From interaction to service

When service design got its boost in 2003-2005, as design firms plunged into what seemed to be unchartered area, the possibilities and provisions for the design discipline was under explored. In this chapter we will trace one of the strands of development that have supported service design since then, and also point towards areas where service design might benefit from building on earlier developments. Digital interaction designers were starting to graduate in the 90’s, from our and other universities. Since then quite a few students have gone into different business sectors and established for themselves specific roles. Meeting them and starting to talk to these professional designers about service design and what service design is, a typical comment was “sure, that’s basically what we’ve been doing all along”. Strange as their laid back reaction seemed, I tried to figure out what was behind this. The obvious was of course that they were designing online services, mobile services, etc. And even though these might be regarded as service channels, in some cases they were the only service channel. Another reason seemed to be that, because some of the basic qualities of the design object are so similar between services in general and digital interaction design, the design techniques and methods, and the focus on user centered design, give them a vantage point on the design object that allows them to think in terms of services. Yet another reason was that the Scandinavian design traditions, such as cooperative design, made it possible for them to work with inclusive processes with several stakeholders with varying objectives.