L02. Service Design Contexts

Date/Time: 
Wed, 08/31/2011 - 2:00pm - 3:30pm

Service systems combine and integrate the value created in different design contexts. These contexts include person-to-person encounters, technology enabled self-service, computational services, multi-channel services, multi-device services, and location-based / context-aware services. Most designers are familiar with some of these contexts, but few service designers are familiar with all of them. Because the design concerns and methods in one context can seem incompatible with those in others, there is relatively little work that analyzes design concerns and methods that span multiple contexts. Doing exactly that is the point of this course. 


A more abstract view that focuses on 
  • the information required to perform the service, 
  • how the responsibility to provide this information is divided between the service provider and service consumer, and 
  • the patterns that govern information exchange 

yields a more flexible description of service encounters and outcomes that applies to all the design contexts.