Products places services and system

Director of Imagination
ImaginationLancaster, Lancaster University
Lancaster, UK

1. In your view, how is your research/work related to Service Design?

My current work is about Design Decision making, currently in the urban environment. This includes Design Decisions about buildings, spaces as well as services to develop and support them. However throughout my career I have been interested in the way designers create experiences, through what they design (products, places, services and systems) and how they do it (process). Of course designers have not necessarily articulated it as such, nor perhaps put their work into the service design category. Indeed non-designers have been creating services and it is now interesting to apply the work I have been doing in design management alongside service design questions.

2. In your view, what is the most/less interesting aspect of Service Design?

It is systemic! It is interesting to see the emergence of service design theories, frameworks and practices, just as service marketing appeared twenty or so years ago, and has developed into a mature scholarly field, service design is still going through similar theoretical development through conceptual and practice based research. It will be interesting to observe and contribute to the debates through work in various public sectors.

3. Can you tell us about a Service Design research project(s) you did or read about?

I was involved in an EPSRC sandpit in Nutrition and Ageing. This resulted in funding a project on nutrition for older people in hospitals. The project called ‘mapp-mal’ will study the food journey from where it is produced to the point of production. This is a really interesting research project as it looks in a multidisciplinary way at the system of diet, nutrition, products and services as they manifest in the food journey.
[For more information see http://newdynamics.group.shef.ac.uk/projects/29]

4. Are there area(s) that you would like to do or see research on?

I’d like to see research on Higher Education and Airports. Secondary education with the Building School for the Future program in UK (see Design Council work, Dott07 or School Works as examples) has attracted the attention of the design community, while Higher Education is an area where little research has been done in relation to Service Design. It is hardly conceived as a service. Airports and travelling experiences are becoming threatening and unpleasant because of all the security checks and barriers. More research on passenger journey could provide guidance on how to improve this.

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Your suggestions for the blog:

Who would you like to invite in this conversation about Service Design Research?

Mike Press, University of Dundee
Turkka Keinonen, University of Art and Design Helsinki

What is the question do you have about Service Design?

How does Service Design fit into the Digital Economy?

Keywords: design decisions, public sector, systemic thinking