Filed under: design thinking, made me think, people I like, service design | Tags: Donald Norman
The MIT Sloan Management Review has published Donald Norman’s paper ‘Designing Waits That Work’ (available for $6.50).
“Designers at restaurants, theme parks and elsewhere have investigated how to make waiting in line more pleasant. What they have learned has profound implications for all managers.”
This fascinates me – I have built up a little collection of images related to waiting in line. I intend to read Norman’s first paper entitled ‘The Psychology of Waiting Lines’ (which is freely available). There are sections on “Variations of basic waiting lines” (including triage, categorization of needs, and self-selection of queues) and “Deliberate Chaos.”
“At some point, every manager has had to tell someone to wait. We all have to wait sometimes. It’s a simple matter of timing and resources. Whenever two systems interact, one is invariably ready before the other. In the factory, this disparity can lead to stockpiles of goods or bottlenecks. When people are involved, it can give rise to inefficiency and anger. This is no good for customers or employees. But the psychological impact of waits can be managed, and studies in design show us how to do it.
My introduction to design started with my studies of fundamental principles of interaction to enhance the use of technology Now, as I teach and consult on the applications of these principles to business, I apply them to many aspects of customer experience.
In places where waits are required, these principles can not only make waiting more pleasant but can also make it feel like not waiting at all. Sometimes inducing a wait can improve the customer experience. When waits are inevitable, the research shows, the goal should be to optimize the experience for both customers and employees, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing employee stress and turnover. What this research has revealed can help managers in many situations…”
Discovered at Putting People First
Filed under: made me think, people I like, service design | Tags: bob cooper, ecosytem, frontier service design
Bob Cooper, founder and CEO of Frontier Service Design, has released videos from a recent panel discussion related to the origins and purpose of service design. Each video is approximately 2 minutes in length and range in topic from the high level need for service design in today’s economy to specific tactics used in understanding our client’s customers.
Interesting little snap shots into the way Frontier thinks!
Filed under: design thinking, made me think, service design | Tags: language, service design, words
Language is a very crucial part of designing services. That’s why I wanted to share this newly discovered word with you. I think it captures the way many of us think in terms of systems, processes and services.
Autopoiesis literally means “auto (self)-creation” and expresses a fundamental dialectic between structure and function. The term was originally introduced by Chilean biologists in 1973.
“An autopoietic machine is a machine organized (defined as a unity) as a network of processes of production (transformation and destruction) of components which: (i) through their interactions and transformations continuously regenerate and realize the network of processes (relations) that produced them; and (ii) constitute it (the machine) as a concrete unity in space in which they (the components) exist by specifying the topological domain of its realization as such a network.
[…] the space defined by an autopoietic system is self-contained and cannot be described by using dimensions that define another space. When we refer to our interactions with a concrete autopoietic system, however, we project this system on the space of our manipulations and make a description of this projection.”
The term autopoiesis was originally presented as a system description that was said to define and explain the nature of living systems. An autopoietic system implies that not only it has the capacity to acquire knowledge, but also that knowledge itself, understood as effective action, determines the viability and, indeed, the very existence of the subject.
Good isn’t it?
Thank you to SianeP for highlighting I had autopoieses on my mind yesterday!
Filed under: people I like, service design | Tags: community, neighbours, participle, people, service, social, Southwark circle
Participle has launched the Southwark Circle Project - a new membership organisation whose members stay sorted, connected and lead the life they want to lead.
Stay tuned for the site launch of this fantastic initiative!
c4di are an enterprise associated with Robert Gordon University to assist small to medium sized companies (SMEs) in Scotland by helping them to develop their innovation strategies. The centre’s approach to innovation is based on human centred design methods applied to business and new technologies.
They are currently working on a project to map people’s understanding of design thinking. The plan is to develop a visualization of design thinking, based on the answers to the following questions:
* what is your interpretation of the term design thinking?
* why (or do?) do you believe design thinking is important?
* what do you think are the qualities of a design thinker?
* how can design thinking benefit SMEs?
* which innovative SMEs are currently using design thinking?
On behalf of Graham, the principle designer of c4di, I would like to put these questions to you. Perhaps this is a opportunity for us to gather our thoughts on recent debates!
“Our internal worlds can be liberating or limiting.” Paul Hughes
Email me your answers directly or add them as a comment and I will pass them on to c4di.
Filed under: made me think, people I like | Tags: help me investigate, journalism, people, policy, public, service, social, story telling
www.helpmeinvestigate.com is a place where you can collaborate with other people to investigate things.
1. Start an investigation
2. Invite other people to help you investigate it
3. Collaborate and share answers
“Think something is unjust or unfair – or just curious to know why something happened or how something works? Are you saying “Someone ought to do something”? That someone is you.”
Very exiting. The public are investigating! Why does my doctor have an 0845 number? What are the plans for the mosaic at Stockland Green School?
Thanks to @dominiccampbell for discovery.
Filed under: Red Jotter Work, master of design, service design | Tags: blueprinting, experience, journey, Lauren Currie, method, play, service design, tools, user
Over the past few weeks, I have been working on blueprinting my service solution for my Masters. So far, I have developed five distinct concepts for visual representation:
- Rooms of Knowledge
- Service Stairway
- Painting on the wall
- Illustration of machinery
- 2D.3D.4D dynamic dimensions
In summary, I am developing a service for design students and graduates that offers them an accessible pathway into the service design industry.
The models all have different levels of representation and detail, each illustrating how my understanding of what a ’service blueprint’ has to be, and during the process the potential of what it could be (visually) has evolved.
ROOMS OF KNOWLEDGE
Working with the metaphor that ’service design’ is a building, I developed one ’service design floor’ – and mapped user journeys through this environment. The ‘Rooms of Knowledge’ are static – the ‘experience’ becomes tactile. This visual method asks questions such as; How does each room support learning? What are the props needed to support learning?
So, which service design floor are you on? Is your current understanding peripheral or deep? What floor do you want to go to? Do you want to fast track between floors, or systematically go into every room? Serendipity causes people to enter the ‘Rooms of Knowledge’ by chance, whilst the physical rooms have different experiences.
SERVICE DESIGN STAIRWAY
PAINTING ON THE WALL
Thinking big and playing with colourful paints enabled me to feel less cautious of the content and more focused on the route that users take through the service: Scribbling is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.”
SERVICE AS A MACHINE
Looking at the movement of machines and the components that make up their function, I took visual inspiration from a postcard design from NESTA’s Starter for 6 initiative. Drawing the service in this way has enabled me to think about how each ’stage’ of the service impacts on the next stage in the process – every aspect a cog in a system.
2D 3D 4D DIMENSIONS
Conceptually considering 2D as learnings, 3D as the landscape and 4D as the dynamic network, I am thinking dimensionally and treating the experience like a 3 dimensional shape. This is helps me think about the channels and routes into, through and out of the service, and view the experience holistically.
I am aiming to incorporate backstage / physical touchpoints and user experiences into my final service design blueprint. So now a week of ultimate play lies ahead, as I turn the ‘editor’ down low and become an ‘architect’. I am putting my pen and paper away (!!) with an aim to be very spatial. My study adviser believes I am on my way to developing “an iconic new way of representing a service”. Very high hopes… I best get on with it!
Filed under: made me think, people I like | Tags: arthur potts dawson, food, people, shopping, social design, social innovation, supermarket, the peoples supermarket
“Currently being set up by innovative and forward-thinking chef Arthur Potts Dawson, The People’s Supermarket offers a new way of shopping that aims to change the way we buy food.
This is a supermarket that is run by the people, for the people, selling the best food at the lowest possible prices.”
Lovely idea: www.peoplessupermarket.org A supermarket revolution… ? Althought it looks like Boston got there first with Harvest Co-op… (thanks Katherine)
Power in people’s hands: fantastic resource.
“The need for public services to innovate rapidly in order to match the best services around the world has never been greater.”
From Joel Bailey @ The Team
Filed under: service design
“My generation would like to break up with you.
Everyday, I see a widening gap in how you and we understand the world — and what we want from it. I think we have irreconcilable differences.”
Via experientia
Filed under: people I like, service design | Tags: design process, methods, roberta tassi, service design, systems, tools
“An open collection of communication tools used in design processes that deal with complex systems. The tools are displayed according to the design activity they are used for, the kind of representation they produce, the recipients they are addressed to and the content of the project they can convey.”
www.servicedesigntools.org brought to us by Roberta Tassi was highlighted by Nick and Jeff earlier in the week.
Lovely to see my honours project Douceurs highlighted by Roberta in both the moodboard and evidence section!
Simply brilliant and getting noticed.
Filed under: service design | Tags: design, impact, innovation, passion, purpose
Impactinnovation were one of five exhibitors on the The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement’s “Service Design” zone. They used a tool called a “Tube-o-meter” to create the perfect conversation cue to draw people in.
“It was a great example of our philosophy of “fun with purpose” – as we used it to carry out an informal survey about which part of the service design process people thought the NHS was good at – by placing their “ball” in one of the 5 tubes: “understanding & insight”, “ideas & concepts”, “prototype & testing”, “implementation” and “sustain & spread”.
A strange little site with lots of good content…Discovered by Engine’s Steve Lee
Filed under: made me think, service design | Tags: Colin Burns, design, Martin Bontoft
“We all live and work in a designed world. We constantly reshape it to make it better for ourselves and others.
We are all designers.
Come and discover som more about design, about the techniques and the thinking behind them. Join in with others from Trusts across the NHS to learn, share and develop your own skills in experience-based service design, working with leading, practicing experts in this area.
Develop practical techniques to engage with service users, really understand their needs, brainstorm and develop a wide range of ideas, then prototype and test them.”
Colin Burns and Martin Bontoft are touring the country with talks and workshops. Discovered by Engine’s Steve Lee.
Filed under: Red Jotter Work, master of design, service design | Tags: Berlin, design process, dundee university, method, product design, rosan chow, service design
The question of when a project formally ends is one that I usually take for granted. But this project has been different - our client was real, the budget was concrete and it all felt true.
Berlin felt like a whole new place in the sunshine…
I have learned a whole new way of designing that was really challenging, but ultimately very liberating. It challenged the process I have been taught since high school . We didn’t find a problem – we didn’t evaluate concepts – we let all ideas and possibilities collide. At times this felt too random, too unstructured – but the vast amount of ideas generated in such a short space of time was nothing like I had experienced before.
RIP and MIX places the focus on the process of existing design knowledge, objectified in the form of existing products and services. I have a new found respect for that knowledge.
Filed under: made me think, service design | Tags: bbc, directory, mobile phone, service design
“For most of the 20th century, the landline was the only phone around. With the mobile you’re always available, so it’s the number most of us dial first.
So it is perhaps not surprising that a directory service is starting up that allows people to find out someone else’s mobile phone number in the same way we’ve always been able to do for landlines.”
An excellent video from the BBC explaining exactly how this service works.
Thanks to my mum, who was a BT telephonist in the early days of her career, for discovery :)
