What is Service Design?

Everyday millions of people are using services provided by different businesses. Some of these services are intangible such as banking, education, transportation, and consulting and some services are related to direct ownership transfer of goods such as grocery stores, retail stores, and car dealers. In every business, despite of the kind of product and/or service provided, customer service plays a very important role. Customer satisfaction is very important factor in growth of a business and determines its future. Therefore, it is important to understand what are the elements, which provides pleasant experience for customers. This good experience will be the reason for them to remember the business, recommend it to others, and eventually make them revisit. Here is where Service design comes in.

Service design is a young field, which is basically the knowledge behind providing a great experience to customer while using any kind of service. Service Design is a mixture of science and design; psychology, statistics, graphic design and many more specialties are demanded to create an innovative and unique experience that makes sense for customers. In other word, analytics from science and creativity of design is both required to get to practicality. Service Design is not only beneficial for the customers but also has great impact on the profitability of the business.  A successful services design meets the needs of the customers and a good experience will make the customers to return to the same brand or place. Also, with providing solutions, service design will increase the profitability of the brand and redefine the brand reputation with providing usable efficient and also desirable experience.

Here is a short interview with Birgit Mager President for Service Design Network. She is explaining the basics of service design.

http://www.service-design-network.org/intro/

http://www.servicesciencefactory.com/

Frozen

Last November Disney released Frozen, an animated movie, which gained an International success. In the first anniversary of its release let’s discuss how an animated movie was able to gain such a success.  What was different about Frozen, which made a fortune for the Disney? According to the International Business Times “Disney Movie 'Frozen' Hits $1,072 Billion Revenue; Now the Highest-Grossing Animated Movie of All Time.” Beside the official statistics, the fact that the movie and its characters are very popular especially among kids was very obvious while celebrating Halloween. Almost half of the kids Halloween costume section was Princess Anna or Princess Elsa. In YouTube a quick search will generate dozens of videos of kids singing the main theme song “Let it Go.”

All Disney movies gained some sort of popularity in the release time and stayed popular for many yeas after. But the impeccable success for Frozen has to have reasons. The researches done about the subject reveled that most kids especially girls loved the fact that the main characters being Anna and Elsa were strong characters. Despite other Disney movies, the Princesses were not helpless weak characters waiting for a Prince to save them; they were fighting for their destiny.Also, “the true love” which was mostly an act of love among boys and girls, in Frozen was changed to “the act of true love” which was the sacrifice made for the sibling.

Another aspect that made the movie interesting was the element of surprise. In almost all Disney movies the Prince is the savior but in Frozen the Prince was fake and evil. This is not a common aspect that had been witnessed in Disney stories and it made the story interesting. Another element of surprise is the Elsa with her magical power, which despite of other Disney characters is the good character of the story.

But mostly the worldwide popularity of the movie Frozen is hidden in the Elsa’s character development. According to the article posted in The New Yorker by Maria Konnikova, Elsa’s magical power and the fact that she was not able to control it, made her a Princess with flaw, something we never saw in Disney stories. Elsa is different from others and she cannot do anything to change it. She cannot change how she is and it is making her alone and depressed because she is not trying to find a solution for it. She is hiding from others because what she is. A lot of people can relate to Elsa because of their religious beliefs, sexual orientation, cultural differences, or even family and life situations. The relatable character of Elsa causes people in different age groups with diverse background to understand her and connect with her. The happy ending in the story can create hope for people who feel alone and helpless like Elsa.

http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/how-frozen-took-over-the-world

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/545817/20140331/frozen-top-10-highest-grossing-animated-movie.htm#.VGlI3lyibwI

A Cup of Coffee

Most people start their day with a cup of coffee, which they buy or make. When the coffee is made at home, the kind of coffee maker used is an important choice to make. Some people prefer simple traditional coffee makers. On the other hand some people prefer the complicated machines to make latte and mocha. The choice that people make about what kind of machine to buy is mostly based on the practicality of the machine, the price, and what is the usage they seek from that machine. Single cup coffee makers are one of the hottest markets in United Sates these days. Keurig coffee makers as the leader in the single cup coffee making industry is a very practical and economically reasonable, and easy to use machine.

People who own Keurig coffee maker are happy and satisfied with their machine because of its unique design. The design of the product enables the owners to be able to have different variety of coffee to offer to their guests and enjoy themself without the headaches of cleaning the machine, and wasting lots of time making the coffee. The huge variety of the tastes in k-cups is an important advantage for the machine. The fact that the coffee is ready in less than 5 minutes is another important fact in today’s fast paced life. Using Keurig machines and k-cups eliminates any wastes because the user makes one cup at a time. At the end there is no need to wash or clean any parts of the machine. So basically, pour some water in the tank, put the k-cup in the place, push the button, and wait for 2 minutes, and your coffee is ready. Never in life making coffee was this easy and quick.

To improve the machine, the water tank can be redesigned to hold just enough water for the amount of coffee desired. In current design, the tank should be filed with a certain amount of water despite of how much coffee is desired. This water requirement can cause old water issue and make the user to wash the tank and change the water occasionally if they do not use the machine very often.

http://www.keurig.com

Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv

Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv is the design firm responsible for many of the world’s most recognizable trademarks. The firm has been pioneering the modern design movement since 1958. The New York based firm is famous globally, with projects in all over United States and world. The company name is based on the names of founding partners, designers Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar, and partner and designer Sagi Haviv. Here we will study some of their designed marks.

Showtime cable network had 3 different logos during 1970 to 1997 period. In 1997, the Showtime channels new logo designed by Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, was introduced. It is featuring the text "SHO" in negative space on a red circle with putting “SHO” into spotlight. After that the SHO became a separate mark and started to being used in newspapers and as Showtime’s on-air channel identification.

Mobil had 4 logos before the current logo, which has been designed by the firm in 1964. The red winged horse is removed from the logo but is being used separately on equipment, vehicles, and buildings. Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv in their website explains that “the idea of the red O came about partly to reinforce a design concept to use circular canopies, pumps, and display elements for a distinctive and attractive look.” Also, the red O helps the viewer to pronounce the name correctly as Mo-bil, not Mo-bile.

One of the most interesting marks designed by the firm is the Chase bank’s logo, which was introduced in 1961.It can be argued that this logo was one of the first abstract symbols used for identification of an American corporation. The company used this opportunity to facilitate the symbol to reflect the banks innovative and growing presence. But the designer used the idea of the blue octagon because of the history of the company. According to The Story Behind The Chase Bank Logo by Jamie Wayne, “the blue octagon means the cross section of a wooden water pipe that represented the Manhattan Company when they were a water supply company before they were a banking company.”

http://www.cgstudionyc.com

http://jamiewayne.com/2011/10/23/lxxxv-the-story-behind-the-chase-bank-logo/

The Faucet!

There is a specific hardware in every building that people use very often every day. People use this specific hardware in work place, at school, and at home. This hardware is faucet! For a part frequently used such as a faucet, it should have a think through, practical, and beautiful design. But unfortunately most of the faucets in market don’t have all the characteristics above; some of them have a very beautiful design but they are not practical, and some are not thought through. Even in hotels and restaurants there are some faucets which are not appropriately designed. 

There is a very common flaw in most faucet designs, which is the shape and length of the spout of the faucet. The spout is either too long or too short which in both cases creates unpleasant experience. When the spout is very long and high, the water is splashing when hitting the sink and causes a mess around the sink. Most of the time it splashes in the cloths of the person washing her/his hand.  The picture number one is a photo taken in a common bathroom in Sheraton Hotel in Pomona when they were hosting a conference. The water was splashing on the cloths of the attendees who were dressed professionally. On the other hand, when the spout is very short, your hand is touching the sink while washing, which is not sanitary. Most of the faucets in Cal State University bathrooms are like that.

The second most common flaw is the usage of the motion sensor which when triggered provides water for a certain amount of time. The sensitivity of the sensor is a very important aspect. It needs to be sensitive enough to start working when desired but do not start when someone is just walking by!  Also, the time programmed to provide water is a very important. Sometimes, this time frame is too short that people need to wave their hand several times to complete the hand washing process. And in other cases the water is still running when you are leaving the bathroom.

Overall, the design of a faucet needs to be thought trough. Just a beautiful design is not enough for a practical piece in people’s everyday life.

 http://www.signaturehardware.com/bathroom/bathroom-sink-faucets.html

Utility box or beautiful paintings

Sometimes designing a concept, an idea, and a movement is more valuable than the actual implementation.  To participate in the Big Draw LA event, Glendale City Library came up with a very innovative idea; “Beyond the Box” project, to create murals on utility boxes all over the city. The project was successful and it added visual interest to the city. According to the Library website the purpose was to “encourage community pride and beautify the neighborhood.”

The “Beyond the Box” project, sponsored by Glendale’s Arts and Culture Commission, has called on artists across Glendale, Montrose and Los Angeles to submit their proposals for designs. Eighty-three artists submitted their designs to the committee and from those, eleven has been chosen according to the announced criteria: artistic excellence and originality, creative concepts and appropriateness. Twenty-six utility boxes were painted on May 17, 2014 all over Glendale and for the second phase they are going to beautify Montrose.

The design of each box is unique in its own way. Some of them are reference to movies, like “City of art” with John Wayne’s portrait on it; some are more abstract like “fragile water” and some have calligraphic elements on it. The variation of the designs makes the project even more attractive and it definitely helped to the city’s beautification.

http://www.glendaleca.gov/government/departments/library-arts-culture/arts-culture-commission/beyond-the-box-utility-box-murals#ad-image-7

http://www.glendalenewspress.com/news/tn-gnp-citywide-artwork-utilizes-form-and-function-20140521,0,1511796.story

http://www.glendalenewspress.com/news/tn-gnp-beautification-arts-events-expand-beyond-the-box-20141016,0,7578885.story