Bas’ chapter is based on a recent project conducted by STBY which looked at the provision of care services for elderly people. Specifically, Bas addresses the question of how service design can help care organisations adapt their approaches to cope with an ageing population; STBY recently worked with Zuidzorg in the Netherlands to explore the barriers that currently prevent people from accessing care services remotely, as this is one way in which high quality care and support can be provided for large numbers of people.

Publishing articles such as this are one way in which STBY are contributing to the ongoing development of service design theory. Reflecting on what makes each project the company conduct’s a success opens up the nuances of service design methodology to peer review. As the body of literature accompanying the field continues to grow, so does practice in the field become increasingly refined.

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The session will be held at the studio of STBY in Amsterdam.

Duintjer Gebouw, Studio 2.17

Vijzelstraat 72, 1017 HL Amsterdam

Tel. 020 260 40 40

Time: 18:00 – 21:00

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If you plan to come, please register for the event through either our Facebook or Linkedin group page. Spaces are limited, so also notify us if you cannot come for some reason. You can easily change your status on the group page. This way everyone is informed on who to expect.
And, do read the book please!

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2. Service Design Talks 4/11 On Wednesday 4 November another of those lively debating evenings...
3. Service Design Reading Circle On Tuesday 8 September the Service Design Reading Circle will...

Please be invited. Do let us know you are coming, through either the events page of the Facebook group or the events page in Linkedin.

The book we will be discussing this time is the brand new ‘Designing Services with Innovative Methods’, edited by Satu Miettinen and Mikko Koivisto. The two Dutch outhors represented in the book, Arne van Oosterom and Remko van de Lugt have agreed to be to come by too, so there is ample opportunity to talk shop!

The book can be ordered from the University of Art & design in Helsinki:
https://www.taik.fi/kirjakauppa/product_info.php?products_id=134&language=en
I had mine delivered within a week, so no worries.

Order now and start reading! You won’t be disappointed.

Hope to see you on 4 November at 7 pm.

1. Service Design Talks 20/1 On 20 January we will be getting together again to...
2. Service Design Talks Amsterdam If you're interested in an in-depth conversation triggered by a...
3. Service Design Reading Circle On Tuesday 8 September the Service Design Reading Circle will...

1. Service Design Reading Circle On Tuesday 8 September the Service Design Reading Circle will...
2. Service Design Talks 4/11 On Wednesday 4 November another of those lively debating evenings...
3. Service Design Thinks Amsterdam The first Service Design Thinks event on 18 February was...

Our first meeting on 28 January was a promising start to hopefully a long series of meetings to discuss publications related to service design. STBY has proposed this reading circle to the Service Design Network Netherlands to support reflection and knowledge sharing in this relative new field of work. We hope this will lead to a lively exchange of ideas and experiences between the early pioneers.

For this first meeting we all read and discussed the book ‘De draagbare lichtheid van het bestaan‘ (The bearable lightness of being) by Valerie Frissen and Jos de Mul (editors). This book focuses on understanding the effects that the wide adoption of ICT in our daily lives has had on society. Each chapter describes and analyses a contemporary phenomenon (such as local wireless networks, ambient intelligence, rfid, social networking, multi-tasking and co-creation) and juxtaposes it in a historic context. This helps to look at these phenomena from a perspective that goes beyond obvious superficial observations. For instance, the chapter on mobile phone communication in public spaces places the ‘useless conversations’ in trains, that seem to annoy so many people, in the context of the historic social ritual of gift giving. In this light the timeless value of the symbolic exhange of attention and courtesy becomes clear. The mobile phone is a new mode for this, and it changes the circumstances and behaviour during the exchange. Getting to grips with this tends annoy people for a while, especially as hearing only one side of an exchange instinctively urges people to listen more closely and try to fill in the blanks. The same ‘useless conversation’ between two people in the same coach tends to be socially accepted and would be much easier to ignore.

Most of the authors in the book are academic researchers working in the field of anthropology, history, philosophy, media and communications. Overall the book gives a good overview of the type of studies that are currently in progress in this area at the Dutch universities and other research institutes. Some of the chapters (Frissen on professional amateurs, and De Mul on multi-tasking) definitely struck a cord among us and made us eager to read more about the subject. Other chapters (Van den Akker on boredom, and Steen on co-creation) seemed interesting to us, but lacked in balance between hard core academic prose and sweeping journalistic statements. This made them a bit difficult to digest and discuss. A more (and maybe even too) easy read were the chapters (Van Lieshout on rfid, Van de Berg on ambient intelligence, and Verhaegh on wireless networks) that mostly gave a description of how a specific technology works, and the chapters (Slot on scenarions, Van den Akker on bureaucratic adoption) that focused on explaining a specific method or theoretical framework for analysis.

On the whole we found that reading and discussing the book gave us a framework for better understanding the broad social and cultural context wherein ICT is used by people in their daily lives. This may not immediately offer tools and methods to be used in the practice of service design, but it definitely helps seeing the anticipated use of the services we (help) develop in a broader historic and contemporary context.

The second meeting of the service design reading circle is planned for Wednesday 25 March (at the offices of STBY in Amsterdam). We will discuss the book ‘Subject to change‘ by Peter Merholz et al. You are welcome to join us. If you are interested in to come, send me an email (geke @ stby.eu). You can also join our Facebook group and/or LinkedIn group.

1. Service Design Reading Circle On Tuesday 8 September the Service Design Reading Circle will...
2. Service Design Talks 20/1 On 20 January we will be getting together again to...
3. Service Design Talks 4/11 On Wednesday 4 November another of those lively debating evenings...

1. Service Design Talks 4/11 On Wednesday 4 November another of those lively debating evenings...
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