ServiceD project involves a number of dimensions. On one hand, the project
does research into the evolution of design expertise in Finland and Estonia
from the early 20th century onwards - including foresight work on
development paths up until the year 2030. At the same time, the project
studies the evolution of service development expertise. The project creates
visualized maps depicting the evolution of expertise as parts of
transdisciplinary analyses. The main idea is to develop service design
expertise and new kind of education. A pilot educational module is
introduced in the Lahti University of Applied Sciences (LUAS) in autumn
2010. A larger educational syllabus on service design is also under
development.
The research hypothesis is as follows; the new field of service design is a
combination or synthesis of various traditions and development paths. In
recent times, design viewpoints have increasingly gained importance
internationally; the development of the field have been affected, amongst
other things, by SSME (Service Science, Management and Engineering)
developed in and around IBM, service innovation expertise, and service
business development. In addition, the field is strongly affected by service
competence and expertise developments in the IT sector. In the design
world, significant contributions to the rise of the new service design field
have come, for example, from the areas of interaction and usability design.
In recent years, competences related to the Internet and, in particular,
to social media have become important parts of service design
expertise.
We have a vision of the type of service design expertise we wish to develop.
We want to combine the fresh development paths of mobile technology,
multi-channeling, geoinformation, prosumerism, and crowdsourcing. Our
thinking involves the shift from information society to ubiquitous society
where our built environment turns "smart" and mediated. This
development is also related to the increasingly multi-sensory nature of
service environments (cf. ambience design). In our view, foresight expertise
is an important part of future service development. Today, services are too
often developed using historical or contemporary perspectives. As a result,
developed service concepts turn old as soon as they are introduced. Using
transdisciplinary and holistic foresight knowledge, companies receive
information and knowledge beyond the reach of their own domain to support
their service development. Analysing the changes of the operational
environment paves way for service innovations.
The first educational pilot took place at LUAS a year ago. At that time, our
thinking had elements that we wish to cultivate further. A key element was
business cooperation, i.e. the idea that students realize practical service
development projects in cooperation with company representatives and
external experts acting as teachers. Another central idea was the use of
smartphones in the projects and the actual teaching. Students analysed
service processes and environments by recording their customer experiences
as video clips with their smartphones. These recordings were discussed by
the participants in a multi-channel environment (smartphones and computers)
created by Lumi Interactive, which the stakeholders to take part in the
conversation regardless of time and space. The outcomes of the project and
the course were reports regarding the development of the service processes
and environments of the participating companies. The student presentations
of the outcomes included service process maps, where the touchpoints could
be clicked in order to see related video clips and analyses. With the help
of experts, a part of the students concentrated on analysing changes in
the operational environment - the result of which provided insights into the
future service development. The pilot educational model of autumn 2010 makes
good use of prosumer viewpoints as well as other abovementioned themes
regarding service design development.
The ServiceD project combines research into the evolution of expertise in
design and service development, use of foresight knowledge and many-sided
development of service design expertise and service design education. It is
characteristic for the project that participants' thinking evolves
throughout the project. In order to enhance the development of service
design expertise, the project uses a social media channel,
www.sevicedesign.tv, that includes high quality blog articles, wiki material
and discussions related to the field.