Lab+9

Q1 Service design is a field that uses a human-centered approach in designing various methods of service to maximize the overall quality of a customer experience. Improving the design of service will allow room for success, as the main goal of these innovative designs are to be useful, useable, and desirable for users, and at the same time, efficient, effective, and valuable for providers. Service designs are integrated and implemented among various locations and fields, such as cell phones and call centers.

The tools and methods associated within the field of service design include: service blueprinting, customer journey maps, ethnography, ideation, context mapping, participatory design, and service prototyping. Service blueprinting provides a visual description of the critical quantitative elements, such as time, logical sequences of actions, and processes. Customer journey maps monitor the perception of customers throughout a typical sequence of events involved within a particular field of service, as well as the relationship between the user and provider along the way. Ethnography involves the study of understanding the context of the service and users. Ideation, context mapping, and participatory design focus on studying and discovering the conscious needs of consumers through participatory workshops. Service prototyping uses storytelling, and scenarios to describe possible occurrences throughout a service.

Q2 From my personal experience, service design methods would be useful in salon's and spa's. I often go to these facilities, but I sometimes don't know what to expect when I am trying a new service (say, a body wrap or laser treatment), or I wish I could try certain products before I purchase them, or if they are used in a service, such as facial.

If salon's and spa's could provide a 'customer journey map', it would ease the anxiety some users may have of certain services. Also, by incorporate elements of 'ideation, context mapping, and participatory design', users could try a product beforehand, and give providers feedback, which gives direction to success.