If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got. -Albert Einstein How can we design successful digital offers in complex organizations with multiple stakeholders who have different levels of comfort with innovation and risk? What if we thought less in terms of digital products and more in terms of visitor needs? How does starting from the user need rather than a chosen platform affect the things we make? Service design places the visitor at the center of the experience and it reflects the reality of the visitor experience in our museums: digital forms only one part of a larger continuum of experience that includes both the digital and the non-digital. Designing services can also help us find new collaborative ways to work with both internal teams and external suppliers. This presentation provides insights from recent research and service design efforts at the Van Gogh Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the V&A. This presentation includes processes and tools for capturing and understanding the entire visitor journey: recorded visits, interviews, observation, in-gallery usability testing. We’ll show how the research informs and shapes the service design process and finally, what the outcomes and results are for the visitor and for the museum.

1. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Service Design:
Designing for Visitor Needs at
the Interface of the Physical
and the Digital
Laura Mann, Frankly, Green + Webb
@lhmann @franklygw
Museum Computer Network Conference
November 6, 2015

2. T: @lhmann @franklygw

3. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Our expectation was that success
would lie in picking the right
idea for a series of digital
products…
Marthe de Vet,
Van Gogh Museum

4. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Our expectation was that success
would lie in picking the right
idea for a series of digital
products…
So we spent a great deal of time
in creating the briefs. We were
clear that we were looking for
innovation and we did our best to
manage the risks by being as
careful and specific about what
the solution would or wouldn't be
Marthe de Vet,
Van Gogh Museum

5. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Apps
4K screensPersonalization
iBeacons
More tours,
more options
What’s
your pen?

6. T: @lhmann @franklygw
More Success = Innovation
= New devices
= Additional media
= More functionality
= More choice & personalization
Assumption…

7. T: @lhmann @franklygw
"Empathy for our visitors is the
kind of radical innovation that our
Board can't handle - they want
iBeacons”
Anonymous, Head of Digital

8. T: @lhmann @franklygw
No correlation
between usage or
outcomes
Evidence…
More success = Innovation
≠ New devices
≠ Additional media
≠ New functionality
≠ More choice & personalization

9. T: @lhmann @franklygw

10. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Digital products

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Digital products
services

12. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Digital products
A service helps someone do
something
services

13. T: @lhmann @franklygw
What is service design?
Service design is the activity of
planning and organizing people,
infrastructure, communication and
material components of a service
in order to improve its quality
and the interaction between
service provider and customers.

14. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Product
design
Experience
design
Service
design
• Operations
• Processes
• People
• Marketing
• Communication
• Infrastructure
• Software
• Hardware
• Information
• Help
• UX

15. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Design Principle
Build digital services,
not websites
Our service doesn’t begin and
end at our website. It might
start with a search engine and
end at the post office.
UK Government Digital Service
https://www.gov.uk/design-principles

16. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Attract
Mobile Service Design
User Journey
Decide Use Deliver
Value
1.Attract: Who are the users and what are
their needs?
2.Decide: Do visitors understand the offer?
3.Use: Is it easy to use?
4.Deliver value: Does it add value?

17. T: @lhmann @franklygw
2601
Stops
25
Trails & Tours
The Met Audio
Guide
Maximum choice
Maximum flexibility

18. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Can visitors make an informed choice?
Natalie looks for a highlights tour
…I don’t know what’s in
any of these so I don’t
know where to go first…

19. T: @lhmann @franklygw

20. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Usability is not only what’s on a screen
I think that they’re just
dual numbers and I don’t
understand why they would
have that because I’m
sure 3806…is going to
give me the same audio
(enters 3806 and listens)
Yeah, it was the same
thing except a different
voice.
Lucy

21. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Innovation = More Success
= Simplifying the interface
= Limiting choices
= Improved labeling
For the Met…

22. T: @lhmann @franklygw
The Van Gogh Museum: A New Service
22
Research &
Design
Production Launch Evaluate Iteration

23. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Success was…
1.Improve the visitor experience
2.Improve the take-up rate

24. T: @lhmann @franklygw
What do you do? Why?

25. T: @lhmann @franklygw
“Easy to use in every context”

26. T: @lhmann @franklygw
How can we
make this
moment as
frictionless
as possible?
Can we halve
the time it
takes to hand
out?

27. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Device

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Human
Staff trained
to re-assure
but not
instruct

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Content
Content based on
what was important
to the visitor
1. How long it takes
2. What is offered
3. What they do

30. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Innovation = More Success
= Removing friction
= Choreographing the service
= Creating meaningful
instructions
For the Van Gogh Museum…

31. T: @lhmann @franklygw
Innovation = More Success
= Handout time reduced by 30%
= 6% increase in take up
For the Van Gogh Museum…

32. T: @lhmann @franklygw
e: laura@franklygreenwebb.com
t: @FranklyGW