On the design of services.
“I started thinking about services. We all know about product design, we all know how to do it, so therefore it’s boring to me. I mean, most people still do it wrong, but it’s boring because we know how to do it. Services, we don’t really know much about.”
* Takeaway point - the importance of feedback in service:
“If you actually look at what’s going on in the hospital it’s actually not a bad example of these principles that should apply to any service. No information, no feedback. The thing that really frustrates people more than anything else is uncertainty. Not understanding what is going on. You’re waiting in the waiting room; you don’t know how long you’re going to have to wait. You’re in a hospital bed and all these people come in. Suddenly someone comes in and pokes you. Makes you take some medicine. A physician with five people trailing behind comes to look at you and what do they want? When am I going to get my medication. What is this? Why are you doing this? If you could only keep people informed, it would be really interesting.”
* Takeaway point - what is good/desired service to one person at one point of time may not be good/desired service at another point in time. E.g. a very high level of personal service in a hotel when all the guest wants to do is check his email and go to bed. How do we manage this?
“One of the things that’s different is that products tend to be static. Even in the interaction design courses it’s kind of static. A little bit of interaction. Whereas in services it’s really experiences. It’s not like the Experience Economy, all great theatrical shows. Even using an ATM machine is kind of an experience; when it goes well. And the proper modeling for that is not a sketch or a physical prototype; it’s a storyboard. What you want to do is show the time course, so it’s a storyboard or a little video. And we actually don’t know good prototyping schemes for things that involve time. Because it’s easy to make a foam mockup, but it’s hard to make something that shows the interactions of people. A storyboard is probably the best, or a video. But those are instances. It’s an interesting challenge.”
