We attended the Service Design Network conference in Berlin last week, where Service Design practitioners from around the world (mostly Europe) gathered to share their insights. Here are 6 high-level takeaways:
- The distinction between Service Design and Design thinking is blurry. Many presentations treated the two terms interchangeably, recognising no semantic difference between the two.
- Interaction design and Service Design are closely entwined to the point of being indistinguishable depending on the scale at which the design is being undertaken. (I wrote a piece recently for Core77 that demonstrated how interaction design practice 'scales' to strategic, holistic design to a point where it is indistinguishable from service design, without becoming something other than interaction design.)
- Service Design is not always practiced as design. It seems to be adapted from UCD in some agencies/departments - linear in nature; more aligned with incremental iteration/improvement than innovation/breakthrough. By this I mean that the approach people take to designing services doesn't always bear a resemblance to a design process.
- The value of design still needs work in terms of demonstrating why results are better using design practices in a service context.
- The connection between academic research and Service Design practice needs to be stronger. Academic papers aren't being read by practitioners as they're not written in a style which is engaging or relevant to day-to-day work.
- Service Design practice is growing.
An interesting conference, although I'm undecided as to whether the time & effort required to attend was worthwhile.