Lab+9


 * According to the slideshow by Sylvain Cottong, who is an employee at [|http://www.integratedplace.com], describe the tools and methods of 'service design' (2 paragraphs).**

With services accounting for 60%-70% of the GDP in industrialized countries, it is no doubt that the way in which services are designed must be carefully analyzed and executed to ensure favourable results. Sylvan Cottong emphasizes this point with the idea that services should be more “useful, usable, and desirable” for the consumers while remaining “efficient, effective and valuable” for the providers. As products today are becoming increasingly linked to services, a more “human-centered” approach is necessary with a clear focus on the “overall experience”. Thus, service design couples product design and interaction design to effectively cater to the wants and needs of people while ensuring a memorable customer experience. In order to deliver customer satisfaction, much research must be conducted specifically in the fields of ethnography, service blueprinting, ideation, customer journey map, context mapping and participatory design.

Ethnography is a particularly important area service providers strive to comprehend more in order to attain success. Understanding the wants and needs of different people is what leads service providers to key solutions in discovering how products and services will ultimately suit them. These are not only solutions to existing problems, but also a much more desirable approach to the existing one. The idea is to use ‘empathy’ in such a way as to put oneself in the position of the user in order to recognize the design strengths as well as weaknesses. Designers do this by using customer journey maps, service blueprinting or participatory design to identify with the user.

**From your personal experience, what would be a scenario in which these methods would be useful? (2 paragraphs)**

Fast food restaurants is an ideal example of where the elements of service design should be taken into consideration. Owning a restaurant is a difficult business as good food is not enough to ensure success. Restaurant owners are faced with the possibilities of going out of business especially if their overall customer experience is poor. Word of mouth travels quickly and it is only a matter of time before a number of people are aware of the quality of service your particular restaurant provides. Take for example the vast array of restaurant reviews online. It takes only a quick search to understand whether or not a restaurant is worth your time.

Fast food restaurants can use service blueprints as well as customer journey maps to comprehend their customer's overall experience. Recently, I went to a diner and sat there, waiting 15 minutes to get served. It wasn't until I told the server I would like some food that she took down my order. She claimed "they were swamped with customers"; however I saw only 10 people in the entire restaurant. By using service blueprints, restaurant owners can possibly pick out the various issues with the "time, and logical sequences of actions and processes" of the diner. Perhaps they will find that handing the bill to the customers before they get their food is time consuming for the server. She was too busy processing payments and not focusing on delivering the actual food. In addition, restaurant owners can use journey maps to understand the emotions customers' are feeling. For example, in my diner case, they would find that the customers did not feel very welcomed because no one in the diner greeted them. Also, the server was barely audible because she was extremely timid.


 * Bibliography**

http://www.slideshare.net/sylvain/ux-design-service-design-design-thinking