81533 Service Design Foundations
Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a
particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.
Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
Description
Services are interactions between people who need help making a change and others who are prepared to help them. Service Designers help both the people needing help and the people providing the help to be more prepared for those interactions by making those interactions more routine, but also by anticipating non-routine events that may occur during those interactions. Though service designers use different material design practices to routinize services – communication design, product design, interior design, even fashion design – service design is different from other kinds of design because it involves the more direct designing of people, and not just contracted employees, but also unpaid customers, or community-members engaging in peer-to-peer interactions. This subject will teach you how to approach Service Designing from that foundation: that services are value-creating interactions between people, which means that they are always highly political. The first third of the subject examines the history of services and the rise of the service economy, extracting design principles that should inform more careful designing of services. The second third of the subject critically reviews key tools used in service designing today. And the final third of the subject works through issues associated with the management of services.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
| 1. | Clearly describe the history of services and the more recent history of the service economy as the backdrop for the rise of the practice of Service Design |
|---|---|
| 2. | Understand the limits of, by modifying the use of, commonly used Service Design tools such as Service Blueprints and Customer Journeys |
| 3. | Demonstrate a familiarity with the language of the management of services and service workers and customer relations |
| 4. | Critically evaluate a service, on the basis of interviews and observations, in terms of the dignified co-creation of value. |
| 5. | Translate the service design principles values of maximising autonomy and minimising role stress for all involved in a service interaction to a wide range of service contexts |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes to the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes:
- actively engage with professionals to continuously learn from and contribute to the evolving body of knowledge of social and service design (A.2)
- articulate ideas simply, succinctly and persuasively to a diverse group of stakeholders or audience (C.3)
- develop and evaluate different perspectives on problem situations that open up new directions for solutions (I.1)
- reflect on the problem solving and innovation practice of own organisation and indicate the position of the practice within the broader service innovation landscape (P.1)
- recognise the nature of open, complex, dynamic and networked problems to be able to identify problem situations that require a design-based innovation approach (R.1)
- conduct research to develop a deep understanding of problem situations and the needs, interests and values of multiple stakeholders (R.2)
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
The term CAPRI is used for the five Design, Architecture and Building faculty graduate attribute categories where:
C = communication and groupwork
A = attitudes and values
P = practical and professional
R = research and critique
I = innovation and creativity.
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs) are linked to these categories using codes (e.g. C-1, A-3, P-4, etc.).
Teaching and learning strategies
The subject is structured as a seminar with applied research exercises. You will be discussing readings and listening to lectures on a range of Service Design concepts, and the evaluating their validity by observing services you engage with, and developing insights into other ways in which services can be designed. As a result of participating in this subject, you will be develop more sophisticated ways of designing services that ensure the dignity of both those who need help and those prepared to help them.
In addition, students will need to complete guided research into live services that they can access.
The subject assessments involve writing up case studies of research into services that exemplify the concepts examined in the modules. Evaluation and feedback on submitted tasks will be provided through the ReView system following self-evaluations by the students.
Content (topics)
Module 1: The Histories and Cultures of Being in Service
1a: Premodern: Slavery, Servants, Artisans
1b: Modern: Class, Professionals, Military Service, Social Service
1c: Postmodern: Postindustrialism, Experience Economy, Servicization, Self-Service
1d: Current Futures: Gig Economy, Algorithmic Anticipation
Module 2: The Design Aspect of Service Design
2a: The Service Design Professional Practice: Service Engineering, Management & Marketing
2b: Service as Theatre: Servicescapes, Service Scripts, Personas, Aesthetic Labour
2c: Breaking the Efficiency/Customization Trade-off: Unsourcing, Service Dominant Logic
2d: Coordination of Promises: Language Action Performatives, Anticipating Failure
Module 3: The Politics of Service Designing
3a: Emotional Labour: Relational Services, Role Stress, Care work
3b: Social Support: Third Place, Privately Owned Public Space, Commercial Friendships
3c: Reputation Economy: Commons Management, Peer-to-Peer Platforms, Trust
3d: Smart Genders: Conversational User Interface, Surveillance Capitalism, Domestic Robots
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Service Design Guidebook Draft
| Intent: | To delevop an applied understanding of foundational concepts of Service Design, by researching exsiting services and their impact on providers and recipients. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 1, 2, 3 and 5 This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.): A.2, C.3, I.1 and R.2 |
| Type: | Report |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 35% |
| Length: | 1000 words or multimodal equivalent |
Assessment task 2: Service Design Guidebook Final
| Intent: | To create a service guidebook that includes a critical evaluation of a service, in terms of the diginified co-creation of value and the themes and ideas covered in this course. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 2, 3 and 4 This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.): C.3, P.1 and R.1 |
| Type: | Report |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 65% |
| Length: | 1000 words or multimodal equivalent |
Minimum requirements
The DAB attendance policy requires students to attend no less than 80% of formal teaching sessions (lectures and tutorials) for each class they are enrolled in to remain eligible for assessment.
Required texts
Readings will be available from the Library through Canvas
Recommended texts
Downe, Lou. Good Services: How to design services that work. BIS Publishers, 2020.
McKercher, K.A. Beyond sticky notes: Doing co-design for Real: Mindsets, Methods, and Movements, 1st Edn. Sydney, NSW: Beyond Sticky Notes, 2020.
Penin, Lara. An introduction to service design: designing the invisible. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.