First, the design methodology is reviewed. Then the studies that focus on service design methodology are organized. In the end of this session, the method paradigms for designing service are gathered.
2.3.1 Design methodology
According to Jones (1992), the design methodologies are divided into six categories (see table ) which include methods of controlling strategy, methods of exploring design situation, methods of searching ideas, methods of exploring problems and methods of evaluation. (Jones 1992) The methodologies are provided to solve design problems with different purposes.
14 Table 2. 1 The six categories of design methods.
CATEGORIES PURPOSE METHODS
1 Strategies prefabrication Systematic search, Value analysis
2 Strategies control Strategy switching
3 Exploration of design situations Interviewing users, Questionnaires
4 Ideas search Brainstorming, Synectics,
5 Problems exploration Interaction matrix, system transformation
6 Evaluation Selecting criteria, Specification writing
Base on above categories of design methods, this study would focus on developing the method for exploring situations and searching ideas.
2.3.2 Service Design methodology
“Services need to be understood as a journey or a cycle – a series of critical encounters that take place over time and across channels.” (Parker 2006) While describing and organizing a service, the framework of a customer journey is helpful to think the experience of a service (Samalionis 2003) And, according to the book
“journey to the interface “(Parker 2006), the language of service are organized with definition. The definitions of touchpoints and service journey are as following.
1. Touchpoints
Touchpoints refers to diverse channels that customer can get the service. It seems like the physical elements of a service system. “Touchpoint is everything that a person accessing the service sees, hears, touches, smells and interacts with.”
2. Service journey
The journey refers to the process for customer getting service. They might interact with numbers of touchpoints in a service journey. “Tracing the person‟s journey enables service providers to reflect on the effectiveness and appropriateness of each intervention.”
For improving the design quality, there are related techniques proposed by Design Council (2009), which are the service designer works with.
15 identifying actors in the service system, defining the logical structure of the service and representing the service:
1. Identification of the actors
Identify the actors in the service environment, which might have customers and stakeholders. Also, use the appropriate method to figure out their requirements, such as observation techniques, culture probes.
2. Definition of possible service scenarios
The method that helps to describe the characteristics of the interaction in the service. The related tools include scenario and use case. Morelli point that, these methods of service design should concern tangible and intangible component of a service, time sequences and flows.
3. Representation of the service
The method that can clearly present all the components of a service, define the specific interaction process, and physical elements. The blueprint is an example for representing the service.
2.3.3 Paradigms
Service Touchpoint CardsThe case, AT-ONE Project (2009) that created a set of Service Touchpoint Cards for the Nordic Service Design conference, provides the useful methods to deliver service ideas by thinking collaborations of actors in the form of value network (AT-ONE 2009). The card set contains about 52 touchpoints examples that might
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be found in a typical service. (See figure 2.4) And the cards are grouped into five categories: Media, Graphics, Servicescape, Communications, and Ephemera.
The first category refers to media outlets, such as TV, radio, newspaper or the latest social community like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. The next stands for graphic production, including business cards, brochures, and advertising. The servicescape refers to the environment of the service, such as wayfinding, call-centre or building. The communications category contains the channels that people get in touch with others, such as smart phone, e-mail, SMS and the person who deliver information are also included, such as friends or family. Finally, the ephemera category refers to the objects of business that connect services together, such as receipts, bills, credit cards. This project provides a considerable way for inspiring designers to thinking service through actors‟ definition and card sorting.
Figure 2. 4 the touchpoints cards
Touchpoints matrix
Touchpoints matrix is the method that developed by Gianluca Brugnoli -teacher at Politecnico di Milano and designer at Frog Design. Roberta (2008) introduces this method that “this method merges the features of the customer journey and the features of the system maps and is based on the use of personas.”
This method provides a visual framework for helping designers to plan the experience of using service. The first step is defining touchpoints that might be the component of the service system, and fill the ideas in the vertical axis form. Then, the actions that service system can support are listed in the horizontal axis form.
After that, designers could clearly design several specific journeys that personas
From “AT-ONE Project” ,Service Innovation website, http://www.service-innovation.org/?p=411
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might experience. Figure 2.5 illustrated this touchpoints matrix graphic.
Figure 2. 5 The touchpoints matrix
2.3.4 Summary
According to the six categories that Jones (1992) proposed, the design method of this study belongs to the method of searching for ideas or the method of exploring design situation. The method is expected to make designers create the innovative ideas which can meet the user‟s demand.
For helping designers and users can easily design the service, seeing service as a journey provide us a basic idea to plan the design method. The three directions of service design methodologies that Morelli (2006) proposed forms the initial framework of the method design. The elements of the proposed methodology would base on those directions, which include the method for defining the actors in service environment, the method for defining the possible service scenario.
From “Frog Design” by G. Brugnoli, http://www.brugnoli.net/
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