The proposed program looks to be an interesting mix of theory and ‘real-world’ practice, and we’re really curious as to how popular the course wil prove to be. The deadline for applications isn’t until February 2012 if you’re interested in signing up, and you can find more details on the RCA website by clicking here.

Don’t forget to let us know how you get on if you decide to take the plunge!

1. STBY magazine – Service Innovation Inspired by People Motivated by the limited amount of literature on design research...
2. STBY magazine Motivated by the limited amount of literature on design research...
3. ‘Design as Service’ – An International Symposium during Dutch Design Week How are the roles of designers changing in a world...

As service design continues to develop as a discipline, people within the field are starting to work towards achieving higher-level, larger-scale integration with both public and private sector companies. This was the focus for a recent ‘public-private partnership’ in the Netherlands that saw STBY working with several service providers, government funded organisations and other service design agencies to develop a series of case studies showcasing what service design can achieve. This long-term project will take 3 years to complete, and is ultimately intended to help improve the visibility and applicability of service design in relation to the Dutch economy.

The project will involve several different case studies demonstrating the value of the approach – whilst also offering an opportunity to explore the processes it involves. In addition to this development and dissemination of in-depth knowledge about the field, the project also aims to strengthen the service design community in The Netherlands – the core group of organisations who originally founded the Service Design Network Nederland are all involved, with each agency working in the open-minded spirit of collaboration that is a key principle of the field.

Showcasing the Field by Studying Stations

The main focus for the case studies is Utrecht’s central train station. Currently undergoing a fundamental redevelopment, this represents an excellent opportunity for innovating the service experience of train passengers. In the true spirit of service design however, the case studies are not just looking at the use of the station, but at the complete customer journey: from preparing and anticipating a trip, to the moment people arrive at their destination.

In the past few months STBY has been working on the first case study together with Prorail, Edenspiekermann, Hogeschool Utrecht and TU Delft. We conducted in-depth ethnographic research on how the use of platforms at the station can be understood in the context of complete journeys; What kind of information and expectations do people have before arriving at the station? What kind of support is beneficial to them when on the platform? What works well for them, and what does not? What needs and preferences seem to be unfulfilled? What additional services could be offered to delight these intrepid travellers?

These questions were all addressed in an extensive ethnographic exploration incorporating observations, in-depth interviews, customer journey mapping, visualising insight clusters, and identifying opportunity areas in co-creation workshops – all classic techniques from the service design toolbox. The project is still ongoing, and will probably require a further series of internal workshops and presentations within the wider organisation of the main service provider, Prorail. We’ll try to update this article from time to time with the results that emerge from these, and will also detail the further case-studies that are still to come.

Spreading the Word

One of the final aims of the project is to generate materials that will be valuable for a wider group of stakeholders than just the participating organisations themselves. Various seminars and conferences will be organised therefore, and several articles published as well. This is one of the roles for the participating Technical University Delft and Hogeschool Utrecht who are actually studying how we, the service design agencies, approach the case studies and work with the stakeholders. So we, as observers, have researchers observing us… a bit surreal, but also fun and in a good collaborative spirit!

The parties involved in the project are: Prorail, Movares, Bureau H2O, STBY, EdenSpiekermann, DesignThinkers, 31Volts, Scope Design Strategy, Hogeschool Utrecht, Technische Universiteit Delft and Taskforce Innovation Regio Utrecht.

The project ‘Service Design – Are you Being Served?’ is co-funded through the Pieken in de Delta-program by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, the city of Utrecht and the province of Utrecht.

If you’d like to know more about STBY’s involvement, then just drop Geke a line at geke@stby.eu, or follow us on Twitter at @stby.

1. Service Design Thinks Amsterdam On March 30th a new Service Design Thinks event will...
2. Mobility, Cars and Refueling Experiences What do people care about in terms of mobility, and...
3. Visionary and curious: Exploring Creative Leadership for THNK To support the development of THNK, the Amsterdam School of...

As much of the research was taking place in Germany, we worked with our local partners in the Reach Network, Minds & Makers. Together we developed a methodology for the fieldwork, targeted around the kind of insights we needed. We involved a range of participants that covered a variety of social and geographical backgrounds, each of whom had different preferences and routines centred around mobility  and re-fueling. A series of probes, semi-structured interviews, and location visits gave us the data we needed for an internal analysis workshop at our Amsterdam office.

The end result was a series of clustered insights that could be used to inform and inspire the client’s design teams. To make these insights as accessible as possible to these teams, we visualised them on a large-scale poster, in addition to presenting them in a more traditional report format. Presenting results in this way is something we’ve had a lot of success with in the past; after all, even the most resonant of insights will achieve little if the right people never get to see them.

In a full-day internal workshop with people from many different departments in the client organisation we presented the insight from the research, and participated in discussions around a series of new service concepts they are currently working on. The posters with observations, quotes and insights were there to refer to and to ensure that the consumer perspective did not get lost during the sometimes passionate strategic discussions.

1. Design Research for Service Innovation Our creative research projects connect service providers with the lives...
2. Living Sustainably: Exploring Ways Panasonic Can Support Green Living How can people in the U.S. live a sustainable lifestyle?...
3. Videos to Inform and Inspire: Helping Novo Nordisk Design for Diabetes STBY have recently completed a project with the Danish pharmaceutical...

With a month to go before our first conference ‘The Great Outdoors of Design’ gets underway, the full list of topics we’ll be looking at has now been finalised. Our intention with this event has always been to aim for a more intimate and collaborative atmosphere than is found at many conferences; we really want to explore these issues in conjunction with our attendees – not just stand there on the stage talking about them.

All of the topics are collected around two main themes, both of which we think are right at the heart of Design Research:

How can Research and Design be brought closer together?

and

How can global and local insights and opportunities be combined?

These are two questions which we’re constantly addressing with our work here at STBY, and our Reach partners will all be presenting their own perspectives on what these questions actually mean in reality. We wanted to organise a conference that looked at these questions from the point of real-world practice, not just abstract theory – and we’re excited about finally getting the chance to do so!

You can download a copy of the programme by clicking here. Tickets for GOOD’11 are on sale now at our Eventbrite Site.

1. The Great Outdoors of Design: An Interactive Conference Hosted by Reach These are exciting times here at STBY, as today we...
2. GOOD’11 – Thanks for taking part! Massive thanks to all of you who in some way...

Through a series of in-depth interviews with a mix of journalists, analysts, and NGOs in the US, UK and Netherlands we documented a large collection of recent and actual Customer Journeys. The recurring patterns in these stories, identified in the analysis, have been translated into a set of personas, each consisting of a rich profile description and a few typical aggregated customer journeys.

The conversations with the external stakeholders were complemented with interviews with key internal experts within Ahold. As professionals in Corporate Communication, Investor Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility they represent important ‘touch points’ for external stakeholders, either through face to face contact or phone and email. Their interaction can be one of the key aspects in the overall customer journey, just as the online platform can be. These individual touch points can all be ‘moments of truth’ that make or break the service experience.

The development of an online communication strategy cannot be done in isolation from these ‘offline’ touch points. They all need to fit together into a smooth and integrated service delivery. So one of the main research purposes was to develop a holistic vision on how the corporate website connects to the wider context of Ahold’s corporate communication.

By empathising with key external stakeholders, Ahold can look at their corporate service offering from an ‘outside-in’ perspective, validate their current communication strategy and innovate their future strategy. The insights from the stakeholders research provide a useful sounding board for this.

1. Customer Talk article on Service Design One of the editors of the online community for customer-focused...
2. Are you being served? Collaborations to improve services for train travellers STBY have recently been working on a large-scale project in...
3. Visionary and curious: Exploring Creative Leadership for THNK To support the development of THNK, the Amsterdam School of...

1. Say yes to the mess! For 'The week of Service Design' on Molblog, the online...
2. STBY magazine – Service Innovation Inspired by People Motivated by the limited amount of literature on design research...
3. Mobility, Cars and Refueling Experiences What do people care about in terms of mobility, and...

1. Say yes to the mess! For ‘The week of Service Design’ on Molblog, the online...
2. Customer Talk article on Service Design One of the editors of the online community for customer-focused...
3. Mobility, Cars and Refueling Experiences What do people care about in terms of mobility, and...

The journal the article was published in is Vormberichten, the main publication of BNO. You can download a scan of the article through this link.

1. FD picking up on Service Design One of the major Dutch newspapers, Het Financieele Dagblad (translated...
2. Customer Talk article on Service Design One of the editors of the online community for customer-focused...
3. ‘Design as Service’ – An International Symposium during Dutch Design Week How are the roles of designers changing in a world...

The article is Dutch, like the rest of the online content for this platform. It describes how services design offers an holistic approach to the innovation of services, working from the perspective of the customers. This approach can help to bridge the gap in the trust between organisations and their external stakeholders that has risen over the years due to relentless inside-out and push-oriented marketing and sales.

The article was written by Anne van den Berg. The PDF you can download through this link is a simple capture of the web page (so please ignore the surrounding and now redundant navigation items).

1. FD picking up on Service Design One of the major Dutch newspapers, Het Financieele Dagblad (translated...
2. BNO picking up on Service Design The main association for designers in The Netherlands, BNO, published...
3. Say yes to the mess! For 'The week of Service Design' on Molblog, the online...

This is Service Design Thinking, the book we recently collaborated on, is about to go through it’s second print run! Almost every copy from the first run is now sold out, which is fantastic news for everyone involved. STBY edited the ‘Tools’ chapter of the book, and if you’re interested in learning a bit more about it, then you can either visit the TiSDT website, or check out the video trailer above.

1. TiSDT Wins an Award! This is Service Design Thinking, the book STBY contributed to...
2. First Service Design Talks event in London, 22 March 2011 Following in the footsteps of the successful series of Service...