Service Design Framework

[Holly Coffell]

A few months later, we took the time to take a step back and evaluate those projects and validate the model with clients, which brought some interesting insights to light. As we observed striking similarities among the many companies and industries we work for, we soon began formulating a framework; the Service Design Maturity Model. We set out to create a model to understand the service design maturity of an organisation and structure the process of embedding service design into organisations. We envisioned it to provide actionable advice on how to overcome barriers, helping the entire service design organisations to embed service design at scale.

In user experience design multiple components must be designed: visuals, features and commands, copywriting, information architecture, and more. Not only must each component be designed correctly, but they also must be integrated to create a total user experience. Service design follows the same basic idea. There are several components, each one should be designed correctly, and all of them should be integrated.

Returning to the restaurant example, people would be farmers growing the produce, restaurant managers, chefs, hosts, and servers. Props would include (amongst others): the kitchen, ingredients, POS software, and uniforms. Processes would include: employees clocking in, servers entering orders, cleaning dishes, and storing food.

Service components are broken down into frontstage and backstage, depending on whether the customers see them or not. Think of a theater performance. The audience sees everything in front of the curtain: the actors, costumes, orchestra, and set. However, behind the curtain there is a whole ecosystem: the director, stage hands, lighting coordinators, and set designers.

This is still true today, but the responsibility does not fall on only operations and management, as it did twenty years ago. Practicing service design is the responsibility of the organization as a whole.

Work shall not be fragmented unless absolutely necessary. This enables accountability and responsibility from a single individual and reduces delays, rework, etc. It encourages creativity, innovation and ownership of work.

Service design principles support the development of services which deliver high quality experiences to users and customers. Many of these principles are similar to principles already employed in UX design and it should be relatively easy for an experienced UX designer in products to transition to UX design for services.

We believe in Open Access and the democratization of knowledge. Unfortunately, world-class educational materials such as this page are normally hidden behind paywalls or in expensive textbooks.

For the WxPO and government organizations of all types, service design provides the tools to understand and improve the whole system. In the WxPO case, this meant looking at the technologies, staff within the office, users of weather data inside and outside the Air Force, and how they all work together. It meant bringing people along in the process to identify problems, come up with the right solutions, and put them into action.

Service design projects usually involve a small team of service designers in partnership with a core government team that owns or helps manage a service. Projects also include key stakeholders, such as organization leadership, staff who administer or interact with a service, and customers of a service. Depending on the nature of a project, teams may include an interdisciplinary mix of roles such as engineers, visual designers, and customer support staff.

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Service design is a holistic approach to creating and delivering value for customers, employees, and stakeholders. It involves understanding the needs, expectations, and behaviors of the people involved in a service, as well as the context, processes, and resources that enable it. But how can service design frameworks help you create more sustainable value propositions? In this article, we will explore some of the benefits and challenges of applying service design frameworks to address environmental, social, and economic sustainability goals.

Service design frameworks are tools and methods that guide you through the different stages of service design, from research and ideation to prototyping and implementation. They help you structure your thinking, organize your information, and communicate your ideas. Some examples of service design frameworks are the Double Diamond, the Service Blueprint, and the Circular Service Design Framework.

Service design frameworks can help you create more sustainable value propositions by identifying and prioritizing problems and opportunities related to sustainability in your service context. It encourages you to empathize with the needs and perspectives of customers, employees, and stakeholders to co-create solutions. Additionally, it enables you to explore and test different scenarios and alternatives that can reduce the environmental impact, increase social value, and enhance the economic viability of your service. It also supports you in aligning your service strategy, operations, and outcomes with the sustainability principles and goals of your organization and society.

Service design frameworks can present some challenges when applied to sustainability issues. These include dealing with the complexity and uncertainty of sustainability problems, which may require systemic and long-term thinking, cross-sector collaboration, and adaptive learning. Additionally, there may be a need to balance the trade-offs and conflicts between different sustainability dimensions, stakeholder interests, and service requirements. Furthermore, measuring and evaluating the sustainability impact and performance of your service may involve multiple and diverse indicators, data sources, and methods. Lastly, communicating and scaling your service innovations may require engaging and influencing various audiences, partners, and policymakers.

When designing a service for sustainability, there is no one-size-fits-all framework. Depending on the service context, goals, and constraints, it is necessary to select and adapt different frameworks. To do this, begin with a clear understanding of the sustainability challenge and vision. Then, review and compare different service design frameworks to find the ones that best fit your service scope, stage, and objectives. Furthermore, customize and combine elements from various frameworks to create a hybrid framework tailored to your service situation. Finally, remember to seek feedback and validation from customers, employees, stakeholders, and experts during the process.

If you want to learn and apply service design frameworks for sustainability, there are many resources and opportunities available to help you. You can read books, articles, blogs, and case studies on the topic, or take online or offline courses, workshops, or certifications. You could join or create communities, networks, or events related to service design and sustainability. Additionally, you could work with or hire service design and sustainability professionals, consultants, or agencies. Service design frameworks can help you create more sustainable value propositions by guiding you through a human-centered, creative, and strategic process. By selecting the right frameworks for your service context and goals, you can design services that deliver value for customers, employees, stakeholders, and the planet.

The goal of the service design playbook is to help designers that are new to service design in government understand how to apply service design thinking at each stage of product delivery and how to work with others in a multi-disciplinary team. It's the collective knowledge and experience of many of the service designers at the Ministry of Justice brought together to support other designers across the organisation.

One of my favourite descriptions of service design is working with users and delivering services, and there are many frameworks and processes that exist in helping us achieve this. The double-diamond method and the Stanford school design thinking process are just a couple of the ones out there.

Our service users are diverse, yet a thread ties them. They are affected by, care for, or are responsible for people who, in turn, are experiencing a vulnerable and distressing period in their lives.

I designed the playbook with all of this in mind. How do we approach the design of complex services that range from web pages to monolith legacy systems? How do we navigate the creation of services that impact people and staff across various prisons?

I collaborated with designers across the Ministry of Justice through a series of workshops and gathered our collective experiences to form the guidance shared in the playbook. The playbook prompts designers at each stage of the delivery process, from exploration to beta, to think about how they can collaborate with teams and stakeholders to deliver a service.

Whether it's looking at problem space and service users, exploring the policy space, to thinking about accessibility - there are tried and tested ideas and methods available to use at each step of every design phase. They include directions of when to use them and why.

I joined the Ministry of Justice from a mainly non-government background. It took a little time to navigate my role and understand the cross-overs of my responsibilities with others in a multidisciplinary team.

Whilst the Digital, Data and Technology capability framework is a helpful introduction to all the professions and disciplines, I recognised the gap in guidance of how these disciplines worked best together to design the service end-to-end. There are seven roles within the user-centred design family and most designers often wear many (multi-disciplined) hats. So, where did the role of a service designer fit amongst all of our wonderful disciplines? Furthermore, how do we describe our part to our team members?

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