positive Change and Improve Services in an Academic Library

Participatory and anthropological studies have blended with library customer service design and feedback practices as ways to engage users in deeper and more meaningful conversations about their needs. Formal user studies can be cumbersome, expensive, and time consuming however. Sometimes asking a simple question will work just as effectively in uncovering user needs as other types of approaches. Taking this concept and applying it to the Oklahoma State University Library community resulted in a library-wide study in 2015. Researchers started with a simple question, “What if the library?,” and through interviews, online surveys, and a sticky-note wall, they found out the answer.

Capable design or designing capabilities? An exploration of service design as an emerging organizational capability in Telenor – Martinkenaite

This empirical paper examines a process, starting with the managerial decision to make service design an organizational capability, and follows it as it unfolds over time within one organization. Service design has become an established business practice of how firms create new products and services to promote differentiation in an increasingly uncertain business landscape. Implicit in the literature on service design are assumptions about strategic implications of adopting the prescribed innovation methods and tools. However, little is known about how service design evolves into an organizational capability enabling firms to transform their existing businesses and sustain competitiveness. Through a longitudinal, exploratory case study of service design practices in one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, we explicate mechanisms through which service design evolves into an organizational capability by exploring the research question: what are the mechanisms through which service design develops into an organizational capability? Our study reveals the effect of an initial introduction of service design tools, identification of boundary-spanning actors and co-alignment of dedicated resources between internal functions, as well as through co-creation with customers. Over time, these activities lead to the adoption of service design practices, and subsequently these practices spark incremental learning throughout the organization, alter managerial decisions and influence multiple paths for the development of new capabilities. Reporting on this process, we are able to describe how service design practices were disseminated and institutionalized within the organization we observed. This study thus contributes by informing how service design can evolve into an organizational capability, as well as by bridging the emerging literature on service design and design thinking with established strategy theory. Further research will have to be conducted to confirm if the same mechanisms are observable across contexts and in other firms, and several future research directions are identified. In addition, the study also has implications for practice as it demonstrates how service design methodology can be implemented and has strategic implications for organizations.

Is Service Design in Demand?

This article reports on an empirical study that investigates the work experience of graduates from a service design program in a leading art and design institution. Drawing on the findings from reviewing 30 online profiles of the graduates and interviewing 12 of them, this article explores the challenges and opportunities for service design as a profession in relation to the current demand in private‐, public‐, and third‐sector organizations. The article concludes that the scope and integrity of service design within organizations depends on the organizational contexts, for example, how service design is perceived and how open the organization is to new ways of working; therefore, it could be said that it is potentially compromised by a lack of frameworks that underpin service design practice. In many ways, service design has become a responsive reformulation of practices from different fields. Although the demand for the service design graduates from this program is high, the continuous development of service design depends on the extent of success of the experiments and implementation achieved by its early adopters.

Designing for public sector innovation in the UK: design strategies for paradigm shifts

Purpose – The aim of this work is to provide an initial picture of how some design agencies are contributing toward a paradigm shift and how they are developing in the future to better inform design policies and interdisciplinary work. There is a general agreement that the current government and public sector structure and modes of operation need radical transformation. In this scenario, a shift from New Public Management towards New Public Governance paradigm has been auspicated. Design has attracted attention as a potential approach to support this transformation, but research into Service Design, as well as discussions on its future development, for public sector innovation is limited. This paper is an exploratory study into the individual work of seven representative UK design agencies operating for and within the public sector. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews literature on public sector reform and innovation to inform comparative studies of contemporary design agencies working for public sector reform. Interviews with seven designers from NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, Participle, Innovation Unit, Uscreates, Collaborative Change, Futuregov and Snook are conducted to review their perceived role for public sector reform, their design approaches, exemplar projects and main challenges. Findings – Emerging design strategies for Public Sector reform are: a collaborative design approach that considers all stakeholders as equal co-creators of public value; operating at different complementary levels to aim at systemic change; designing from the inside out (innovation culture) and outside in (market change). These different strategies imply the development of possible different business models. Existing creative tensions appear between embedding and outsourcing strategies, acting as facilitators vs designers, developing both designing and service delivery roles. Research limitations/implications – This paper is based on a limited sample of design agencies, and it is not a systematic study into the impact of their design work, which should be the object of a following study. Practical implications – This paper brings Service Design practice into public sector innovation debate to inform future interdisciplinary research and innovation policies. It positions existing design innovation strategies within the wider picture of public sector reform to support a more informed design practice. Originality/value – Few studies have looked at the UK design agencies for public sector innovation and discussed their possible future developments. This paper provides an original and holistic description of design for public sector innovation with considerations on how it should be interpreted when developing supporting innovation and design policies.

Service-Dominant Logic and Service Design Practices

Service-Dominant Logic and Service Design Practices

A Theoretical Framework for Studying Service Design Practices: First Steps to a Mature Field

Drawing on literature from three main perspectives on service, design and innovation - Perspectives on Service Innovation (Service Innovation and New Service Development studies), Perspectives on Service (Service Science and Service Research frameworks on services), and Perspectives on Design (Design Anthropology) - this paper presents a theoretical framework, to systematically study, position and interpret Service Design practices and outcomes. The research is the first-phase of an on-going 6-months Art and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded scoping study into the contribution of Design for Service Innovation and Development. Proceedings from the The 19th Design Management Institute (DMI): Academic Design Management Conference, 2014

Describing service systems

AbstractThere are many different normative frameworks for describing service systems that take a distinct conceptual perspective. They emphasize the physical arrangement or topology, the functions or processes, the chronology of experience, the causality of value creation, the flow of information or people, or other characteristics. These frameworks are deeply embedded in service system research and design practice, but we have not known how useful or natural they are. University students new to service science concepts described a service system they all used—the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system. They identified and categorized the services they encountered or that were involved when they used BART and then created diagrams to depict the system. There was substantial variation in how students described BART in terms of scope, overall number of services, and their granularity. There was also great diversity in the classification of services and in the diagrams or other representations students created. Since most students had little exposure to normative frameworks for describing service systems, their diagrams were often hybrids of different frameworks. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Designing Services with Models from Interaction Design and Cognitive Systems Engineering

Objective: This paper discusses how service design is related to two well-known disciplines, interaction design and cognitive systems engineering, which are applied to the design of software, websites and mobile phones, and the design of control room of nuclear power plants and cockpit control, respectively. Background: Service design has been spotlighted recently due to its promisingness to service industry. Successful cases of service design are widely shared among designers. Service design, however, is treated as practice rather than a discipline. Method: It was discussed that it is important to consider the interaction between customers and services as in interaction design, and some domains are complex enough and have functional limitation as in cognitive systems engineering. Results: Models and design tools of the disciplines are introduced and applied to service design practices. Conclusion: It was concluded that service design has the characteristics of both interaction design and cognitive systems engineering.

Barriers to Design in Healthcare

Background Health advisory bodies have suggested that external disciplines such as engineering and design, with their creative, structured approaches to user-focused problem solving, may contribute useful tools and techniques to healthcare service designers. However if external disciplines are to add value to healthcare systems, they need an understanding of current service design practice, and of the environment in which healthcare service designers operate. Method In this ongoing study, using a grounded theory approach, data were collected from 20 anonymous participants connected to a UK NHS hospital. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather information on current design practice within 79 change projects, focusing on requirements elicitation. Open coding produced over 400 codes, organised under four main categories: Projects, Requirements Process, Design Methods (including tools and techniques), and Stakeholders. Via further analysis using theoretical memos and axial coding, the topic of barriers to effective design emerged as a strong theme that is discussed further in this paper. Results Pragmatic barriers to the effective use of design include issues such as high impact of change, difficulties engaging stakeholders in design activities, cultural and behavioural differences, and problems with inherited systems. Such barriers reflect the highly complex nature of healthcare. Staff adopted a variety of approaches to help resolve complexity, but negative emotional reactions to the use of design methods themselves invite further investigation into whether their cause is the tools themselves, the types of projects they are used in, or the conditions in which they are used. Conclusion This paper concludes that if design thinking is to become more prevalent in healthcare, there is a need for more awareness of, and investigation into, the interplay between pragmatic and emotional barriers to design.

Resource allocation and empowerment practices

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of empowerment practices within the disability support service (DSS) sector in New Zealand. The DSS framework is designed as part of the public sector reform process to promote empowerment for people with disabilities so that they can lead independent lives in their communities.Design/methodology/approach – Taking a qualitative and interpretive approach to fieldwork, this research seeks the actual lived experiences of the disabled as recipients of services offer by the state.Findings – The empirical evidence suggests that a concept such as empowerment can be problematic, because it can be perceived as a manipulative strategy where empowerment principles may be only notionally applied when services are offered by following managerialist principles.Originality/value – This paper adds to the understanding on relationships between service design, resources, and empowerment practices. Implementation of empowerment principles, however, depends o...

Operational loss and new service design

PurposeThe understanding of operational failure (or loss generally) and its role as an imperative for service design is underdeveloped. This paper investigates external and internal loss categories (such as market failure, and unexploited resource development) and their relationship to the loss response; specifically, reactions to loss in the form of ex post loss control via new service design (NSD).Design/methodology/approachThe investigation consists of complimentary theoretical and empirical dimensions and includes the analysis of five service design cases. This analysis deploys a model based upon the extant service design and innovation, resource‐based view and operational risk literatures.FindingsThe findings question the universal applicability of extant normative and descriptive models of service design. After arguing that their use should be limited to specific contexts, the paper proposes a new, more general conception of service design modes.Originality/valueThe paper comments on patterns of service design practice not discussed previously. It highlights some dangers inherent in following conventional prescription on design processes, illustrates a positive role for loss in design, and proposes new frameworks for NSD that accommodate loss as a contributor to the process.

Transit Service Design and Operation Practices in Western European Countries

Fundamental transit service design in a number of small cities in Western Europe, which have reputationally good transit systems, is discussed. This work was the result of a transit study tour sponsored by the Transit Cooperative Research Program of TRB. Key differences between transit design practice in Europe and the United States include longer distances between stops, superior customer information at bus stops, more frequent service, and downtown schedule coordination in the European systems. The combination of low-floor buses, off-board fare collection, long distances between stops, and multiple boarding doors on buses enables these systems to carry a large number of customers without deteriorating schedule speed. Several transit systems have used imaginative methods of providing service in low-density markets such as sparsely settled areas and evening and weekend transit service. These include the use of group taxis that travel between downtown and bus stops in the rest of the city. Compared with U.S. transit systems of comparable size, European transit systems are more technology driven. Even small cities have traffic-signal preemption systems, schedule adherence systems, and off-board electronic fare collection technology. Possible application of some of these techniques to transit practice in the United States is discussed.