What is service design?

Services

Before we look at service design, it might be appropriate to first define what a service is.

Within the council, when we talk about Services (with a capital S), we are often referring to specific parts of the organisation structure, but it is not the same. In the context of service design:

A service is something that helps someone do something
Lou Downe

The ‘something’ can be short and simple, or long and complicated. You may think about them as journeys, or as a process or sequence of interconnected processes, delivered by a small team, many teams or even organisations. From the user’s perspective, it is simply one continuous set of actions even though there are many parts to it. Services have clear beginnings and ends.

The key point of a service is that it helps the user to achieve a goal.

In service design there is an awful lot of talk about services, but you may be surprised to find it’s very difficult to describe what a service is! A lot depends upon the nature of the people providing the service, what it actually does and who uses it. A service in one industry may not be the same in another.

Another way to think about it is:

A service is something which gets done.
A product is an object which is delivered as part of the service process.

It may be better to try and answer this question using examples/scenarios.

Product	Services
A hotel room for an overnight stay.	Booking the hotel room. Checking in. Opening the bedroom door. Having a clean and tidy room. Having an evening meal. Having a night’s sleep without external interruptions. Checking out and paying the bill.
A bank account.	Opening the bank account. Adding money to the account. Interest added to the account. Withdrawing money from the account. Closing the account.
A meal at a restaurant.	Arriving and your reservation is still booked. Being shown to your table. Table laid out with clean cutlery, etc. Ordering your food and drinks. Correct food delivered to your table. Food cooked to your requirements. Staff available when needed. Dirty dishes removed when finished. Receiving and paying the bill.
A new job.	Seeing the job advert. Applying for the job. Having an interview. Being offered the job. Accepting the job offer. Being sent the contract. Accepting the contract. Beginning the new job.

Service design

Service design aims to make user journeys through services as easy and seamless as possible. The Scottish Approach to Service Design, and by extension our own, is built around the Design Council’s Double Diamond model.

You should learn more about the Double Diamond model because it’s an integral part in undertaking any service design activity.

Additional information

Design Council. (2019) Home page. Available at: designcouncil.org.uk (Accessed: 13 December 2023).
Down, L. (2020) Good Services: How to design services that work. BIS Publishers. ISBN: 978-9063695439.
Scottish Government. (2019) The Scottish Approach to Service Design (SAtSD). Available at: gov.scot (Accessed: 13 December 2023).