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Design for services

When released, this publication was the third book internationally in the Service Design field, and the first one to provide a rigorous reflection and interpretation of the role of the Design discipline for the service sector. Design for services is a young discipline where research and theory appear to be still weak and dispersed. A growing number of universities and professionals are starting to invest in this area with no foundation books and no clear agreement on its nature and definition.

Given the limited body of knowledge in this area, the authors (active in the field since its foundation) chose to use 17 design and research case studies as a main source of data to map the area, adopting a phenomenological and grounded theory approach to the generation of an interpretation of the field. The clustering and interpretation of the design roles and areas of application that emerged from the thematic analysis of these projects lead to the generation of a visual map and a theoretical framework able to orient and position current and future studies and research.

Also Design for Services was disconnected from the ongoing international service research studies and the growing service science community. This publication has provided a first contribution to theoretically ground and connect Design for Services to relevant knowledge on service research and innovation, which led to further research work and initiatives (http://www.servicedesignresearch.com/uk and http://www.servdes.org/servdes-2014) that are supporting its growth, relevance, visibility and interdisciplinary collaborations.