Stakeholder Engagement for Service Design Will Be the Main Focus of the Thesis
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Abstract Service design is a field emerging from the new-found interest in services as a design material by practitioners and academics of the human-centred design tradition. As such, the field can build on the knowledge from previous work in design as well as in service research. Introducing a new design material may however also introduce new challenges to practice. The research presented in this thesis investigates how the design research phase of the human-centred design process is affected by making services a design material. How users, staff and other stakeholders are involved in service design projects was studied in four studies. Two studies focused on getting a holistic view of how service designers engage stakeholders in their design research. The methods used for these two studies were interviews in one case and participatory observation in the other. The two remaining studies focused on specific aspects of the stakeholder engagement process. One compared how designers and anthropologists approach ethnography, whereas the second investigated the communicative qualities of service design visualisations. It is argued that service design is a stakeholder-centred design discipline. The tools used in service design are to a large extent borrowed from other qualitative research traditions, but design-specific tools do exist. By analysing and synthesising the information obtained, it is then i Abstract transformed into insights. These insights are visualised to provide easily accessible representations of service situations. The final section of the thesis identifies challenges ahead for service design practice, based on the findings of the thesis and based on existing theoretical frameworks for the discipline. ii Acknowledgments Although writing up the PhD thesis might be the effort of one person, the reason that person even gets as far as starting to write up is thanks to all the people supporting that PhD student. I am grateful for everyone who has been there to support my journey towards the finished thesis. I’m indebted to and grateful for the following persons… … my main supervisor Stefan Holmlid, for all the support and letting me find my own path whilst at the same time showing me which alternate paths I might be missing. Never forcing, always suggesting suits me perfectly! … my two co-supervisors Arne Jönsson and Björn Alm. Both of you have provided invaluable outsiders perspectives on my research when most needed. Björn, a special thank you for all the fruitful discussions in general and on the methodological approach in general. And to Arne, thank you for your experience and making sure the research continued to progress towards a finished thesis. … everyone who has participated in my studies. I am extremely grateful for all your help. In total roughly 50 people have been involved in one way or another in providing the data used in the studies. This thesis would not have been possible to write without your help. An extra warm thank you to everyone in the three agencies I worked in/with for the final study for allowing me to be a part of your work places. iii Acknowledgments … HCS for providing an enjoyable place to work in. And special thanks to IxS and the fika-crowd. IxS for providing an intellectually inspiring environment to work in, in which there always are new perspectives to be found when needed – thank you Stefan, Johan, Matti, Johan, Lisa, Eva, Mathias and Tim. And to the fika-crowd for providing many laughs, exciting discussions and a few beers during my PhD studies. So a big thank you to all of you; those of you who were here when I started and now have moved on (Sanna, Maria and Sara), those who have been here throughout most of my PhD (Johan, Amy, Jody and Anna) and all of you have joined the last few years (Lisa, Jonas R, Mattias, Kricke, Falkenskägg, Robin, Tim, Camilla and Karin). Also, thanks to all the administrative staff, especially Lise-Lott and Anne. … an extra thank you to Johan and Lisa, the ones I tend to turn to first when I have something to discuss. Or just need a break. … all the photo models. For the cover I want to thank the Zodiaken-staff in general for allowing me to take the photos on the front and back of the thesis cover, and Kristofer Frendesson in particular for getting in front of the camera. Similarly, my thanks go to the “customers” Matti, Lisa, Johan, Amy, Stefan and Tim. Furthermore, many thanks go to Jalal Maleki for taking the photos at Zodiaken. For the examples of visualisation techniques, my thanks go to Anna for modelling and Jonas H for photographing. … my parents for everything. You made me into who I am. Research support The research presented in this thesis has been supported by: Vinnova: SERV project: Service Design, innovation and involvement. Ref no: 2007-03444. European Union: CIP Competitiveness and Innovation Program, research project “Service Design as an approach to foster competitiveness and sustainability of European tourism”. iv Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................. i Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ v Preface ............................................................................................................................ ix 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Purpose and research questions ................................................................ 2 1.2 Studies performed ....................................................................................... 3 1.3 Contents of the thesis .................................................................................. 5 1.4 List of publications ....................................................................................... 6 1.4.1 Main publications of material used in the thesis 7 1.4.2 Other publications of material used in the thesis 7 2 Service design emerges.................................................................................... 9 2.1 A short history of design (research) ............................................................ 9 2.2 A short history of service (research)......................................................... 15 2.3 Service design emerges ............................................................................ 21 2.4 Defining service design ............................................................................. 27 3 Stakeholder research for service design ........................................................ 29 3.1 The service design toolbox (for stakeholder research) ........................... 29 3.1.1 Ethnography 32 3.1.2 Innovative methods 37 3.2 Communicating stakeholder insights through visualisations ................. 41 3.3 Research questions revisited ................................................................... 45 4 Interviews with service designers ................................................................... 49 4.1 Data collection .......................................................................................... 49 4.2 Focus: How stakeholder research is done ............................................... 50 v Table of Contents 4.2.1 Fundamental approach to service design 51 4.2.2 Influences on research planning 52 4.2.3 Performing stakeholder research 53 4.2.4 Intended outcomes of stakeholder research 56 4.3 Focus: Communicating through visualisations ........................................ 59 4.3.1 Analysis framework 61 4.3.2 Findings 62 4.4 Discussion of study results ....................................................................... 68 4.4.1 Stakeholders as inspiration 68 4.4.2 Tools for stakeholder research 70 4.4.3 Visualisations as a communication tool 71 5 Comparing ethnographic styles ...................................................................... 73 5.1 Social anthropology ................................................................................... 74 5.2 Design ........................................................................................................ 76 5.3 Study discussion ....................................................................................... 79 6 Analysis of visualisations ................................................................................ 83 6.1 Data collection .......................................................................................... 83 6.2 Analysis ...................................................................................................... 84 6.3 Analysis frameworks ................................................................................. 85 6.3.1 Framework: Interview study 85 6.3.2 Framework: Diana, Pacenti & Tassi 85 6.3.3 Framework: IHIP 86 6.3.4 Framework: Service dominant logic 86 6.4 Results and result discussion .................................................................. 88 6.4.1 Framework: Interview study 88 6.4.2 Framework: Diana, Pacenti & Tassi 89 6.4.3 Framework: IHIP 92 6.4.4 Framework: Service dominant logic 93 6.5 General discussion.................................................................................... 94 7 Participatory observation at service design agencies ..................................... 97 7.1 Participating agencies