TITLE: Better Service Design for Greater Civic Engagement

1. ABSTRACT

Generally, people have a good understanding of their local areas. Hence, encouraging them to share this tacit knowledge with local authorities, urban designers and city planners could help improve the quality of public space design significantly. However, persuading people to share their concerns/ideas about their areas, especially through a digital platform, presents a real challenge. One of the main barriers is a lack of trust in the public feedback system. Thus, this research investigates relationships between online trust and service design in order to provide a guideline on how to design the feedback system that addresses users’ practical and emotional requirements. A mixed-methods approach was employed to identify key factors affecting online trust and their implications on service design. Six key factors affecting online trust were identified and combined to form a basis for service design guidelines. The outcomes show that service design can support all components required to build trust.

Keywords: Service Design, Online Trust, Public Feedback System

2. INTRODUCTION

‘voiceYourview (VYV) – making public spaces safer’ is a collaboration project of five universities, Brunel University, Coventry University, Lancaster University, the University of Manchester and the University of Sheffield. This multidisciplinary research is funded under the RCUK Digital Economy programme. The study aims to develop a novel real-time digital feedback system that allows people to voice their concerns regarding public spaces. By capturing actionable feedback and suggestions from end users, the quality of public space designs and the level of civic engagement could be improved.

Why should feedback be captured in real time? Imagine, on a beautiful Sunday, you stroll in a park nearby. After five minutes, you notice a pile of rubbish in front of you. You might want to make a complaint to your local authorities right away. However, you may be unsure who you should contact and the best way to formalize and submit your report. In most cases, you are quite likely to forget about it, since it could take time to accomplish the task. By providing a system that allows people to capture their thoughts in real-time (at the precise moment when they notice things that cause their concerns), the chance of people reporting problems and suggesting ideas on how to improve their neighbourhoods may increase.

The user trial conducted at a public library that had recently undergone a major refurbishment showed that public feedback could lead to better design outcomes, since the majority of feedback and suggestions were actionable (Whittle et al, 2010). Most comments directed at specific design features, e.g. book shelves and carpets. If these users were given opportunities to engage with the refurbishment process from the start, the design team might have had clearer ideas on how to improve. This result shows that an effective public feedback system has strong potential to support area regeneration projects from the early stage.

Evidently, the public feedback system should be inclusive and easy-to-use for all groups of people. The system should also be cost-effective, since it is not feasible to expect local authorities with limited public budgets to commit large amounts of investment and staff to make it work. Thus, the VYV system is designed to be fully automated – data will be captured, processed, stored in an online repository and exchanged with suitable stakeholders, e.g. urban designers and town planers. In this case, people can post comments, view other comments, remove irrelevant/abusive content and prioritize actions to be taken. Similar to a wiki website, the VYV system needs a high level user engagement. If people are not interested in using the system, no feedback can be captured. Hence, emotional connections and motivation are crucial to the success of the VYV system. Currently, ViewKI, the prototype online interface of the VYV system (see the description and screenshots on the VYV website: http://www.voiceyourview.com/site/content_viewki.php), have overcome usability issues. However, the emotional aspects still require further developments. Whilst urban designers and town planers may view the VYV concept as a feedback system, users perceive it as a public service and thus expect a degree of satisfaction that they receive from similar services. Hence, service design which governs all facets of the system and strongly influences user experience must be properly investigated and carefully developed.

3. BACKGROUND RESEARCH

The research, designed to identify a suitable service design strategy, was divided into two phases (see Figure 1). The scoping phase or background research was carried out to identify key issues and existing barriers preventing citizens from becoming more involved with their local communities. The scoping study, which comprised both theoretical exploration and a series of design ethnographic studies, revealed that accessibility and usability are considered ‘hygiene factors’ and cannot be used to motivate people to engage with the system (Chen, 2010). According to the scoping study, the majority of participants were not motivated to spend their valuable time reporting public space problems and were therefore unfamiliar with similar services, such as SeeClickFix (www.seeclickfix.com), FixMyStreet (www.fixmystreet.com) and CitySourced (www.citysourced.com). Ethnographic research conducted with people from different age groups (ranging from 19 to 80 years old) and various cultural backgrounds (e.g. an Israeli designer, a Canadian programmer and a Caribbean Accountant) pointed out that “trustworthiness” is the first step toward enhancing user engagement and relationships between users and the system. If people perceive the VYV system as ‘reliable’ and deserve their trust, they may decide to engage with the system. Hence, the study of ‘trust’ in this case will focus on how people develop their perceptions and/or beliefs that someone or something is reliable and worthy of their confidence.

4. AIM & OBJECTIVES

As a result, this paper will discuss relationships between service design and trust. The main aim is to develop service design guidelines to enhance user trust in the VYV system.

This study includes four objectives as follows:

1. To discover relationships between service design and trust in an online environment

2. To identify service dimensions and design elements influencing trust in the VYV system

3. To gain user opinions on existing feedback systems to establish the current level of trust

4. To identify essential service design components for enhancing trust in the VYV system

5. LITERATURE REVIEW

Trust – It is commonly agreed that ‘trust’ is an abstract and a multi-faceted concept that is difficult to define. Hence, there is no single authoritarian definition for this term. This might be because trust has been studied extensively by various disciplines, e.g. psychology, sociology and business management. One of the widely accepted definitions in the literature on online trust is the work of Mayer, Davisand and Schoorman (1995), which described the term as “the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party.” Another influential work in the field of online trust is the work of Luhmann (1979) where trust is defined as a mechanism to reduce complexity in order to cope with uncertainty. When dealing with a large number risks and aspects are not well understood, people need to base their decisions on trust.

Trust & Online Environment – Since the VYV system operates in the online environment, it is important to study online trust. Shneiderman (2000) pointed out that trust is one of key factors determining the success of most online entities, e.g. websites. An extensive literature review carried out by Beldad, Jong and Steehouder (2010) suggested that the level of trust of an online service initiative (either commercial or non-commercial) depends on the quality of service, the technology used to delivery service and the organization behind the initiative.

Wang and Emurian (2005) described key characteristics of online trust as follows:

1. Trustor and Trustee: In an online context, the object of trust is an online entity (e.g. a website and its content) and its provider (an organisation). This means that users must trust not only a website, but also the providers behind the site. The feature makes the nature of online trust become even more complicated.

2. Vulnerability: Owing to the highly complicated online environment, it is harder to predict and control online providers’ behaviours. This characteristic makes users more vulnerable than offline situation. Two major risks (losing of money during the transactions and private data being misused) are considered serious and therefore, make online trust become more critical for successful user engagement.

3. Individual Matters: Online trust is influenced by an individual’s perception and attitudes towards the Internet and/or technology. However, the level of trust can be increased or decreased based on the experience and satisfaction of previous online interaction. Jøsang, Ismail and Boyd (2007) argued that, in the initial phase of online interaction, extrinsic trust factors (such as the reputation of the service provider and ease of navigation) can significantly increase or decrease the level of trust.

Service Design – The term is defined as “the design of intangible experiences that reach people through many different touch-points, and that happen over time” (Moggridge, 2006). According to Eckersley (2008) service developments involve design at three different levels: 1) strategic design planning (e.g. creating a business model for a new service), 2) design planning (e.g. developing ideas for new services) and 3) design implementation (e.g. turning service ideas into reality). Recent studies, such as the work of Sangiorgi (2010), argued that services should not be seen as an ‘end’ result, but could be considered as a ‘means’ for collaboration. This is because the production cannot be separated from the consumption. Both service providers and service users determine the outcome and the quality of the service. Hence, VYV has potential to facilitate better collaboration between citizens and local authorities. Nevertheless, problems regarding user engagement and trust must be overcome.

Trust & Service Design – In order to establish online trust, Dayal, Landesberg and Zeisser (2003) proposed the trust pyramid (see Figure 2), which comprises six key components: state of the art security, merchant legitimacy, fulfilment, tone and ambient, customer control and customer collaboration. Evidently, reliable security measures and brand reputation are required to create the initial trust. However, these components are considered basic building blocks and cannot be used to differentiate the site or establish a long-term relationship.

Arguably, service design has the potential to address all components in the trust pyramid. Good use of service design can satisfy/exceed user expectations; deliver an appealing appearance; allow users to personalize the site to suit their needs and abilities; and promote co-creation between the site and users. Moreover, service design can reduce negative experience and deliver positive experience (Saco and Goncalves, 2008), which could increase user trust in the long run. Long (2004) suggested that the process of trust building begins with visual indicators and is continually reinforced through behaviours. Thus, he proposed three key dimensions of trust in e-business, which are also applicable for other online entities (see Table 1). A similar idea was suggested by Petrovic, Fallenböck and Kittl (2003), as they noted that trust building components can be broadly divided into three groups: the quality of information, reputation and usability.

Table 1: Dimensions of trust in e-business

Trust Dimensions / Relevance to e-business
Appearance / Graphic design, information architecture, information design
Behaviour / Interface design
Reputation / Past experience, experience of others, expression of brand

Source: Long (2004)

Trust & Service Quality – According to Moritz (2005) services are intangible, complex experiences. Since the production and consumption happen at the same time, a service cannot be stored or owned. These distinctive characteristics make it difficult to control the overall quality, which in turn makes it hard to assure positive experience and trust. In this case, the service quality framework (SERVQUAL) proposed by Zelthaml, Parasuraman and Berry (1990), which was widely adopted in the service design community, was used as a basis for evaluating the service quality of existing feedback systems and investigating how design elements (e.g. layouts) might influence the perceived service quality from the user perspective. SERVQUAL provides a basis for many quality measurement models/tools, especially in the hospitality sector. The framework comprises five service dimensions:

1. Tangibles: Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communications materials

2. Reliability: Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately

3. Responsiveness: Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service

4. Assurance: Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence

5. Empathy: Caring, individualised attention the firm provides its customers

More recent concepts, such as the work of Stickdorn and Schneider (2013), also embraced similar components, namely (tangible) evidence and user-centred approach.

Trust & Public Sector – The understanding of relationships between trust and service design in the private sector appears to be more advanced than that in the public sector. Lipp (2003) observed that governmental sites are often perceived as “cold” and “impersonal” which make people feel like they being treated as a number that increases the resistance toward the systems. As a result, this research has an opportunity to bring about the better understanding of relationships between trust and service design in governmental sites, especially digital feedback platforms. This new knowledge could enhance trust as well as civic engagement.

6. METHODOLOGY

In order to properly investigate relationships between trust and service design, a mind map (Figure 3) was used to identify all key issues so that suitable research tools can be selected.

6.1. Case Studies

Purpose: This method was chosen to study good practice in the area of online services.

Criteria: Three service providers from both the private and public sectors were selected based on their outstanding performance of service delivery. The studies concentrated on how to establish trustworthiness through service design and how their principles/approaches could be applied to the digital feedback systems like the VYV. The three cases are:

· Birmingham Own Health (http://birminghamownhealth.co.uk) – This innovative service was designed to support people with long term medical conditions in Birmingham by offering one-to-one advice and support in several languages. This case was selected because it showed how good service design can enhance user experience and build trust not only in healthcare services, but also the NHS.