Service design involves researching, analyzing, and designing interactive touchpoints within a system to create positive outcomes for customers, employees, and the organization.
Service designers should prioritize aligning with customer experience and innovation teams, focusing on problem-solving and human-centric solutions within organizations.
Deep dives
Defining Service Design: Research, Analysis, and Designing Interactive Touchpoints
Thomas Wilson, a senior principal service designer, delves into the definition of service design, emphasizing its multidisciplinary nature. Service design involves researching, analyzing, and designing interactive touchpoints within a system or service to create positive outcomes for customers, employees, and the organization. It spans various design aspects like systems design, business design, and customer experience, focusing on problem-solving and human-centric solutions.
Navigating Misconceptions in Service Design: Addressing Role Expectations
Wilson sheds light on common misconceptions about service design, highlighting the misconception that service designers should primarily be product or UI designers. He emphasizes that service design is about answering to the business first and being aligned with customer experience and innovation teams. The challenge lies in ensuring that service designers are placed in the right context within organizations to operate effectively for the benefit of customers and business success.
The Importance of Storytelling and Ecosystem Understanding in Service Design
Wilson underscores the significance of storytelling and understanding ecosystems in service design. By mapping relationships, dependencies, and pain points within an ecosystem, service designers can unify divisions and stakeholders, building consensus and guiding design decisions. Drawing parallels to the brain's functions, Wilson illustrates how service design involves deep investigation, curiosity, and constant negotiation to solve human problems and elevate systems.
Advice for Aspiring Service Designers: Emphasizing Learning and Love for Humanity
To aspiring service designers, Wilson recommends a robust reading regimen to learn from industry experts and gain diverse perspectives. He highlights the importance of continued education through platforms like Interaction Design Foundation and suggests delving into courses and resources to grasp the essence of service design. Wilson cautions against entering the field solely for monetary gains, emphasizing that service design is about deep investigation, curiosity, and a genuine passion for solving human problems.
Members of our UX Master Certified community are applying UX principles to their work in a range of different ways. In this episode, we interview Thomas Wilson, Senior Principal Service Designer at United Healthcare and discuss what service design is and what makes it challenging and rewarding.
