Prototyping and enacting services : Lessons learned from human-centered methods

In service development, finding new ways to prototype the service experience could potentially contribute to higher quality services, more well-directed service engineering processes, and more. Tools and methods to express important characteristics of a service experience come in many forms, such as personas, blueprints, design objectives, scenarios, and role-playing. In this paper, we propose a conceptual model that informs choices among these options. We draw on experience from the field of interaction design, which has a rich tradition of practice with the methods over the last two decades. The framework is grounded in the analysis work of the field of design from Buchanan (2001). It points toward the transfer of methods between interaction and service design. We also draw out specific characteristics of service experiences, to describe their contribution to an understanding of a future and emerging service experience, from employing the methods in early in the service development process.