Last night I found a 50% off deal for custom created calendars. I thought it would be a good idea to buy one and customize it with my photos from China. I believed it could make a great present for my parents for Christmas, as they are always asking me for pictures and we don’t see each other so often. (Sometimes is hard to be so far away from home.)

I was all enthusiastic and started to look through all my pictures in order to find the best 12. I uploaded the pictures and double checked everything for printing. According to the website I should pay €7.99 as the calendar is half price. I went on and decided to start the checkout steps:

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Picture by Jacques Strappe

The other day I received an email from a website I registered with, asking me for feedback. The website provides training in different technologies and a lot of times they have special offers and even free courses that I am more than happy to take.

I consider asking for feedback as being a good example of service design. It shows that the company is looking to improve and they are open to suggestions. They want to learn what their customers want in order to implement the changes and perfect their services to fit the customers’ needs.

Most of the times this goes well. People like to be asked about their opinion: this gives them confidence and the feel that their opinion matters. In my case, I know if I was the one asking for feedback I would like people to respond and this is why I usually reply to the feedback questioners.

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At the end of April I was part of the team AmazEd that participated in the Irish finals of the Imagine Cup competition. The Imagine Cup this year was hosted by the Science Gallery in Trinity college. In order for us to get internet access on the day we had to register on the Science Gallery website.

There are very few places in Ireland that provide free Internet access and I believe it was smart of them to ask for some details in exchange for this service. A few weeks ago I found out that the details I provided are worth more. This is when I received a Membership Card that would not only give me free WiFi in the Science Gallery building but also reduced ticket prices for selected events, special invitations to hush-hush happenings and advance notice of all that is up and coming. And all of this with a welcoming note that put a smile on my face.

At first I only wanted to have access to the Internet during a competition and in the end I got a lot more. I really believe this is a great example of marketing and service design that every business should follow.

Let me know what you think. What are your thoughts and ideas on this?

There is nothing worse then feeling like a faceless number being rammed through a system. Increasingly customers are turning to service providers who take into account both their emotional and functional needs. Unfortunately it is also one of those things that’s simple to say but can be difficult to actually pull off. Many businesses shy away from such approaches because they are uncertain of what steps to take. They assume changing to this method will be time consuming and costly. But the simple fact is that when it comes to emotions, it is more often the small things that have the greatest impact.

For example, I recently had a trip to the hairdressers. This is usually something I dread and want to be over in as little time as humanly possible. However on this occasion it was surprisingly pleasurable. But what was different this instance from previous others? It wasn’t until I got home and thought about it that I realized all the little human actions and interactions that had taken place. While I waited for my turn, I was presented with a cup of tea, a biscuit and a chocolate. When ready, the hairdresser asked for me by name and introduced herself. She pulled out a chair and sat down facing me to discuss what I would like to get done. The cut was fast and efficient. When leaving, she said goodbye, again by name. What is the additional cost of this approach to all the others I had previously been subjected to? A few euro for some chocolate and biscuits. The rest was changes in the behavior of the service provider, the small things that related me to her. It was down to such a fine art that I was unaware of the subtle differences, only that I enjoyed the experience as a whole.

It is often the interactions, frequently viewed as padding to the service, which leaves the biggest impression on the customer. Being aware of the client throughout the process, rather then exclusively concentrating on the end result, will provide a well-rounded service, which caters to both the functional and emotional. It is the small differences which will emotionally link the customer to the company and greatly increase the chance of a return customer.

My father just got his iPhone 3G. Beyond all the features and functionality, one of his first comments to me was, “The phone came fully charged!” Think about it. You get one of the most anticipated gadgets on the planet and the first instruction is to fully charge for 12 hours before using. Brilliant. Works right out of the box. Apparently the AT&T salesman in the States said it was the first phone that ever arrived fully charged.

Note: Can anyone confirm that all iPhone 3G’s arrive charged?

What have we been up to over the few weeks between this and our last blog post? Doing a lot of thinking about service and pulling together a day-long workshop to help organisations better understand the why, what and how of service design. One of numerous tools we experimented with was the ubiquitous napkin sketch. In order to make up for the gap in posts, here are PDF downloads of the card decks we give to participants from all three of our workshops:

• User-centred Design (170KB)
• Why Brand? (241KB)
• Why Service? (217KB)

You also might like to read about the “revival” of the napkin sketch over at FastCompany.

I don’t believe this is the first time we have referenced the excellent blog, Designing Better Libraries. In this article (PDF, 1.13MB), Steven J. Bell pulls together a nice primer on the design thinking process and explores how it can be applied to designing better libraries. How do libraries help users accomplish their work? How do we understand the problem before jumping to solutions? Design thinking helps librarians focus on facilitating research and creating passionate users instead of concentrating on the commodity of information.

At the Carnegie Public Library, “librarians and library staff devote more of their time to more high-value, high-reward efforts. Changed perceptions have attracted new customers who would have otherwise avoided the library. Existing customers find it easier to accomplish their goals and, along the way, discover new things that they might have otherwise missed.”

Additional reading and watching:

MAYA Design: Carnegie Public Library
TED Talk: Joshua Prince-Ramus: Designing the Seattle Central Library

Though written primarily from the perspective of designer to designer, Jennie Winhall wrote this fascinating essay on the politics of design. Not only do designers need to take responsibility for the consequences of design, whether they be unintended like the “butterfly ballot” which may have turned a US election, but also the conscious choices designers make around creating sustainable products and services, and even the clients they choose to work with. The very process of design is becoming more “democratic” as users become a focal point and in some cases are co-creating solutions.

I recall seeing Bruce Mau speak in the States and he began and ended his presentation with a challenge to all the designers sitting in the room, “Now that we can do anything, what are YOU going to do?”

Read the entire article

Jennie is setting up Participle, a social enterprise focused on designing a new generation of public services along with the former UK Design Council RED team members: Hilary Cottam, Colin Burns and Charles Leadbeater.

If you were hoping to discover the secret formula in this post, I’m sorry to disappoint. Our research and the research of many other organisations have demonstrated the link between design and business success. Is it the only factor? Of course not. Great businesses use every tool at their disposal to create competitive advantage, and design is a very powerful tool.

What does appear to be developing is a mix of quantitative and qualitative metrics around user experience. And if you’re looking for the best way to identify and meet the needs of your customer and consumer, design is the perfect tool. The following articles broadly discuss these issues and highlight two models developed by Whirlpool (product design) and Live/Work (service design).
No Accounting For Design?
Can You Measure Design’s Value?