Service Design Tools | an open community gathering and sharing tools for design

www.servicedesigntools.org is a wonderfully detailed collection of resources suited to evaluating user contexts, for helping you adopt a `design attitude'. The resource is supported by an on-going project aimed at bridging education, academic research and professional practices.(https://servicedesigntools.org/about)

The following methods are listed on the service design tools site:

Brainstorming (a tool for: ideation)

Business model canvas (a tool for: implementation)

Concept walkthrough (a tool for: ideation, for prototyping)

Diary studies (a tool for: field research)
Diary studies: understanding long-term behavior and experiences NN/G
Observing the user experience: A practitioner’s guide to user research [Goodman et al., 2012]

Ecosystem map (a tool for: field research)
The product service ecology: using a systems approach in design [Forlizzi, 2013]
Designing Service Entanglements [Chung, 2015]

Emotional journey (a tool for: field research)
Enhancing the experience of the train journey [van Hagen and Bron, 2014]

Empathy map (a tool for: field research)
Designing personas with empathy map [Ferreira et al., 2015]

Evaluation matrix (a tool for: ideation)

Experience principles (a tool for: ideation)

Experience prototypes (a tool for: prototyping)

Hypothesis generation (a tool for: ideation)

Interview guide (a tool for: field research)
Why User Interviews Fail NN/G

Issue cards (a tool for: field research, for ideation)
Using card sorting technique to classify requirements change [Nurmuliani et al., 2004]
Card sorting: Designing usable categories [Spencer, 2009]

Journey mapping / customer journey (a tool for: field research)
Journey mapping 101 NN/G
Walking a mile in the user’s shoes [Marquez et al., 2015]
Using customer journey maps to improve customer experience [Richardson, 2010]
Mapping the customer journey [Temkin, 2010]

Mindmap (a tool for: ideation)

Observation notes (a tool for: field research)

Offering map (a tool for: implementation)

Personas (a tool for: field research)

Recruiting screener (a tool for: field research)

Research plan (a tool for: field research)

Role playing (a tool for: prototyping)

Rough prototyping (a tool for: prototyping)

Service blueprint (a tool for: implementation)

Service image (a tool for: prototyping)

Service prototype (a tool for: prototyping)

Service roadmap (a tool for: implementation)

Service specifications (a tool for: implementation)

Stakeholders map (a tool for: field research, for implementation)

Success metrics (a tool for: implementation)

Synthesis wall (a tool for: field research)

System map (a tool for: field research, for implementation)

Tomorrow's narratives (a tool for: ideation, for prototyping)

User scenarios (a tool for: prototyping, for implementation)

User stories (a tool for: prototyping)

Value proposition canvas (a tool for: implementation)

KS A ISO 13407:2005 Human Centred Design Process for Interactive Systems

The ISO 13407 is a guide for good (although not necessarily best) practice in user centred design. The current (as of 2020) version of this standard is KS A ISO 13407:2005 however the 1999 version is deemed equivalent.

The ISO 13407 proposes four principles of Human-Centred Design

• The active involvement of users.
• Shared function between system and user.
• Using iterations to evolve design solutions.
• Design involves multiple actors, specialism, disciplines.

An suggests four Human-Centred Design activities (a kind of process perspective)*

• Activities tuned to understand and describe the context of use.
• Describe user and organisational needs.
• Create multiple rough draft design possibilities (rather than one candidate design or than complete design solutions), and as many of these are refined, merged, evolved, for as long as possible during the design process as long the following step occurs in parallel... 
• Evaluate designs in the wild.

*caveat; in my opinion this section of the guide should be revised. It overuses the term `specify' which I interpret to be `describe'. Similarly it depends on the word `requirements', the very word which I think clouds the ideal of representing captured needs and goals versus formal specification statements which are often mistakenly believed to be design instructions. 

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How do UCD university students gain access to ISO standards?

Enter NSAI into the UCD Library OneSearch box to bring you to the i2i system (may have to select the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) National Standards Authority of Ireland Database).
i2i provides catalogue access for UCD Connect accounts.
Members of UCD will be able to search for and access standards publications from the ISO, EN and IS (e.g. http://eu.i2.saiglobal.com/management).

IDEO - Creative Confidence

Reimagining the Shopping Cart (ideo.com)

In what is now recognised as a seminal inside account of IDEO's design process ABC's Nightline broadcast this documentary video circa 1999. )
Search to view online - inside ideo abc nightline shopping cart - (the full video is around 22' long or posted in 7' parts).

Some key quotes from the video have become canon...

"The only thing that matters in software is the experience of the user"
"It's impossible that the boss is going to be the one who has had the insightful experience!"
"Trying stuff and asking forgiveness instead of asking permission"
"Fail often in order to succeed sooner"

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The Kelley brothers of IDEO have also published on their approach
Creative Confidence

"Too often, companies and individuals assume that creativity and innovation are the domain of the “creative types... each and every one of us is creative."

http://www.creativeconfidence.com

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Some questions:

• What is focused chaos?
• Is this a sane way of working?
• Is management control necessary? If so why? What forms of control are present here? When is control present? Who controls the process?
• What problems do you foresee with this kind of organising?
• If watching this video for the third or fourth time - try to notice the features that didn't belong in typical 1990s workplaces? Features that may be mainstream in today's high-tech workplaces.
• If you wanted to introduce this style of working into your own organisation: how would you justify it? how would you try to implement it?

Are you interested in what product designers actually do in a shared project workspace? Have a look at this time-lapse video of a week in 2 minutes (link).

ICF - assessing environmental factors impacting disability

WHO ICF International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health is a framework for describing a person's individual functioning profile.

ICF is the WHO framework for measuring health and disability at both individual and population levels. ICF was officially endorsed by all 191 WHO Member States in the Fifty-fourth World Health Assembly on 22 May 2001(resolution WHA 54.21) as the international standard to describe and measure health and disability. (link)

Environmental Factors are of relevance for this class. Environmental factors cover:

• Products and Technology
• Natural Environment and Human-Made Changes to Environment 
• Support and Relationships 
• Attitudes 
• Services, Systems and Policies 

Identify issues and recommend changes in the design of these environmental factors coupled if necessary with policy development (legislative and regulatory). To make environmental changes or adaptations that act to support the individual.

The GV Sprint Process

Practical Skills for Intensive Problem Solving Exploration

The Sprint process involves a progressive shift of attention, from learning about a challenge defined by people, to learning how people respond to a design prototype that tries to re-solve that challenge. The process is bracketed into 5 workshop sessions. The suggested structure and techniques are focused on how to manage time, space and people over the duration; techniques for decisions, organising, coordinating.

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• Session 1: Imagine the goal (sprint) - Make a map and choose a target
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Set the long-term goal
• List sprint questions
• Map the As-Is Customer Journey
• Ask the Experts
• HMW How Might We...
• Organising Notes
• Why Why Why?
• ABC Always Be Capturing
• Pick a Target Decide
• Session 2: Explore many possibilities (sprint) - Sketch competing solutions
• Lightning demos (three minute demos)
• Work Alone Together Research
• Divide, Swarm
• The Four-Step Sketch
• Crazy 8s
• Session 3: Decide the design (sprint) - Decide on the best
• Art Museum
• Speed Critique
• Heat Map Dots to Focus on Interesting
• Straw Poll Dots for Voting
• Supervote Dots
• Rumble or All-in-One
• Note-and-Vote
• Storyboard
• Session 4: Build, make, tinker, learn (sprint) - Build a realistic prototype
• Fake It
• Paper Prototype
• Wizard of Oz
• Trial Run
• Interview Script
• Session 5: Test, observe, evaluate our prototype (sprint)- test with target customers
• Makeshift Research Lab
• Magic 5
• The Five-Act Interview
• Watch Together Learn Together

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Where did the GV Sprint come from?

The shift to agile - typically cast as scrum, lean, kanban and others - started in fact at the end of the 90s when extreme programming lit up software engineering discussions with the provocative mix of passion and principles presented by its creator, Kent Beck. Extreme programming provoked diverse and intense responses in its audience. From radical fervour to cynical skeptism it ignited discussions about how software is and should be designed, how programmers were and should be treated, how to treat each other and others more indirectly involved in digital production.

The GV Sprint method [Knapp et al., 2016] represents how far agile has spread beyond software engineering. The agile sprint has become a staple of venture capital driven product incubators. Organisations are experimenting with sprint style workshops for accelerated product ideation and prototyping in a 5 day workshop format. Teams generate and select ideas to further create and develop, from concepts to prototype level using storyboards, mock‐ups, paper prototyping or using digital platforms of their choice.

It is apparent that design management, product engineering, software engineering and management more broadly are mutually informing and intricately interrelated. We have observed the business world appropriate software engineering's shift to practice emphasis and experiential management. We have seen software engineering borrow design paradigms from architecture [Alexander, 1964] and product design [Kelley and Kelley, 2013]. The mutual connections between design sprints, agile software sprints and venturing sprints [Knapp et al., 2016] is obvious. More so now that digital has become integral to so much of the designed physical material world.
(https://www.invisionapp.com/blog/design-sprints-agile-dev/)

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Source: [Knapp et al., 2016]

Alexander, C. (1964). Notes on the Synthesis of Form. Harvard University Press, Cam- bridge, Massachusetts.

Kelley, D. and Kelley, T. (2013). Creative Confidence : Unleashing the Creative Potential within Us All. HarperCollins Publishers.

Knapp, J., Zeratsky, J., and Kowitz, B. (2016). Sprint : How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days. Simon and Schuster.

Tomato Timer - the keep sprints on track

To help keep group activities on track and synchronised with each other consider using the Tomato Timer. https://tomato-timer.com/

Also see https://www.timetimer.eu/ referred in Knapp et al. [2016] to as an elegant visual timer, a `time remaining' clock, useful for groups and visual learners.

Technology as the dancing bear...

That good design is integral to physical product and service construction is obvious. That good design is also integral to software and digital production is also (we hope) a given. Yet what do you get when you cross a computer with a camera? When you cross a computer with an alarm clock, with a bank, with a car, with a warship, with an airplane?

In pondering these riddles for the information age Alan Cooper (the software designer responsible for Visual Basic) made the case that much of our software design is `design by accident' [Cooper, 2004] . Many of the designs we encounter in the world amaze us simply because they work. Cooper calls these products dancing bears. The dancing bear was a fairground entertainment from the middle ages in which a tame bear would stand and perform a lumbering dance to music. The dancing bear is amazing not because it is a good dancer, the wonder is that it can at all. In the same way, much of the designed world holds us in its thrall simply because things work rather than works well.

References

Cooper, A. (2004). The Inmates are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity. Sams, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.

The Universal Design Grand Challenge 2020

The Centre for Excellence in Universal Design

An invitation to enter the 2020 competition hosted by the NDA (National Disability Authority).

With a prize fund of €5,000, with one project to be selected by Enterprise Ireland to access a €15,000 Commercialisation Fund. Students who make it to the finals will have access to expert pitch training to teach them how to present their designs professionally.

Entering is quick, simple and free. The student completes their contact details, nominates their lecturer as referee, answers 3 questions about their design and uploads drawings or visuals to support the application. That’s it!

Discover more about the competition here <http://universaldesign.ie/Awards/Student-Awards/> and apply on: <https://universaldesign.awardsplatform.com/>


We know from experience that students who learn Universal Design <http://universaldesign.ie/What-is-Universal-Design/> at an early stage in their careers go on to design environments, products, services and technology that work for everyone in society. Their designs are useful and marketable to any group of users. In effect, incorporating Universal Design into their work makes them better designers. Taking part in the Universal Design Grand Challenge is a great way to help students bring the 7 Principles of Universal Design <http://universaldesign.ie/What-is-Universal-Design/The-7-Principles/> to life in their work.

Will you encourage your students to enter the 2020 competition? We would really appreciate it and remember, the team at the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design are here to support all the way. Any questions, just give me a call or drop me a line – I’d be happy to help!

2019 Student Awards. Pictured above with UrTake Team members Aaron McLoughlin Sutherland, Cónall Lane, Ashling Kearney and Laura Lardner winners of the Peoples Choice Award, is Keynote speaker Peter Crowley, Architect and Director of PAC Studio, Architecture & Environments, Dublin. (source: http://universaldesign.ie/)

Avalanche Rescue? There's NOT an app for that...

How to survive an avalanche? Don't get into one.

Interview with Jill Fredston

(Eptstein, 2021)

Illustration by Slate Magazine 2021

https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/04/how-to-survive-an-avalanche-tips-from-expert-jill-fredston.html

The Canadian Avalanche Centre "Avalanche Canada" gear recommendation:  https://www.avalanche.ca/gear

The BCA Tracker2 Avalanche Transceiver on epictv.com

"The Tracker2 avalanche transceiver is used to quickly locate avalanche victims and is required equipment for ski touring and backcountry skiing. The Tracker 2 is one of the fastest and most precise pinpointing transceivers on the market. It features triple receive antenna, instantaneous real-time display, and the same easy-to-use interface as the Tracker DTS. A mechanical search/transmit switch is super intuitive making it easy to use right “out of the box.” Includes multiple burial indicator lights and Special Mode.

Galileo-LawinenFon turns a smartphone into an avalanche transceiver (2014 link).

"(in 2013...) the Canadian Avalanche Centre (CAC) issued a warning about the dangers of relying on smartphone apps that were being marketed as economical alternatives to avalanche transceivers. But a new smartphone app and add-on hardware component could provide an alternative that is not only cheaper than dedicated avalanche transceivers, but also provides additional functionality.

On misguided attempts to replace avalanche rescue beacons with one of a growing number of smartphone apps (2013, link).

"Some people may be tempted to save a couple hundred dollars on an avalanche beacon and opt for one of several apps on the market. The Canadian Avalanche Centre does not recommend using these apps for actual avalanche incidents, however. It assessed three European apps – iSis Intelligent (Mountain) Rescue System, Snøg Avalanche Buddy and SnoWhere – before coming to the conclusion that they are unreliable and promote a false sense of security.

Avalanche airbags now offer wireless remote activation (2010, link).

"ABS has introduced a world-first - a remote, networked electronic system which allows airbag inflation to be triggered by other members of a skiing party, allowing them to help each other in an emergency.

This tracking system promises faster help for avalanche victims (2007, link).

"A new positioning system which will use Galileo, the future European global positioning satellite system, may prove to be a life saver for avalanche victims.

Notice: Class recordings, photos, videos

Class presentations, exercises, activities etc. may be recorded and published for social posts, videos etc. Inform me in class if you do not wish to be included and we will try to accommodate your request.