Service Design:

10 Principles

AIGA | IDSA
Image, Space, Object 5
8 August 2008
Hugh Dubberly
The opportunity
to delight customers—
to garner their love—

lies in delivering
not just a quality product
but a quality experience.

Service Design: 10 Principles 2

“. . . commercial products are best treated
as though they were services.

It’s not what you sell a customer,

it’s what you do for them.

It’s not what something is,

it’s what it is connected to,
what it does.

Flows become more

important than resources.
Behavior counts.”

—Kevin Kelly
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In 2002, IBM bought
Price Waterhouse’s IT
consulting business

In 2004, IBM sold its

PC business to Lenovo

In 2005, service was 35%

of IBM’s income

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In 2007, Philips sold its chip division

Philips then acquired Health Watch

Holdings and Lifeline Systems,
another health services company

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80% of the US GDP is in service

39% of China’s GDP is in service

Source: Mary Jo Bitner, ASU

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1. Value is in the experience

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Ways of thinking about service:
Pine & Gilmore—stage experience

coffee beans > coffee > coffee shop > Starbucks

Commodity Goods Service Experience

1¢–2¢ Per Cup 5¢–25¢ Per Cup 75¢–$1.50 Per Cup $2–$5.00 Per Cup

Beans Roasted and ground Brewed and served Treating yourself

to something special

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Ways of thinking about service:
Rheinfrank and Murrell—define marketspaces

motor > blender > kitchen > dining experience

Components Tools System Experience

Motor Appliance Kitchen Cooking

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 Ways of thinking about service:
iPod—integrated system of products and services

DRAM > mp3 player > music sharing service > my music

Hardware Software Networked Service Marketplace

MENU

Music Listener iPod iTunes iTunes Store Record Companies Artists

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Ways of thinking about service:
Each step expands our potential

+ Interface

+ Interface

+ Interface
MENU

Person Product Service Exchange

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 Apple is a product/service systems company
Recently Apple teamed up with Nike to extend the iPod/iLife systems.
Pressure Sensor Shoe
Place the sensor in
your left Nike+ shoe,
in the built-in pocket
beneath the insole.
The sensor uses a
sensitive accelerometer
to measure your activity:
the number of steps,
the rate at which they
are happening, and the
time between them.
Service Design: 10 Principles
iPod Nano (with Receiver)
MENU
The sensor then
wirelessly transfers
this data to the receiver
on your iPod nano.
User
As the user runs, iPod nano tells
them their time, distance, pace,
and calories burned (According
to your choice of workout) via
voice feedback that adjusts
music volume as it plays.
In addition to progress reports,
voice feedback congratulates
users when they’ve reached a
personal best—fastest pace,
longest distance and time,
or most calories burned.
Users can also set a PowerSong
for when they need help with the
home stretch. Press and hold the
center button at any time hear the
preselected PowerSong.
Nikeplus.com
After the run, the user may
connect the iPod to their com-
puter. iTunes takes over from
there, automatically syncing all
the run data and sending it to
nikeplus.com.
Nikeplus.com keeps stats on
every step. Check the users
speed, distance, and calories
burned—by run, by week,
or by month.
Nikeplus.com also keeps users
connected with runners from
every corner of the web. Users
are encouraged to compete with
other runners and compare stats
on the site.
12
2. Experience = Reputation

Reputation = Brand

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Reputation = How people think of
“what you offer”

Quality
respected? liked? loved?
dependable? good value?

Reach
well-known?
frequently encountered?

Position
relevance?
relation to alternatives?

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 This is not a brand.

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A logo is a sign of the quality of a product

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A brand exists in our minds

It links a symbol and the things which we associate with it—

based on our experience

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Brands are a special type of “sign”

sign = object + symbol + idea

symbol

idea

object

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A product is also a symbol

Both the logo and the product evoke a brand—

and its associated experiences

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A brand belongs to no one individual
A brand is the sum of a community’s experiences

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A brand is what everyone thinks of the quality of a product

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3. Sending a message is not enough
It must be received and understood

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The message I’m sending
may not be the one you’re receiving

sender message receiver

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Shannon & Weaver’s model of communication
describes technical problems in machine-to-machine communications

Shared Dictionary

Info Transmitter Channel Receiver Destination

Source (sender)
Message Sent Received Message
Signal Signal

Noise

Noise
Source

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Don Norman’s concept of the system image

To use a product properly,

users must have the same mental model as the designer.
But the designer can only communicate via the product,
the “system image.”

Designer’s User’s
Conceptual Mental
Model Model

The System
Image

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4. Learning requires interaction
with an environment

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Feedback is the basic process of learning

goal
perception

evaluation
effect

action

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Bill Verplank’s Model of Interaction

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 Services must continuously monitor their operation
- maintaining existing standards
- identifying quality problems and setting new standards
- recognizing and exploiting new opportunities in a changing environment
- building a culture dedicated to using feedback

Internally at the Service Interface Externally

Service Self-diagnostics Customer Interaction Individual Comments Amplified Comments

(current and logitudinal) (individual and aggregate) (e.g., word-of-mouth) (e.g., blogs, press)

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5. Conversation builds meaning—
creates understanding,
agreement, action

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 Human communication is more complex than machine communication

May suggest a response

Comparison
“Response”
may Received Intended
confirm Message 2 May
Message 2
suggest

“Call”
Intended Shared Experience Received
Message 1 e.g., Language Message 1

Channel

Signal 1
Signal 2

Sender/Receiver Receiver/Sender
Participant A Participant B

Noise

October 25, 2004 | Developed by Paul Pangaro and Dubberly Design Office

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Conversation involves interlocking feedback loops—
enabling consensual coordination of goals and actions

overlapping
experience

goal perception perception

goal
evaluation evaluation

interface perception

person A person B

action action

shared
environment

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 Human communication relies on agreement

$OWESEEMTOAGREETHATWEAGREE

MYMODELOFTHECORRESPONDENCE
OFYOURMODELOFTHESUBJECT
TOMYMODELOFTHESUBJECT
$OWESEEMTOAGREE

MYMODELOFYOURMODEL
OFTHESUBJECT

MYMODELOFTHESUBJECT YOURMODELOFTHESUBJECT

ME YOU

SUBJECT

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6. Services are intangible
and unfold through time

Designers and managers need maps

to “see” services as “wholes”

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Sets of resources composed into interfaces
make up a service system.

Context

Setting (Servicescape)

Service System

Interface (Front-end, “on-stage”) Back-end (“back-stage”)

Touchpoint Touchpoint

1 2 1 2

3 3
User

Touchpoint

1 2
Activity / Journey / Performance
Elements
3

Based on Gupta, Vajic—L. Suchman, and J. Lave

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7. Experience is a(n) activity
performance
journey

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The conventional sales cycle funnels prospects to a purchase

Stage Awareness Consideration Selection

Pool size Potential Interested Actual

audience prospects customers

Time

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An updated sales cycle
builds on the goal-action-measure
feedback loop

Goal Action Measure

Where seller wants buyer “to be” What seller does What seller watches

Adoption stage Sales stage Research stage

Aware of seller + offering Publicize + advertise Recognition score + # of inquiries

Understand features + benefits Inform + educate Reputation + quality scores

Interact + decide to try Close + transact Sales $ + % repeat purchases

Increase use + effectiveness Service + support Usability scores + maintenance records

Advocate + influence others Reinforce + reward Net promoter + satisfaction scores

Suggest changes + additions Listen + adopt # of unexpected uses of product

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The experience cycle emphasizes building relationships

connect & attract

capture the user’s
imagination

orient
advocate
help users navigate
“you just have
the world
to try this”

extend & retain interact

promise more become a part of
good things user’s lives

Service Design: 10 Principles 39

The experience cycle works in the large and in the small

in the large

in the middle

in the small

Service Design: 10 Principles 40

Apple store experience cycle: In the large
Multiples touch-points across the life of a product

In the large Advertising

iPod advertising. Billboards. TV.
Multiple touch-points A silhouetted figure against a
colorful background.
across the life of a product The white earbuds and cord
identify it from far away.

Sharing connect & attract

Store
Buy music for friends. The giant backlit apple
Share playlists and silver/glass backdrop
on local-area networks, orient
lets you know you are in
advocate
which can be fairly large a different kind of place.
in libraries or universities. Upon entering you find the iPods
I show off my toys among the store’s displays.
where ever I go.
(People smile and often ask interact
extend & retain
about them.) I become
an extension of the store.

Software + services Product

iTunes helps with You listen/watch. You are in your place
managing music collections, wherever you are with this product—
buying songs through the iTunes store, it creates your surround.
and transferring data onto the iPod. (It is about the experience after all.)
Once I have my stuff in there— And everyone knows it
I don’t want to move to any other platform. by your identifying white cords.
I buy the phone that integrates iPod
into my communication world,
or the Touch that extends my iPod experience
to calendars, web browsing, and mail.

Service Design: 10 Principles 41

Apple store experience cycle: In the middle
Multiples touch-points in the store experience

In the middle Busy locations

Apple locates flag-ship stores
Multiple touch-points in high-traffic areas like Market Street
in SF, Michigan Avenue in Chicago,
in the store experience and 5th Avenue in NY. It also locates mini
stores (as narrow as 15 feet) in malls.
Both strategies expose Apple products
directly to people who wouldn't otherwise
see them.

Repeat visitors connect & attract

Simple layout
Apple stores are The stores display relatively few products
almost always busy, in an open even sparse layout, so that visitors
often late into the evening. orient
can easily find what they're looking for.
advocate
(The 5th Avenue store A greeter stands at the door,
is open 24x7.) and plenty of trained staff are available
Many of those visitors throughout the store to answer questions.
are repeat customers.
extend & retain interact

Genius bar + classes Test drive

The genius bar offers on-site service; Visitors can test most of Apple's products
walk-in or reserve a time online. in the stores. There's even a special area
The theater offers a range of classes, for kids and internet access. Recently, Apple
events, and free workshops. has begun to replace cash registers
$99 a year gets you all the classes with mobile check-out devices,
you want, even one-on-one training; an effort to eliminate check-out lines.
one-on-one shopping appointments
are available, too.

Service Design: 10 Principles 42

Apple store experience cycle: In the middle
Multiples touch-points within the in-store purchase process

In the small Museum-style staging

Because of the sparse layout, it is easy
Multiple touch-points within for people to find the product category
that they are looking for—
the in-store purchase process differentiation between products is clear—
iPods vs. laptops vs. desktops.

Connect by mail connect & attract

Informative signs
Staff offers opportunity Once at a station the information
to receive the receipt about the product is displayed on
by e-mail—so there is orient small cards, so you know
advocate
another chance what you’re looking at.
for Apple to touch you
via a different channel.

extend & retain interact

Choose accessories Listen to music

The staff member gathers People can try on the products
the item from stock (located by playing with them (headsets supplied.)
near the rear of the store)— In the ipod section all the colors
and directs you to accessories, are displayed—so you can even try them
cables, cases, etc., on with your outfit.
and checks you out right there A staff member sees you playing,
with a hand-held device. asks if you’d like one.

Service Design: 10 Principles 43

8. Create conditions in which
users can design

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User interacting with artifact

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Designer interacting with
User interacting with artifact

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Meta-Designer interacting with
Designer interacting with
User interacting with artifact

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9. Build platforms—
systems with rules for extension

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Rearrange, reconfigure, transform

Transformers

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Choose from a range of options

Mini Cooper (Color Options)

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Add or delete pieces

Bugaboo

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Assemble building blocks or a kit of parts

Lego

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Like most fast food from burgers to noodles to wraps,
Starbucks drinks are a platform

Short Tall Grande Venti

8oz 12oz 16oz 20oz

Service Design: 10 Principles 53

Starbucks offers almost 200 million variations on latte

Cup type To-go For-here Personal cup

Drink type Warm Iced

Kind of espresso Regular Decaf Half-caf Tea None

Amount of espresso Single Double Triple Quad N shots

Drink size Short Tall Grande Venti

Milk type Non-fat 2% Whole Soy (2 more)

Syrup combinations (Choose from about 15 flavors)

Whipped cream w/ Whip No whip Light whip

Temperature Extra hot Cooler Specific degree Standard (160°F)

Build order Upside down Right-side up Macchiato Otherwise

Long/Short pull Long Short Normal

Amount of foam Dry Wet Normal None

Amount of syrup 1 pump 2 pumps 3 pumps 4 pumps N pumps

Service Design: 10 Principles 54

Characterizing platform types

Before system is locked After system is locked

More choices Define a theme Create variations

Fewer constraints Create a kit of parts Assemble building blocks
Higher granularity Author a language Create expressions
within a language

Fewer choices Choose from a menu Rearrange

More constraints Add features Reconfigure
Lower granularity Delete pieces
Add related components

Service Design: 10 Principles 55

10. Take advantage of network effects

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In a network, each node enhances the value of the existing nodes
by increasing the number of connections

Service Design: 10 Principles 57

The iPhone will connect with
Apple’s existing system of systems.

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Service Design: 10 Principles 58

As the number of nodes grow,
each new node brings an increasing number of new connections

2 nodes 3 nodes 4 nodes

1 connection 3 connections 6 connections

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A simple way to caluculate connections:
a square minus one row, divided in half

nodes 2 3 4 5 6 7 n
n² -n
connections 1 3 6 10 15 21 2

2 5 9 14 20

4 8 13 19

7 12 18

11 17

16

Service Design: 10 Principles 60

 Principles of Service Design

1 Value is in the experience

2 Experience = Reputation = Brand
3 Sending a message is not enough
4 Learning requires interaction
5 Conversation builds meaning
6 ServiceS must be seen as wholes
7 Experience is a journey
8 Practice metadesign
9 Build Platforms
10 Take advantage of network effects

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What does all this mean?

The world is changing

We need to “think different”
We need to adopt an organic-systems view

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 Old thinking + New thinking
Product as object + as experience
static + dynamic
node + link
unique + platform

Focus computing + communicating

with + through

Key skills manufacturing + services

product design + interaction design

Service Design: 10 Principles 63

Thank you

Service Design: 10 Principles 64