Design management

REFLECTION ON SERVICE DESIGN

Word Count: 2980

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Table of contents

Table of contents ................................................................................................................ 1

1.Annotated Bibliography .................................................................................................. 2

1.1Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 2

1.2Mind map ............................................................................................................................. 4

1.3 Thinking process .................................................................................................................. 5

2.Literature review ............................................................................................................. 7

2.1 A critical overview of the key theory .................................................................................... 7

2.2 Service design in art galleries ............................................................................................... 9

2.3 Infographic ......................................................................................................................... 11

3.Reflective commentary .................................................................................................. 12

3.1 Research gap ...................................................................................................................... 12

3.2 Planning ............................................................................................................................. 14

4.Reference ...................................................................................................................... 16

5. Appendices ................................................................................................................... 19

Notes from classes ............................................................................................................ 19

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1.Annotated Bibliography

1.1Introduction

Service design will be discussed thoroughly in this paper. Although exploring the

historical root of service design to the future trends, there is a systematic analysis

included background, theories, and gaps and so forth. In the following part, the

background including definitions and developments of service design and the reasons

why this paper addresses this area will be introduced.

Firstly, there are several viewpoints about definitions of service design. Obviously,

service design was regarded as an emerging occupation which can assist

organizations to understand the clients and meet the expectation via developing or

improving services and experiences, translate those into reasonable solutions, and

implement them. Foley（2018）clarifies the service design is a feasible way to

improve the relationships and communication between the providers and individuals

and vice versa – while also improving outcomes.

Secondly, in terms of the history of service design, which dated back to 1980s and

The 1990s, the idea of designing service arose. Then the public did not know well

about this concept for a long time until 2001, “service design” started being used

explicitly by a new London-based company. At the following stage, service design

experienced a rapid increase. For example, the majority of European design schools

have begun providing relevant courses in it, even in the United States and the Asia

Pacific. Therefore, it can approve that increasing brand new service design

consultancies have been founded initially in the UK but later worldwide, which implied

a prosperous trend there. Additionally, in summer 2010, the Guardian published a

series of typical cases in various domains about service design, which affected all

walks of life in the UK. And the landscape of service design has changed in the last

two years, loads of fields have been involved and specialists have been demanded.

Finally, there are two main reasons why this paper focuses on service design. First of

all, better service design can bring massive benefits to individuals and various

organizations as well. For instance, Tan and Pawitra (2001) prove better service

design could facilitate innovative service to meet customer satisfaction and embed into

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the future updated design in terms of tourism. Similarly, Ciolfi and Bannon (2007)

affirm how ideas about the service of place can be incorporated into a design process,

giving the public a successful museum experience by discussing several interactive

museums. Therefore, these examples can show the significance of better service

design and how the compact relationship between public and different organizations

existed.

Beside benefits that better service design brought, another significantly important

reason is that it has been demanding all over the world, which means service design

has been lacking. For example, based on the experience research, the public has had

a question that is whether an entertaining show or a contemplative exhibition in an art

gallery (Mcintyre, 2009). Later in China, wen (2016) demonstrated contemporary

Chinese art supported strongly by the government as an emerging field, but it needs

a better design team to improve public aesthetic awareness by upgraded service

design. Therefore, this area is vital and necessary to be discussed.

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1.2Mind map

(picture 1 Mind Map)

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1.3 Thinking process

According to picture 1, based on researching massive literature, thus there are seven

branches which are fields, target groups, tools, models, theories, benefits and

opportunities. As a matter of fact, there is a rough time order inside of them.

Initially, due to loads of papers involved the service design, it is common to find that

all walks of life need better service design to improve the outcome, such as healthcare,

entertainment, non-profitable organization and so forth. And many different domains’

experts mentioned the service design is an emerging occupation in the early time,

while the quality of service design became a soft power increasingly nowadays.

Therefore, the service design has played a vital role in all industries.

And the second part is about target groups, which can make a better understanding

of users’ requirements. The target groups are divided into three groups which are

public, manager and organization and there is a compact link among these three

groups. Mainly because it is managers' and organizations' duty to improve the

management system (staff and physical environment) to meet public expectations.

However, to ascertain which kind of person is the target group will facilitate the design

quality and process.

After choosing the target groups, the third part is to utilize the following tools to improve

the outcome. It is roughly divided into two stages including collecting data and then

analysing data. In the former stage, there are several methods to collect data such as

interview, observation and journey maps. Using these basic ways to collect the first-

hand resource from the target group mentioned in the last part. And then via

synthesising the authoritative theories and typical models to analyse the quality of the

resource and whether the solution can bring a positive effect. Right after tools, there

is a specific identification about models and theories. Due to the chosen area is the

service design, there are two well-known theories needed to be mentioned, which are

“experience centre design” and “human centre design”. The relationship between

these two theories and service design are mutually facilitate each other.

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And the last two aspects are benefits and opportunities brought by service design. The

benefits mainly come from improving existing service design system and create a

brand new one. For instance, an excellent service design could leave an impressive

first impression in clients’ mind, and the brand awareness and brand loyalty will be

built gradually and the brand culture may be instilled into public concept later, which

is a virtuous circle in this way. After analysing the benefits of better service design, it

did bring massive opportunities and challenges in the future trend. Because some

successful cases could approve there are mature experiences, however, there is still

space to update and develop.

All in all, the mind map shows the thinking process and the above description indicates

the relationship between these elements.

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2.Literature review

2.1 A critical overview of the key theory

This part will present a critical overview of the key theories that support the service

design of research. There are eight relevant theories which are divided into two

aspects —— collecting data and applying methods.

In terms of theories of collecting data, Foley (2018) contributed “observing first-hand”

is an effective way to get what organization needs. It means this kind of survey

approach works better than expert opinion and archival data. Because only in this way,

the data can be truly useful. Similarly, “journey-maps” was affirmed as a guide by

analysing and comparing clients’ act and their real requirements. As a matter of fact,

the majority of experiences are not aware of what is their needs in advance. In this

situation, it is necessary for managers to figure out clients' real needs via simulating

their experience whole process even every stages and detail (Stigliani et al., 2017).

After tracking the clients’ actions at a systems level, then it is common to find that there

will be some broken points which should be managed to be connected by designing

multiple points in a journey-map. It can be called “touchpoints”, which can enhance

and visualise certain points in a process so that these relationships are strengthened.

Therefore, these three key theories have played significant importance in the former

process of service design and have built a reliable foundation of data.

After that, the three key theories related to applied methods will be introduced. The

first important one is “experience centre service”, which can promote brand loyalty by

means of investigating 17 typical cases of design agencies and consulting companies

in different industries. In their essay, there was a definition: CVP = EV + AV + PV

(Leonieke, 2010). It can be explained if a customer value proposition (CVP) could be

regarded as the sum of the value arising from the experience (EV), the service

attributes (AV), and the price (PV), then this formula will work. In addition, another

formula is a shred of reasonable evidence to approve the importance of the experience

centre service. It is that EV > AV + PV so that the value of experience is the largest

proportion. Thus, experience centre service is an effective theory to apply in service

design. Similarly, the second theory is “human centre service” which can help

managers to find the “touchpoint” and apply the first-hand data to design a humane

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service for promoting satisfaction. Beside these two theories, “MSD (Multilevel Service

Design)” is the third one. Due to the proliferation of complex service design system

raises, this area requires new methods. The MSD means classify service design at

three hierarchical levels: firm’s concept for customers’ experience; firm’s service

system, comprising its architecture and navigation; service experience blueprint (Larry,

2011). By utilising this method in a new retail grocery and redesigning a bank service,

hence these can be the evidence to affirm this theory is a new interdisciplinary method

for service design. Therefore, these theories which can support research of service

design.

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2.2 Service design in art galleries

This part will focus on the research topic including aim and relevant theories and the

reasons of importance. This essay research topic is analysing service design for

improving the quality of art galleries in China by researching theories and models and

comparing relevant organisations in the UK. And this study aimed to develop a better

service design strategy for the public to improve their service design for art galleries

in China. In addition, there are several reasons why the target group are organizations

such as art galleries. The first reason is art galleries could be regarded as a learning

tool which means it could bring educated meaning. And the second one is there is a

lack of good service design to improve the quality of the galleries in China especially

when the contemporary art as an emerging field to display China's global role in all

over the world (wen, 2016). Therefore, researching service design in art galleries is

necessary.

Based on research of service design in museums and art galleries, it is common to

find many museums in the UK appeared to present a desire to get away from

traditional and inflexible museum formats. Such as Melbourne Museum, Glasgow

(Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery), Edinburgh (National Museum of Scotland) and

London (Millenium Dome) and so on (Charles, 2009). There was an apparent trend

among these art galleries, which is there was not only child-friendly game type

activities but also much space offered that was reflective adult learning experience

activities. It can be called the good balance of commerce and technology for the

different target group. However, on the contrary, some articles refute this view. In their

opinions, based on the “edutainment” that combines education with an entertaining

framework although these social-cultural experiential spaces have been increasingly

arising. Therefore, it is undeniable that there is a shift in museum and art galleries in

the UK, which is can give some suggestions to Chinese art galleries.

After comparing the art galleries between the UK and China, the last part will discuss

the reasons why this topic is important, which are divided into two aspects：micro and

macro. First of all, based on research on service design in art galleries, in terms of the

micro importance, a good service design could be regarded as an effective way to

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make art galleries more energetic and creative for attracting visitors to attend. Then it

can be seen as a proper chance to convey some knowledge and concept after

compulsory class. For the public, good service could raise the satisfaction of

experience directly. And for art galleries, better service design not only could produce

the economic effect but also could help the brand awareness more impressive in

visitors' mind. Another aspect is macro, due to the huge gap between Chinese art

galleries and world-class art galleries, an excellent service design could enhance the

quality of art organizations. Therefore, by analysing the micro and macro aspect, this

topic worth discussing and researching.

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2.3 Infographic

（picture 2）

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3.Reflective commentary

3.1 Research gap

The literature review has shown the relationship between service design to art

galleries. Apart from introducing the background, history, importance, this part will

address the gap which has not been emphasis yet of this field. The gaps are mainly

divided into three directions.

One of them is Chinese art galleries stand a disadvantaged position when it compares

and contrasts to other art galleries in other countries because of not mature service

design. As a matter of fact, this kind of culture especially art exhibition starting time

was not very early for the Chinese market, so the development of relevant service

design still has a huge space to promote. Meanwhile, the good service designers are

rare, so this is another reason why exist this gap. Therefore, there are not only gaps

in this area but also massive opportunities to grasp and redesign more good service

design could bring better trend.

And the second one is lack of fixed target group to attend and appreciate the art

galleries because there is a lack of interactive activities and innovation. Especially in

China, recently the contemporary art starts to prevail among whole china. However,

due to the most of art galleries lack an interesting introduction and creative technology

game so that it is difficult to remain stable visitor to attend. For example, some art

galleries and museum in the UK would hold some social activities for the different

target group to learn and communicate with each other. Therefore, it did exist gaps.

And the last but not least, there is a lack of measurement to test whether the service

design process is correct and the outcome is what the organization wants. Base on

theory and model called "SERVQUAL" model, it is a previous theory (Zeithaml et al.,

1990). In that paper, this theory and model was an appropriate management tool for

measuring service strength and weakness when applied in the UK leisure industry.

However, later research showed this theory and model need to be updated and it can

be suitable for every field (Tan and Pawitra, 2001). Therefore, with the increasing

development of complex service design, the measurements need to be updated and

resigned.

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A list of research questions that arise from the research gap:

 Re-design is a big challenge

 The balance of entertainment and education

 Lack of education meaning

 Lack of technology and innovation

 Lack of interactive and participation

 Lack of high quality of the physical environment

 Lack of enough excellent service designer

 How to definite measurement for good service design

 Difficulty to enhance aesthetic of public

Therefore, by researching massive literature and integrating the key relevant

theories and applied the models, it is common to find there are some gaps in this

area. Nevertheless, there is also opportunities and solutions to overcome these

gaps.

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3.2 Planning

According to the deep analysis of service design in an art gallery, it is obvious that

professional and academic skills can be useful for the future career path. This

section will be divided into two parts which are academic knowledgeable skills and

practical experience.

First of all, the short-term goal is to obtain academic knowledgeable skills. On the

one hand, I should master two abilities—— reading and writing skills—— input and

output. Mainly because reading academic articles is the best way to gain the most

professional knowledge. And after being instilled massive others’ diversified

thoughts into my concept, it can bring a broader horizon for the author to burst out

a creative idea in relevant field. On the other hand, based on the core of becoming

a good service designer, the author needs to grasp some important elements such

as holism, empathy and co-create. It means a service designer needs to take

multiple angles into account besides considering the details. Additionally, the acute

perceptive to catch the clients’ needs and motivating everyone are needed(Fayard,

2017). Therefore, it is necessary to read professional books and learn how to

achieve these to master independent learning and relevant knowledge. For this

goal, initially I need to gain the three basic abilities: conducting design research

(collecting resource using various media), visualizing relevant data (such as users’

experience map and blueprints and so forth) and building model (for example role-

playing). Therefore, I need to absorb not only the methods of learning but also

applying these methods into my major and further career path.

Secondly, the long-term plan is to accumulate the professional practical experience

through an internship or a volunteer job which relate to service design. The most

significant things in the workplace that I can learn: time management, teamwork,

professional knowledge and practical experience. Firstly, as a service designer,

the most emergency task is to manage, such as time, staff, location and design

process. There will be loads of tasks needed to be done at the same time, so the

excellent time management skill can help the whole project going well. Secondly,

the ability to get along well with college is an important successful element as well.

It is teamwork that service designers need to master, mainly because this job is to

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motivate every part of some organizations to create better service system. And the

last point is to gain professional knowledge from real practical experience in

working place or college, which can improve my solving problems abilities.

Therefore, due to the increasingly fierce competition between all kinds of service

design companies, the higher requirements of service designer have been asking.

Thus, setting the short-time goal and long-time goal, then fostering the

independent learning methods gradually and absorbing relevant knowledge and

experience are my planning.

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4.Reference

Axelsen, M., 2007, May. Defining special events in galleries from a visitor

perspective. In Journal of Convention & Event Tourism (Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 21-43).

Taylor & Francis Group.

Bourdeau, L. and Chebat, J.C., 2001. An empirical study of the effects of the design

of the display galleries of an art gallery on the movement of visitors. Museum

management and curatorship, 19(1), pp.63-73.

Caldwell, N., 2002. (Rethinking) the measurement of service quality in museums and

galleries. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 7(2),

pp.161-171.

Ciolfi, L. and Bannon, L.J., 2007. Designing hybrid places: merging interaction

design, ubiquitous technologies and geographies of the museum

space. CoDesign, 3(3), pp.159-180.

Clunas, C., 2004. Superfluous things: material culture and social status in early

modern China. University of Hawaii Press.

Corrigan-Kavanagh, E., 2018. Exploring art therapy techniques within service design

as a means to greater home life happiness (Doctoral dissertation, Loughborough

University).

Fayard, A.L., Stigliani, I. and Bechky, B.A., 2017. How nascent occupations

construct a mandate: The case of service designers’ ethos. Administrative Science

Quarterly, 62(2), pp.270-303.

Foley, S.M., 2018. Service Design for Delivery of User Centered Products and

Services in Healthcare. Journal of Commercial Biotechnology, 24(1).

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Innella, V., 2010. Curriculum and the gallery space: A service-learning

partnership. Art Education, 63(3), pp.46-52.

Larson, L., 2017. Engaging Families in the Galleries Using Design Thinking. Journal

of Museum Education, 42(4), pp.376-384.

Lemon, N. and Garvis, S., 2014. Perceptions of pre-service teachers value of art

museums and galleries. Journal of Museum Education, 39(1), pp.28-41.

McIntyre, C., 2009. Museum and art gallery experience space characteristics: an

entertaining show or a contemplative bathe?. International Journal of Tourism

Research, 11(2), pp.155-170.

Patrício, L., Fisk, R.P., Falcão e Cunha, J. and Constantine, L., 2011. Multilevel

service design: from customer value constellation to service experience

blueprinting. Journal of Service Research, 14(2), pp.180-200.

Tan, K.C. and Pawitra, T.A., 2001. Integrating SERVQUAL and Kano’s model into

QFD for service excellence development. Managing Service Quality: An International

Journal, 11(6),

Teixeira, J., Patrício, L., Nunes, N.J., Nóbrega, L., Fisk, R.P. and Constantine, L.,

2012. Customer experience modeling: from customer experience to service

design. Journal of Service Management, 23(3), pp.362-376.

Williams, C., 1998. Is the SERVQUAL model an appropriate management tool for

measuring service delivery quality in the UK leisure industry?. Managing

Leisure, 3(2), pp.98-110.

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Zomerdijk, L.G. and Voss, C.A., 2010. Service design for experience-centric

services. Journal of Service Research, 13(1), pp.67-82.

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5. Appendices

Notes from classes

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