Smarter
Touchpoints
& Contextual
Services
Service Design Drinks:
Service Design & the Internet of Things
July 16, 2015 • Hannes Jentsch & Martin Jordan

“Service Design helps to innovate or improve
services to make them more useful, usable,
desirable for clients and efficient as well as
effective for organisations.
”
DEFI NITIO N
Service Design
— S T E FA N M O R I T Z , Veryday

Source: Amazon
EXAMPLE
Amazon Fresh

“The Internet of Things (IoT) is the
interconnection of uniquely identifiable
embedded computing devices within the
existing Internet infrastructure.
”
DEFI NITIO N
Internet of Things
— W I K I P E D I A , I N T E R N E T O F T H I N G S

Source: Amazon
EXAMPLE
Amazon Fresh
Grocery delivery supported by digital
touchpoints: mobile app and website

Source: Amazon
EXAMPLE
Amazon Fresh
Replacing the phone app with a connected
object—Amazon Dash

Source: Amazon
EXAMPLE
Amazon Fresh
An object made to live in the kitchen, with
specialised affordances: two buttons, a hook,
a bar code scanner and a microphone for
dictation—at the same time the service is
unchanged

Source: Amazon
EXAMPLE
Amazon
Amazon App
Amazon Dash
Amazon Dash Button
Amazon Watch App

Wearables
Connected
cars
Connected
homes
Connected
cities
Industrial
internet
Transportation
Healthcare
Oil & gas
Source: Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research
IoT Landscape

What do customers really
want, and how can I deliver
that as an intuitive service,
rather than a stand-alone
product?
QUESTION FOR IOT MAKERS

How can connected
devices help making
services more usable for
customers? And more
efficient for organisations?
QUESTION FOR SERVICE DESIGNERS

Source: Daimler AG
EXAMPLE
car2go
By-the-minute car sharing service supported
by app and near field communication card

Source: Daimler AG; Isabell Herzog & Joseph Ribbe (Key4Car, FH Potsdam)
EXAMPLE
car2go
Replacing app and card with a connected
object—a key fob

Source: Daimler AG; Isabell Herzog & Joseph Ribbe (Key4Car, FH Potsdam)
EXAMPLE
car2go
An object made to live on your key chain, able
to make a car reservation without interrupting
a conversation and capable of navigating you
to it, as well as opening it

By going beyond screens &
beeps we are able to
respect the capabilities of
human cognition.
HYPOTHESIS

Single purpose devices are
built for context, able to
fulfill a specific task very
well.
HYPOTHESIS

INPUT FO R CREATING CONNECTED OB JECTS

Imagine your rental
bike’s handle vibrates
when you have to
take the turn…
FOOD FO R THOUGHT

Imagine your debit
card changes its
colour when you get
close to your
overdraft limit…
FOOD FO R THOUGHT

Imagine your digital
ticket reveals itself as
the train attendant
comes by…
FOOD FO R THOUGHT

Less smartphone
dependency,
but objects as
messengers
Leverage
all human
capabilities
RECOMMENDATIONS
Think of connected
devices as part
of the bigger
service system
Design as specific
as possible
for contexts
& touchpoints