1. Intro to Service Design
Dr. Satu Miettinen
www.servicedesignthinking.com
www.satumiettinen.com

2. Why service design?
• Public service sector has huge need to
develop new service structures and solutions
with small resources. > social design, new
user orientated service systems
• Growing area of service industry and the
experience economy offers possibilities to
develop user orientated service clusters. >
new business opportunies
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

3. What is service design?
• Service design as a tool for improving a
customer experience, innovating new
service opportunities and ROI (return on
investment).
• Service design is a tool for innovating
new sustainable service systems and
well-being.
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

4. With design methods and
thinking
• Service design connects the areas of cultural,
social and human interaction. Use of design
methods acts as a link between the different
views in the service design process.
• Service design looks at service development
from the designer’s point of view. Design
thinking has the ability to create concepts,
solutions and future service experiences for
users.
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

5. Generative methods
• Gaining human-centred insights, new
ideas and opportunities, emergent
patterns and challenges, possible new
offerings (context mapping, role playing,
design probes).
Fulton Suri, J. (2008): Informing Our Intuition: Design Research for Radical Innovation. Rotman Magazine,
Winter 2008. pp. 53-55.
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

6. Evaluative and formative
methods
• Co-discovery, co-design, engaging the
participants in creativity and in critical
thinking, sketches, models, videos,
prototypes, continual learning through a
process to determine the what, how, and to
whom the offering is directed (storyboards,
animations, tangible prototypes).
Fulton Suri, J. (2008): Informing Our Intuition: Design Research for Radical Innovation. Rotman Magazine, Winter 2008. pp. 53-
55.
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

7. Predictive methods
• Future opportunities and ideas,
speculative scenarios, estimating the
scale and potential of an opportunity
even when most variables are unknown
(scenario-based design).
Fulton Suri, J. (2008): Informing Our Intuition: Design Research for Radical Innovation. Rotman Magazine,
Winter 2008. pp. 53-55.
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

8. Service experience
• Experience includes personal
expectations, values, meanings >
customer experience can’t be dictated!
• One can set the right kind of framework
and setting for the customer experience
to direct it in the right direction
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

9. Drama
• The choreography of experience or at
least of conditions that enable certain
experiences is a major challenge in the
service design process. Use techniques
that have their roots in performing arts;
learn from experience and interaction
design in order to ”design time”.
Mager, B. (2009): Service Design as an Emerging Field. In Designing Services with
Innovative Methods. Miettinen, S. and Koivisto, M. Taik Publications,
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

10. User experience
• Desmet and Hekkert (2007) define that the user
experience is shaped by the characteristics of the
user (personality, skills, background, cultural values
and motives) as well as those of the product (shape,
texture, colour and behaviour). Physical actions and
perceptual and cognitive processes (perceiving,
exploring, using, remembering, comparing and
understanding) will contribute to the experience. It is
further influenced by the context of interaction
(physical, social, economic).
Desmet, Pieter and Hekkert, Paul (2007): Framework of Product Experience. International
Journal of Design. 1 (1), 57-66. http://www.ijdesign. org. Downloaded 4.9.2007
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

11. Service designer
• Aquire the user knowledge with
variety of tools
• Visualize the service experience
• Social skills, empathy for the users,
creativity and visual thinking
• Design thinking and co-ordination
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

12. Main tasks in service design
business:
a) Improving existing services/ service
channels (web, phone, personal sales etc)
b) Innovating new commercial services for a
company
c) Creating a service strategy or improving
brand strategy with service design tools
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

13. Added value of service design
for the service business
• Proactive method, foreseeing service opportunities and needs
• Gaining human-centered insights with innovative methods
• Developing services with user orientation
• Improved user-experience
• Customer profiles
• Qulitative research with creative process and strong quality work
• Multi-disciliplinary work
• Building brand experience through good and credible user experiences
• Users included in the development process
• Testing the ideas
• Understanding the service context
• Visualizing
• Prototyping, iterative process
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

14. Customer Journey
Services are processes that happen
over time, and this process includes
several service moments. When all
service moments are connected the
customer journey is formed. The
customer journey is formed both by the
service provider’s explicit actions as
well as by the customer’s choices.
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

15. Mikko Koivisto’s example of a customer journey that is formed by several service
moments In Designing Services with Innovative Methods
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

16. Tool for making concrete
• In service design the customer journey and the
service moments can be mapped out from an already
existing service or used as tools in the concept
design phase of new service offerings. By doing this
the service structure becomes more concrete and
understandable and can therefore be better shaped
and critically examined. With the help of observation
and other methods used in service design it is
possible to find new customer needs and new models
of earning money.
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

17. Service touchpoints
• Each service moment is made of a
number of touchpoints through which
the service and its brand is experienced
and perceived with all the senses.
Touchpoints are divided into channels,
objects, processes and people.
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

18. Service channels
• Channels are environments, spaces
and places where the visible part of the
service production happens. Channels
can be physical, digital or intangible.
Often services are multichannel
customer experiences, which means
that they are produced through many
different media.
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

19. Objects as touchpoints
• Objects as touchpoints are things or
machines that the customer himself uses,
needs or gets when using a service. The
objects can also be things that the personnel
use but are still visible to the customer and
contribute to the customer’s service
experience. Since the service cannot be
tested before using it the customer often
draws conclusions based on what he or she
sees. Objects often thus have a
communicative role in services.
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

20. Blueprinting the service
• Service design keeps the focus on the lived experience of the
user journey. This is a journey that points to where people
actually experience the service. This approach enables
organizations to understand how people and services relate in
practise. For developing a service blueprint one needs to
understand the service architecture. This is a complex system
and arrangement of objects, dialogues, information, content,
processes and navigation. Touchpoints are the people and
tangible things that shape the experience of services.
Touchpoints, as previously mentioned, are the places and
spaces where people experience the services. Service can thus
be described as a journey that connects the touchpoints.
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009

21. Service design process
> Understanding the service design challenge: the
users, business environment and applicable
technologies
> Observing, profiling, creating empathy for the
users, participating with the users and being
visual during the whole process
> Creating ideas, prototyping, evaluating and
improving including the clients and the users in
the process
> Implementing, maintaining and developing the
services
> Operating with business realities
27.10.2009 Lecture at Sampo hall, University of Art
and Design Helsinki, UID 2009