Designing Better Services

A Strategic Approach from Design to Evaluation

verfasst von: Dr. Francesca Foglieni, Dr. Beatrice Villari, Prof. Stefano Maffei

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buchreihe : SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This book provides accessible, comprehensive guidance on service design and enables practitioners approaching the discipline for the first time to develop the strategic mindset needed to exploit its innovation potential. The opening chapters trace the origins of service design and examine its links with service innovation, as well as its strategic role in service organizations. It then offers step-by-step guidance on tackling a service design project, explaining the main design elements and indications of various useful design tools. It also introduces the topic of evaluation as a support practice in designing or redesigning better services, and providing evidence concerning the value of service design interventions. The third chapter explores how evaluation is currently approached in service design practice through the analysis of a number of case studies. Based on these experiences it extensively discusses evaluation, with a particular focus on service evaluation, and explains its importance in supporting service design and fostering innovation throughout the service design process. Further it describes pragmatic directions for setting up and conducting a service evaluation strategy. The concluding chapter uses an interpretive model to summarize the role evaluation could have in service design practice and focuses on interdisciplinary competences that need to be acquired by service designers in order to address the evolution of the discipline. The novel approach adopted in the book fosters the growing interest in design-driven service innovation and assists in realizing its full potential in both the private and the public sector.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction

Abstract

The introduction to the book traces the reasons and the intentions behind the choice of treating the topic of evaluation in conjunction with service design, as well as the urgency for such a debate to be open. An overview of the book structure and the reasoning articulated in the following chapters are provided and a reflection on upcoming topics concerning the future of the discipline is proposed.

Francesca Foglieni, Beatrice Villari, Stefano Maffei

Chapter 2. From Service to Service Design

Abstract

This chapter explores the origins of service design through an overview of key concepts and theories, starting from the definition of service and the characteristics of the service economy. Service marketing and service management literature are analyzed to describe the difference between products and services and to trace service peculiarities, which brought on the need of a dedicated design discipline and the formulation of the so-called Service-Dominant Logic, shifting the focus from services as goods to services as a perspective on value creation. The growing necessity and importance of designing services not only led to the birth of a new stream of study and practice in the field of design, through the development of specific methods and tools that support the creation of service solutions, but also allowed service design to become a crucial element for service innovation. Designing services that meet people’s and organizations’ needs, as well as the societal ones, is nowadays considered a strategic priority to support growth and prosperity. The final part of the chapter is therefore dedicated to outlining the role of service design in the contemporary socio-economic context as a driver for service, social and user-centered innovation.

Francesca Foglieni, Beatrice Villari, Stefano Maffei

Chapter 3. How to (Re)Design Services: From Ideation to Evaluation

Abstract

This chapter explores service design as a multidisciplinary, holistic and people-centered approach that can support public and business organization in the development of new services or the redesign of existing services that answer to contemporary innovation requirements. Contributions from the academic and the professional fields are analyzed to describe the core characteristics of the approach and the key steps of the service design process. From the capacity of understanding people, contexts and relationships to the definition of scenarios and concepts, from the development and validation of service ideas to their implementation, each step of the process is explored in depth, including a description of its general purpose, activities to be conducted, and suggestions about useful tools typically adopted in service design practice. Moreover, concerning the development of service ideas, a particular focus on what needs to be designed in services is provided. To conclude, the topic of evaluation is introduced as the missing element in the service design process to give solidity and reliability to service design interventions, to prove the value of solutions proposed, and demonstrate the benefits of adopting service design itself.

Francesca Foglieni, Beatrice Villari, Stefano Maffei

Chapter 4. Exploring Evaluation in Service Design Practice

Abstract

So far, the topic of evaluation has been barely treated in service design theory and practice, despite the need to evaluate the contribution of design to innovation which is receiving increasing attention. Starting from the idea of integrating evaluation in the service design process, in this chapter, some examples are provided to show how evaluation could actually foster the design or redesign of better services, and contribute to the discourse on how to determine service design value. Examples are also supported by the opinions of expert practitioners operating in renowned design agencies. What emerges is that evaluation can play a major role in several steps of the service design process, also when undertaken unconsciously by designers, acquiring a different purpose according to the nature of the project and to its application to concepts, prototypes, or full services. Moreover, tools typically adopted in service design practice can be used for evaluation purposes, adapting to the collection and interpretation of qualitative data, as well as to the visualization of evaluation results. This enables a reflection about the possibility to rethink the service design process, integrating an explicit evaluation component aimed at determining the value of designed solutions on the one hand, and guiding and justifying design choices on the other hand.

Francesca Foglieni, Beatrice Villari, Stefano Maffei

Chapter 5. Evaluating Services for a Better Design

Abstract

To understand how to integrate evaluation in service design practice it is first fundamental to fully understand the importance of evaluating services in the contemporary context and what it means to evaluate. To do so, we refer in particular to program evaluation literature in the field of social sciences, since these types of studies were the first to approach the conceptualization of evaluation, structuring methodologies to design and conduct an evaluation strategy. Based on this knowledge, the chapter focuses on the evaluation practice in the service sector and the related concept of service value, with the purpose of translating existing expertise into the service design practice. This implies a necessary distinction between the evaluation of services (being considered as both service concepts or solutions not yet implemented and services resulting from service design interventions or object of redesign projects) and the evaluation of service design as an approach that can bring value to organizations. While the first can eventually support the latter, determining the value of service design does not give any evidence about the value of services it delivers in a particular context. Thus, a definition of service evaluation as a process that intersects and substantiates the service design process is formulated and a conceptual model that supports the design of a service evaluation strategy is proposed. This includes key elements to be negotiated by designers and decision-makers and a set of guidelines useful to pragmatically conduct a combined service design and evaluation process.

Francesca Foglieni, Beatrice Villari, Stefano Maffei

Chapter 6. Service Design and Service Evaluation: Challenges and Future Directions

Abstract

In response to challenging contemporary transformations that inevitably affect both the public and the business sectors, service design is increasingly acquiring a dominant role. Nonetheless, the debate about how to measure its actual contribution in triggering changes, and innovation to the largest extent, is still on the cutting-edge. What we argue in this chapter is that including the evaluation of services and service solutions into the service design practice, as extensively discussed in this book, can contribute to determine the value of service design itself as an effective and profitable approach that generates a positive impact within organizations. This enables an interpretation of the possible levels of adoption of evaluation in service design, from situations where it is not included at all, up to become a strategy fully embedded into the service design process. To support such levels of integration new competencies are required for service design professionals, to set up the evaluation strategy and to eventually conduct the evaluation research when professional evaluators cannot be included in the project. To conclude, some open issues are explored concerning how these issues can influence the evolution of the discipline and future challenges posed to service designers.

Francesca Foglieni, Beatrice Villari, Stefano Maffei

Backmatter

Titel: Designing Better Services
verfasst von: Dr. Francesca Foglieni
Dr. Beatrice Villari
Prof. Stefano Maffei
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-63179-0
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63177-6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63179-0