Monday, December 22, 2008
Course On Service Design
Just got invited to give a course on service design (two days) in Innsbruck Austria at the MCI. That's going to be great!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Brand Book Holland
Some time ago we created a brand book (a silver box with three books in it... and a Miffy) for the economic image of Holland. This was part of a larger nation branding project we do for the Dutch government.
We created a mainly visual brand-book and it's used as a starting point and source of inspiration by the Dutch government and other Dutch organizations. We worked on this project with Simon Anholt and I've always been very pleased with the result.
Especially because we were aloud to tell an emotional story using images and narratives.
Just a few weeks a go we were asked to put the books online. This means I can share it with you now.
Take a look at "... and the Dutch created Holland"
We created a mainly visual brand-book and it's used as a starting point and source of inspiration by the Dutch government and other Dutch organizations. We worked on this project with Simon Anholt and I've always been very pleased with the result.
Especially because we were aloud to tell an emotional story using images and narratives.
Just a few weeks a go we were asked to put the books online. This means I can share it with you now.
Take a look at "... and the Dutch created Holland"
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Service Stories #11
I'm collecting these testimonials because they are of interest to me as a service designer. Besides that they are a powerful sign that the world is changing. Organizations and companies need to realize that they are becoming ever more transparent and vulnerable. If they like it or not. So it's time to pay attention.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Service Innovation Briefing by Innovaro
"Service innovation is fast becoming the most interesting and successful area of innovation for businesses. Now accounting for 70% of the aggregate production and employment in OECD nations, service innovation is widely seen as critical for longer-term growth and prosperity. While the economic downturn has hit some parts of the services sector very hard, it is clear that the trend towards service domination in the major economies is here to stay. The ageing population will have a greater need for social and health services; both the obese and the health conscious sections of society will drive an increase in wellness and nutrition services; and the opening up of all levels of education will drive innovation in the provision of teaching and learning.These are just three drivers of growth in the service sector."
Read the whole thing.....
(Via Choosenick)
Read the whole thing.....
(Via Choosenick)
Friday, December 12, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
What do service designers do?
Designing for Services in Science and Technology-Based Enterprises was an interdisciplinary research project (2006-2007) initiated by Saïd Business School (SBS) at the University of Oxford.
The study explored how academics, service designers, and science and technology entrepreneurs understand the designing of services in science and technology-based enterprises, and featured three case study projects in which service designers helped early stage science and technology enterprises (re)design their services.
Get the details via Putting People First or Lucy Kimbell
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Service Stories #9
I am collecting these testimonies (service stories) from end-users because they are great research material and help us gain more insight. Beside that these videos illustrate the changing world companies and governments are facing.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Service Design Theory Weary
The last three days I have been attending the Service Design Conference in Amsterdam. All in all, it has been a great experience and I met a lot of inspiring and inspired people.
I liked seeing all the faces that belonged to the names I already new. I enjoyed the presentations the second day. Although I did dose off from time to time... but that's me. And I thought the workshop by Carnegie Mellon University and Engine was inspiring. I believe Alex Nisbett (Engine) is just brilliant.
But after three day's of listening and talking and listening and talking about what service design is or could be I am theory weary.
I have a restless and insubordinate brain and after a while it starts rejecting everything that has to do with rules and methods thought up by others. Especially academics... with all due respect. Please forgive me but it's just that I am tired of people creating there own little reality and talking in circles. We seem to put so much effort in explaining what service design is... to ourselves. I can't take it anymore. This morning I even started explaining service design to myself in the mirror... I didn't get it.
I think it's about time we stop talking and go out there, get our hands dirty, do something and deliver. And my bet is that consultancies/ agencies are going to do just that. I'm sure that next year we will see lots of presentations (mainly from consultancies) about clever life-altering solutions with real results. Big and small. And I promise that I will make a worth to watch contribution. If not, I will delete the word service from our website and change it for communication.
(Alex Nisbett at the Service Design Conference Amsterdam 2008)
I liked seeing all the faces that belonged to the names I already new. I enjoyed the presentations the second day. Although I did dose off from time to time... but that's me. And I thought the workshop by Carnegie Mellon University and Engine was inspiring. I believe Alex Nisbett (Engine) is just brilliant.
But after three day's of listening and talking and listening and talking about what service design is or could be I am theory weary.
I have a restless and insubordinate brain and after a while it starts rejecting everything that has to do with rules and methods thought up by others. Especially academics... with all due respect. Please forgive me but it's just that I am tired of people creating there own little reality and talking in circles. We seem to put so much effort in explaining what service design is... to ourselves. I can't take it anymore. This morning I even started explaining service design to myself in the mirror... I didn't get it.
I think it's about time we stop talking and go out there, get our hands dirty, do something and deliver. And my bet is that consultancies/ agencies are going to do just that. I'm sure that next year we will see lots of presentations (mainly from consultancies) about clever life-altering solutions with real results. Big and small. And I promise that I will make a worth to watch contribution. If not, I will delete the word service from our website and change it for communication.
(Alex Nisbett at the Service Design Conference Amsterdam 2008)
Monday, November 17, 2008
Tim Brown on design thinking in Dubai
Read Tim Brown's post and join the interesting discussion that follows on his blog.
"While I can be legitimately criticized for seeing every conversation as an opportunity for design thinking, I came away from Dubai with a strong feeling that design can make a contribution to improving the way we tackle the deep systemic issues the world now faces."
"While I can be legitimately criticized for seeing every conversation as an opportunity for design thinking, I came away from Dubai with a strong feeling that design can make a contribution to improving the way we tackle the deep systemic issues the world now faces."
Friday, November 14, 2008
New Zealand Engaging Everywhere
Laura Sommer, Acting Manager, E-government Strategy and Policy, State Services Commission, New Zealand, speaks on New Zealand Government insights from online engagement to enhance policy and service design and delivery.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
The lunch currier
Draft version of the video presented at the "Changing the Change" conference in Torino (July 2008)
Monday, October 20, 2008
Service Opportunities
A great list of service opportunities from Patricia Seybold (Outside Innovation).
".... Here are just a few examples of customer-unfriendly policies that annoy customers while increasing operational costs:
• Placing a multi-day hold on funds deposited at an ATM machine, forcing customers to come into the branches to make deposits so they can access their money (a common banking practice in several countries).
• Requiring that a serial number match a service contract number before you'll provide technical support or renew a support contract.
• Requiring that the customer type in a long license key in order to load the software he has purchased.
• Limiting the number of times a customer can load a game, music, or other purchased intellectual property on his own machines or systems.
• Making it difficult for customers to return or exchange goods they have purchased.
• Making it difficult for customers to redeem coupons or rebates in the hopes that they will neglect to do so.
• Making it difficult for distribution partners to gain approval for promotional programs and deals before they can quote a price to end-customers.
• Making it difficult for customers to renew, exchange, and/or co-terminate a support contract that covers a number of products, many of which have been added, moved, or amended since the contract was originated.
• Making it difficult for customers to change the terms of a loan, mortgage, or other financial agreement when their circumstances have changed.
• Providing networked products that can't self-register and identify themselves when they connect to a network.
• Requiring customers who travel to pre-notify their credit card providers and their mobile/wireless providers that they are about to travel in order to ensure that they receive uninterrupted service. "
Read the article.....
(Via Choosenick)
".... Here are just a few examples of customer-unfriendly policies that annoy customers while increasing operational costs:
• Placing a multi-day hold on funds deposited at an ATM machine, forcing customers to come into the branches to make deposits so they can access their money (a common banking practice in several countries).
• Requiring that a serial number match a service contract number before you'll provide technical support or renew a support contract.
• Requiring that the customer type in a long license key in order to load the software he has purchased.
• Limiting the number of times a customer can load a game, music, or other purchased intellectual property on his own machines or systems.
• Making it difficult for customers to return or exchange goods they have purchased.
• Making it difficult for customers to redeem coupons or rebates in the hopes that they will neglect to do so.
• Making it difficult for distribution partners to gain approval for promotional programs and deals before they can quote a price to end-customers.
• Making it difficult for customers to renew, exchange, and/or co-terminate a support contract that covers a number of products, many of which have been added, moved, or amended since the contract was originated.
• Making it difficult for customers to change the terms of a loan, mortgage, or other financial agreement when their circumstances have changed.
• Providing networked products that can't self-register and identify themselves when they connect to a network.
• Requiring customers who travel to pre-notify their credit card providers and their mobile/wireless providers that they are about to travel in order to ensure that they receive uninterrupted service. "
Read the article.....
(Via Choosenick)
Design thinking is basically about being able to make good PowerPoint slides...
A sceptical point of view from John Maeda:
"While the corporate world is obsessed with the idea of design thinking -- which relies on data and process for inspiration -- Maeda is skeptical. "Design thinking is basically about being able to make good PowerPoint slides -- the quad-chart slide, the stakeholder slide. I get that. I think it's important. But at the same time, you hear whispers, even at Stanford, that people aren't making things anymore." Scott Klinker, head of the 3-D design program at Cranbrook Academy of Art, who defended the intuitive, qualitative approach to design at this year's Industrial Designers Society of America conference, agrees: "The proponents of the strategy-based approach say, 'Don't worry about form. We'll save you with design thinking.' I think that's crap. Design has always been a complex synthesis of analytical and intuitive processes."
Read the article...
(Thanks to Arjan van Woensel)
"While the corporate world is obsessed with the idea of design thinking -- which relies on data and process for inspiration -- Maeda is skeptical. "Design thinking is basically about being able to make good PowerPoint slides -- the quad-chart slide, the stakeholder slide. I get that. I think it's important. But at the same time, you hear whispers, even at Stanford, that people aren't making things anymore." Scott Klinker, head of the 3-D design program at Cranbrook Academy of Art, who defended the intuitive, qualitative approach to design at this year's Industrial Designers Society of America conference, agrees: "The proponents of the strategy-based approach say, 'Don't worry about form. We'll save you with design thinking.' I think that's crap. Design has always been a complex synthesis of analytical and intuitive processes."
Read the article...
(Thanks to Arjan van Woensel)
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Designing Interactions
A book and a website from Bill Moggridge with some great interviews .
"Designers of digital technology products no longer regard their job as designing a physical object—beautiful or utilitarian—but as designing our interactions with it. In Designing Interactions, Bill Moggridge, designer of the first laptop computer (the GRiD Compass, 1981) and a founder of the design firm IDEO, tells us stories from an industry insider’s viewpoint, tracing the evolution of ideas from inspiration to outcome." go...
"Designers of digital technology products no longer regard their job as designing a physical object—beautiful or utilitarian—but as designing our interactions with it. In Designing Interactions, Bill Moggridge, designer of the first laptop computer (the GRiD Compass, 1981) and a founder of the design firm IDEO, tells us stories from an industry insider’s viewpoint, tracing the evolution of ideas from inspiration to outcome." go...
Friday, October 10, 2008
Will A New Breed Of Innovation Companies Eventually Settle Into The Realm Of New Product/Service Innovation?
Idris Motee on Product/Service Innovation
"Can adv agencies design great products and/or experiences? You would think so? Over the years they have narrowed their skills (rather than broadening) and their core capabilities were reduced to doing the following three things 1/ finding a unique way to positioning a products within its category 2/adjustments of minutia to affect the consumers’ perception of the brand 3/ maximize repetitive exposure and extend reach. Innovation is not a core capability. Deep customer insight is not a core capability (over reliance of traditional research is the problem). Customer engagement is not a core capability (although they refer customer engagement as engaging through a 30sec TVC). It makes you wonder whether a new breed innovation companies will eventually settle into the realm of new product innovation and brand / communication innovation or even push into the space to deliver business model innovation."
Read the article...
"Can adv agencies design great products and/or experiences? You would think so? Over the years they have narrowed their skills (rather than broadening) and their core capabilities were reduced to doing the following three things 1/ finding a unique way to positioning a products within its category 2/adjustments of minutia to affect the consumers’ perception of the brand 3/ maximize repetitive exposure and extend reach. Innovation is not a core capability. Deep customer insight is not a core capability (over reliance of traditional research is the problem). Customer engagement is not a core capability (although they refer customer engagement as engaging through a 30sec TVC). It makes you wonder whether a new breed innovation companies will eventually settle into the realm of new product innovation and brand / communication innovation or even push into the space to deliver business model innovation."
Read the article...
Monday, October 6, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Service Stories #7
I am collecting these testimonies (service stories) from end-users because they are great research material and help me gain more insight. Beside that these videos illustrate the changing world companies and governments are facing.
Bad Experience with Sprint Wireless
Bad Experience with Sprint Wireless
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Service Design Network Netherlands
I am proud to announce that Eden Design & Communication, 31Volts, Creative Cities Amsterdam Area, STBY and DesignThinkers have launched the Service Design Network Netherlands.
Since June 2008, in monthly informal meetings, Service Design professionals in the Netherlands exchange knowledge and experiences arising from their work in this emerging field.
Several initiatives to widen this network and mutually promote service design in The Netherlands have already emerged. The network has been officially launched during PICNIC'08 in Amsterdam.
Since June 2008, in monthly informal meetings, Service Design professionals in the Netherlands exchange knowledge and experiences arising from their work in this emerging field.
Several initiatives to widen this network and mutually promote service design in The Netherlands have already emerged. The network has been officially launched during PICNIC'08 in Amsterdam.
Service Design Workshop
Last friday Service Design Network Netherlands gave a hands-on service design workshop at PICNIC08.
We had a great time working on a real healthcare case-study with real end-users and service providers from the city.
Here are some pictures.
We had a great time working on a real healthcare case-study with real end-users and service providers from the city.
Here are some pictures.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Service in Action
Service Design Clinic with Eric Kansa [Executive Director, Information & Services Design Clinic, UC Berkeley]
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Don't miss it! The first international Service Design Conference in Europe
From 24th - 26th November Amsterdam will host the first Europe based, international Service Design Conference.
Now you must now that Amsterdam is our hometown, so we are extra extra happy. It's a great change to meet everyone and create more awareness with clients in the Netherlands.
Besides being extra extra happy DesignThinkers will be hosting an action packed workshop on mobility at the 26th. I hope to see you there!
You can register for the conference....
Now you must now that Amsterdam is our hometown, so we are extra extra happy. It's a great change to meet everyone and create more awareness with clients in the Netherlands.
Besides being extra extra happy DesignThinkers will be hosting an action packed workshop on mobility at the 26th. I hope to see you there!
You can register for the conference....
Sunday, September 7, 2008
DesignThinkers at PICNIC 2008
A hands-on service design lab at the international PICNIC conference in Amsterdam will bring the service design approach to a wider audience in the Netherlands for the first time on 26 September.
The event will be an activity that allows participants to experience the key ideas and processes of service design. Organised by STBY, 31Volts and DesignThinkers.
Want to join us in Amsterdam? Get more information here...
The event will be an activity that allows participants to experience the key ideas and processes of service design. Organised by STBY, 31Volts and DesignThinkers.
Want to join us in Amsterdam? Get more information here...
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Summer School on Service Design Finland
Last week I gave a lecture in Finland at the Akatemia Kuopio. I had a great time and Satu Miettinen has been a great host.
Besides having lots of fun attending workshops I really enjoyed the discussions I had with Greg Richards and Marc Stickdorn about the difference between experience marketing and service design. "Does service design actually exist? Or is it just another name for something we have been doing for years"... I miss these discussions in the Netherlands. They keep me on my toes.
Greg Richards had a great presentation on creative tourism.
In one of the workshops we visited a spa. Here's Mikko Koivisto from Ego Beta doing some fieldwork.
The spa has a public and healthcare service.
Besides having lots of fun attending workshops I really enjoyed the discussions I had with Greg Richards and Marc Stickdorn about the difference between experience marketing and service design. "Does service design actually exist? Or is it just another name for something we have been doing for years"... I miss these discussions in the Netherlands. They keep me on my toes.
Greg Richards had a great presentation on creative tourism.Satu Miettinen talked about social design.
In one of the workshops we visited a spa. Here's Mikko Koivisto from Ego Beta doing some fieldwork.
The spa has a public and healthcare service.
One of the workshop with students and Katja Sorvali.
The obligatory sticky-notes.
The obligatory (it's a must in Finland) fire.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Lauren Currie at DesignThinkers
Last week Lauren Currie came over from Scotland to work with us on a couple of projects. Just for a few weeks. And although Lauren has only been with DesignThinkers for one week already she has been a great help and inspiration to us.
Read about her ethnographic field work, experiences in Amsterdam and see some great pictures on her weblog.
Read about her ethnographic field work, experiences in Amsterdam and see some great pictures on her weblog.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Service Design Conference Amsterdam
The Service Design Network is organising a Service Design Conference in Amsterdam at the 24th-26th of November.
Keep an eye on www.service-design-network.org/conference for more information.
Keep an eye on www.service-design-network.org/conference for more information.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
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