Service Design working group as general focuses on education, teaching, research and learning in the area of service design. As more designers work in areas where a service perspective is dominant, new demands on knowledge, skills and attitudes are being forefronted. As relational perspectives become more important to design, culture and design can strengthen each other across old borders. While this invitation uses terms like ‘service design’, which may assume a prefigured field, this working group is also open to other understandings of what ‘service’ and ‘design’ might mean when framed from another culture or practice. Exercising diversity is one aim of this group so we may respectfully connect and share in our encounters.
Often service design solutions apply different technologies or technological solutions that even can be emerging and novel. Emerging technologies can be seen as radical, they provide fast growth, coherence, impact, but also uncertainty and ambiguity (Palo & Tähtinen, 2011). Technologies often have an operational role if we think of service blueprints and the touch points or service design materials that are being designed in a journey. Some examples could be the use of an automated banking service where a robot answers the phone instead of a person. These kinds of services already take place, but they are still quite rudimentary on how they can aid people, but have much potential. The use of robots, ai, emerging technologies in general can be shaping new business models and have a strategic role on new innovative services. Still the users needs are the core, but the needs are being fulfilled with new novel ways.
In this working group we as working groups chairs with other service design professionals of different universities wish to present practical cases where technologies or emerging technologies have been applied to create new services. The cases will also reflect on how the design services and the use of technologies can bring more well-being to the people, society or planet?