Dear David,

I am grateful for your comments. A bit of humility every now and then can serve its purpose:) I will respond in detail once I had time to think about them. Unfortunately, this may take a day or two since I am traveling to attend a conference and my e-mail connection may or may not be available.

Warm regards,

Sabine

-•-  -•-  -•-  -•-

Sabine Junginger, Ph.D.
Lecturer Product Design and Design Management
Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts (LICA)
Lancaster University
Lancaster LA1 4YW, UK



-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design on behalf of David Sless
Sent: Tue 3/31/2009 4:24 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Service Design - the Challenge.
 
On 30/03/2009, at 9:55 PM, Sabine Junginger wrote:
> Form this vantage point, the design of services may involve:
>
> 1) the design of human-centered "user pathways," as they create  
> clear and meaningful paths (marked by products, touch points, etc)  
> for people on their journey to and through the organization (and  
> hopefully, back).
>
> 2) the re-envisioning of an organization's purpose, which then  
> guides the strategies for services and products that support that  
> new vision
>
> 3) participatory and collaborative design methods that bring  
> together people in the organization with people from outside the  
> organization
>
> 5) organizational change, as people who are involved in an ongoing  
> design project may acquire new skills and insights that allow them  
> to reshape their organization. This however, is the least developed  
> area in service design at this point. My colleague Daniela Sangiorgi  
> and I address this problem in two forthcoming publications. Our work  
> reflects on theories in service design and the role of design in  
> organizational change.
>
>
I found this list surprising. I suppose I was expecting more, or at  
least something different. I have seen much of this type of 'design  
service' for organisations being offered from within management and  
communication consultant firms for at least the last 15 years. Indeed,  
our Institute has been doing a lot of this type of work as a service  
to our members. But we have done that within a framework of  
'communication' rather than 'design'. So I'm having some difficulty  
understanding the uniquely 'design' part of this.

Whatever approach is used, the central question many of the  
organisations we deal with want to know is how much money will they  
save by adopting a particular approach, how much extra profit will  
they make, and how long will it it take them to recoup the cost of our  
fees? To answer these questions we do a lot of measuring, before,  
during, and after the implementation of our 'designs' or  
'recommendations' On that basis we can give organisations a reasonable  
estimate on their return on investment (ROI). In all the stuff I have  
recently read on service design (and I must admit I have not fully  
read the literature) I have found no reference to ROI. I should add  
that this is not unusual among people who take an advocacy role for  
design.

Lots of those dangling qualifiers, but no susbstance. Claims about  
'change', 'transformation', and 'improvement' but from what to what ???

I take the rather simple view that if one is going to make claims  
about the value of a particular process, particularly on a list  
concerned with phd research, then evidence of value must follow close  
behind. Getting excited about ideas one has just discovered is good,  
but not sufficient.

Which brings me back to my question about manageable complexity in  
design 'problems'. Has anyone been doing any interesting work on this  
question? I would have thought there are at least half a dozen phd's  
to be written on the subject, if they have not already been done.

My fear is that many designers-caught up in their enthusiasm for ever  
expanding horizons and problem boundaries-see nothing to prevent them  
from becoming the latest masters of the universe.

David
-- 




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Professor David Sless BA MSc FRSA
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