Service Design: From Insight to Implementation
Authors
Andy Polaine, , Ben Reason
Publication Date
March 2013
Publisher
Rosenfield Media
FROM AMAZON.COM: We have unsatisfactory experiences when we use banks, buses, health services and insurance companies. They don't make us feel happier or richer. Why are they not designed as well as the products we love to use such as an Apple iPod or a BMW?

The "developed" world has moved beyond the industrial mindset of products and the majority of "products" that we encounter are actually parts of a larger service network.

These services comprise people, technology, places, time and objects that form the entire service experience. In most cases some of the touchpoints are designed, but in many situations the service as a complete ecology just "happens" and is not consciously designed at all, which is why they don't feel like iPods or BMWs.

One of the goals of service design is to redress this imbalance and to design services that have the same appeal and experience as the products we love, whether it is buying insurance, going on holiday, filling in a tax return, or having a heart transplant. Another important aspect of service design is its potential for design innovation and intervention in the big issues facing us, such as transport, sustainability, government, finance, communications and healthcare. Given that we live in a service and information age, a practical, thoughtful book about how to design better services is urgently needed.

Service Design Filed under: theory, practice, research, prototyping, visualization, metrics, introduction, good, book!.
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Four Comments
Ricardo Salvador on April 1, 2013 7:00pm
I do recommend :)
Christian Ramsey on July 13, 2013 1:42am
Highly recommended, another great book by Rosenfeld.. really is one of those books that brings about epiphany.
Marcela Machuca on November 10, 2014 4:13pm
I like this book, very well written and edited, you can separate chapters to make specific reflections with your students. Andy took the effort to illustrate it with real cases.

I also appreciate that is a pretty concise read, one of the main reasons I always recommend it as an introduction.

Nathan Lucy on October 3, 2016 9:02pm
This is the first book I recommend to people who want to learn about service design.
Service Design: From Insight to Implementation
By Andy Polaine, , Ben Reason
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  1. Insurance is a Service, Not a Product
  2. The Nature of Service Design
  3. Understanding People and Relationships
  4. Turning Research into Insight and Action
  5. Describing the Service Ecology
  6. Developing the Service Proposition
  7. Prototyping Service Experiences
  8. Measuring Services
  9. The Challenges Facing Service Design