Abstract
After many years, in which service design occupied some blurred areas in different
disciplines, this activity is now creating its own ground and consolidating both practice and
research. The increasing number of conferences and publications on service design, the
growing number of cases and the emergence of new education programs are contributing to
raise service design to the status of an independent disciplinary area.
The contributions to the definition of a disciplinary corpus for service design come from two
main directions: the first concerns the definition of a methodological framework for service
design. This area is developing methodological tools for analysing, designing and
representing services. The second area focuses on real cases, developing projects that are
advancing the practice of service design and making service design visible to private business
and public administrations.
The two areas mentioned above are developed along different disciplinary traditions; the first
area refers to studies in management, organisation and engineering (Bitner, Booms, &
Tetreault, 1990; G. Hollins, Hollins, Bill, 1993; Ramaswamy, 1996; Zeithaml, Bitner, &
Gremler, 2006). This area emphasised technical and organisational aspects in designing a
service, looking at a service as a production system. The second area has been inspired by
interaction design studies (Pacenti, 1998; Sangiorgi, 2004), however the specific theme of
service design has been developed in some schools and teaching programs beyond the
traditional domain of Interaction design, focusing on experiential issues related to a wide
range of product-service systems. The focus of this area is the service encounter¸ i.e. the physical
or virtual space in which the service provider(s) come in contact with the customers.
The parallel and asymmetric development of the two areas led to separate methodological
approaches. This paper will illustrate such a development with the aim of emphasising the
gap between the two areas and exploring possibilities to develop a broader operative
paradigm for the design of services
disciplines, this activity is now creating its own ground and consolidating both practice and
research. The increasing number of conferences and publications on service design, the
growing number of cases and the emergence of new education programs are contributing to
raise service design to the status of an independent disciplinary area.
The contributions to the definition of a disciplinary corpus for service design come from two
main directions: the first concerns the definition of a methodological framework for service
design. This area is developing methodological tools for analysing, designing and
representing services. The second area focuses on real cases, developing projects that are
advancing the practice of service design and making service design visible to private business
and public administrations.
The two areas mentioned above are developed along different disciplinary traditions; the first
area refers to studies in management, organisation and engineering (Bitner, Booms, &
Tetreault, 1990; G. Hollins, Hollins, Bill, 1993; Ramaswamy, 1996; Zeithaml, Bitner, &
Gremler, 2006). This area emphasised technical and organisational aspects in designing a
service, looking at a service as a production system. The second area has been inspired by
interaction design studies (Pacenti, 1998; Sangiorgi, 2004), however the specific theme of
service design has been developed in some schools and teaching programs beyond the
traditional domain of Interaction design, focusing on experiential issues related to a wide
range of product-service systems. The focus of this area is the service encounter¸ i.e. the physical
or virtual space in which the service provider(s) come in contact with the customers.
The parallel and asymmetric development of the two areas led to separate methodological
approaches. This paper will illustrate such a development with the aim of emphasising the
gap between the two areas and exploring possibilities to develop a broader operative
paradigm for the design of services
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Conference Proceedings, ServDes.2009 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Publisher | Linköping University Electronic Press |
| Publication date | 2009 |
| Pages | 151-164 |
| ISBN (Print) | 1650-3686, 978-91-7519-771-5 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 1650-3740 |
| Publication status | Published - 2009 |
| Event | ServDes 2009: Service design and innovation conference 2009 - Oslo, Norway Duration: 24 Nov 2009 → 26 Nov 2009 |
Conference
| Conference | ServDes 2009 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Norway |
| City | Oslo |
| Period | 24/11/2009 → 26/11/2009 |
Keywords
- Service Design
- Industrialisation of services