If you're like me, you have a mini-library of those user experience books that are most meaningful to you. I've recently finished reading what is now the latest addition to my own professional mini-library: This Is Service Design Thinking, by Marc Stickdorn, Jakob Schneider, and numerous collaborators and co-authors. This book is likely to become the quintessential service design textbook for students, educators, and professionals alike.
The book covers a non-definition definition of service design, explaining that it's really the successful amalgamation of various fields (including but not limited to interaction, product and graphic design and operations management). It is quite refreshing to see the lack of a solid statement for what service design is as we designers tend to belabor definitions of our disciplines and sub-disciplines to a fault.
The authors then proceed to explain a framework for what service design is through 5 principles. As an advocate for simplicity, I'd further coalesce the five principles that the book presents. Service design places importance on
1) people--both customers and service providers
2) participatory, ethnographic processes and approaches
3) tangible, visualized design artifacts
The remainder of This Is Service Design Thinking covers the following topics in discreet sections:
- Who are service designers?
- What is the process that service designers follow?
- What are examples of tangible deliverables, tools, and case studies that result from the service design process?
The content, visuals, layout, flow and overall book design are incredibly effective and actionable and I'd recommend it to anyone in the field of design who is interested in exploring how the service economy will intersect with the work you do.