service design

Service design takes a longitudinal view at the whole provision of a service. For example, in a restaurant, this would include how the person gets to know about the establishment, how they are greeted and seated, how they order, the delivery of the food, and any subsequent follow up, such as a leaving card with a discount code and TripAdvisor QR code. Of course, this often includes digital elements, so overlaps with long-term interaction concerns in HCI.

One of the key components of service design is the idea of a user journey the end-to-end set of steps the user takes through service provision. Another crucial term is 'touchpoints', the times when the user connects with service provision organisation(s), for the restaurant this might be seeing an advert, using an online booking system as well as presence in the restaurant.

Often the focus is on a single oraganisation, which is attempting to provide a better service, but the user journey may often flow outside the organisation's boundaries. For example, the customer's travel to the restaurant involves taxis, buses or car parking that are beyond the restaurant's control; although here steps can be taken to facilitate these, for example clear 'how to find' us information on a web site with suggested parking and public transport options. In some cases, especially public services, several organisations or parts of a large organisation may be able to work together to create better end-to-end services.