About This Course

This course introduces the advanced design topic of service design, with a focus and emphasis on the service design blueprint.


Core Concepts and Ideas

This class emphasizes the following main ideas, themes, and concepts:

  • Diagramming as both a philosophy and method for understanding the complexity of services and for proposing changes to these services
  • Ecosystems and Ecologies as a way of framing large, multi-faceted, and often distributed problems

Reading List

Outcomes and Competencies

The following outcome statements articulate the competencies, abilities, and skills a student will have as a result of completing this class. Students will...

  • Understand the unique elements of service design
  • Use ethnographic research methods to collect service and customer data
  • Use customer journey mapping to frame a design problem
  • Be able to create a service design blueprint

Course Schedule

Class Topics and Activities
Week 1 – Class and Course Introductions
1

Class and teacher introductions, share service design experiences

Course syllabus overview: course objectives, your assignment – create a service-design blueprint for your overall project

Discuss comments versus grades, email communications, promptness and attendance

Course deliverable overview: business and social goals, journey map, research plan, research summary, service design blueprint

Lecture: What is Service Design?

Lecture: Designing for Service Touchpoints

Readings: Service Blueprinting: A Practical Technique for Service Innovation, Bitner; Research for Sustainable Social Innovation, Manzini

 Fri 11/4
Week 2 – Define your service design business goal and social goal
2

Discussion of readings

Lecture: Integrated Wayfinding Solutions and M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Access Wayfinding System

Reading and viewing: Yale School of Management Design and Social Enterprise Case Series – Mayo Clinic: Design Thinking in Health Care, IDEO and Doblin Group

 Mon 11/7
3

Discussion of reading

Class work, Assignment: Define your business goal and social goals

 Wed 11/9
Week 3 – Draft a customer journey map
-

(No Class; Makeup on Friday)

 Mon 11/14
4

Assignment due: Business and Social Goals

Lecture: Share out of examples of customer journey maps and lecture on Capital Metro Experience Design

Readings: The Experience Cycle, Dubberly and Evenson; Convergence, Richardson; Towards and Understanding of Experience Concept Development in Tourism Service Design

 Wed 11/16
5

Discussion of reading

Class work: draft an initial customer journey to guide your research (breakout and share back sessions (use butcher paper and sharpies to draw your customer journey)

Write and share student comments (individual Word docs)

 Fri 11/18
Week 4 – Conduct service design research
6

Short lecture on defining touch points, identifying key questions to answer through service design research, identifying locations, gaining access, introduction of AEIOU framework (this class will be held at frog in a service design project room)

Class work: identify key touch points in your customer journey

Assignment: write your research plan (identify key questions to answer through service design research) and continue your research

 Mon 11/21
-

(No Class – Thanksgiving)

 Wed 11/23
Week 5 – Complete your research and share out findings
7

Individual team research status

Mon 11/28
8

Share out of findings

Write and share student comments

 Wed 11/30
Week 6 – Create a service design blueprint
9

Work in class: service design blueprint (we’ll review the basic service design blueprint model as a refresher)

 Mon 12/5
10

Work in class: service design blueprint

Reading and viewing: Yale School of Management Design and Social Enterprise Case Series – Project M, Texting and Testing to Fight HIV/AIDS in South Africa, iTeach, PopTech, and frog,

Wed 12/7
Week 7 – Continue service design blueprint work
11

Guest lecturer with a service design technology project/solution (TBD)

Discuss reading

Continue service design blueprint work

 Mon 12/12
12

Work in class

 Wed 12/14
Week 8 – Complete and present your service design blueprint
13

Work in class

 Mon 12/19
14

Final presentation due: a service design blueprint for your project

Write and share student comments

 Wed 12/21