Lab+9

The overall experience, including before, during and after the purchase of a product or service, is judged by customers. Service design is a human-centred approach focusing on customer experience. Service design uses several tools and methods. Service blueprinting is a measurable description of critical service elements like time and sequences of actions and processes. Elements are categorized as front stage (actions/events that happen in the time and place with customers) and backstage (actions/events that happen without the customer but are fundamental). Flow charts are an example of service blueprints.

Ideation, context mapping and participatory design are other tools. By brainstorming and recording ideas of customers and multidisciplinary experts, conscious and unconscious needs, experiences, hopes and expectations are unravelled, providing solutions to problems. To compliment the cooperative work, service prototyping is another tool. By creating scenarios, storytelling, storyboards or real world simulations, ideas are put to the test to be analyzed, critiqued and improved.

Scenarios that include many steps with different people (ex. getting money back from insurance companies for insured services) could benefit from service design methods. Procedures with complicated and drawn out processes can be improved into something useful, usable and desirable for customers while efficient, effective and valuable for service providers.

By recording critical elements in front stage and backstage categories, an overview of current necessary and unnecessary steps are placed in plain view. By brainstorming ideas with groups of customers and professionals, faulty processes could be erased. Prototyping allows analysis of new ideas for overall improvement or new faults.