Explain the concept of service design in the UX context.
Service design refers to the design of services both at the level of the structures and products required for this purpose and at the level of the business processes that are a prerequisite for the service offering. An established definition of service design is “design for experiences that happen over time and across different touchpoints”
While UX design is concerned with the quality of experience of a product or service, service design explicitly includes the business model and internal organization of a company in its focus.
What is a service?
A service in itself is an immaterial process supported and enabled by material structures – be it the retail store, where a service employee is available for a conversation, or the software code of a service app running on a cell phone
What is service design?
Service design deals with services as design entities. This means that the focus of consideration is on human activities involving physical objects and contact with other people.
What is the difference between UX and Service Design?
The differences between UX and service design lie, on the one hand, in the design level: UX can, but does not have to, take place at the same level as service design. UX design can be more small-scale and thus be part of an improvement in the service design of a company. Ideally, it also deals with the context of a product and its role, for example, as a touchpoint in a service.
In service design, however, the service (or the entire service offering of a provider), by definition, is the object of the redesign. Service design is oriented toward the activities of users and customers and treats the physical artifacts that are a prerequisite for the service as part of this activity
What are some of the drawbacks of UX design in Agile processes?
The fast pace of work in agile processes can also lead to UX designers being under high time pressure to deliver results and have little opportunity to elaborate parts of the user interface adequately. Also, an agile process does not provide for an extensive user analysis, which is an important working basis for many UX processes to adapt the design of a product or service to the expectations of the later user.
What are time-shifted sprints?
It is when the UX designers are one sprint ahead of the developers and work on the templates that are to be implemented in the next development sprint. This model is intended to enable the UX designers to prepare the necessary components of the user interface for the software developersʼ sprints and to test the usability of the components already implemented.
What is design thinking?
An innovation approach and process that focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration, creative problem solving, and practical implementationit is often associated with the Stanford school, which propagated the term early on.
How would you describe User Experience Management?
UX management comprises the sum of all management tasks that enable the systematic integration of user experience in a company or organization through changes in the areas of personnel, processes, and corporate culture and continuously optimize associated framework conditions.
What factors indicate UX maturity in a company?
The levels at which UX management takes place is an indication of the UX maturity of a company. This can be assessed, among other things, by characteristics such as the budget, the employees who work on UX full-time, the quantity and organization of UX teams, the involvement of users, the number of methods, the systematic survey of UX, and the extent of further training.
What are Weichart’s six levels of UX integration maturity?
- No UX awareness. At this stage, user experience design is not considered by a company to be relevant to the companyʼs success. There is no engagement with the current and potential users of the companyʼs own products.
- Ad hoc UX. Here, there is already an awareness of the value of user experience design. However, the topic is approached unsystematically; methods are selected instead of random. Individuals involved with UX have limited resources and have neither additional time nor their budget for UX topics. Separate UX management does not yet exist.
- Project-based UX. At this maturity level, user experience design takes place at the project level but represents a separate additional step that often only occurs at the end of the development process and thus remains superficial. Here, user experience is only added to the testing of developed products, which means that product optimization is no longer possible.
- Managed UX. This maturity level is characterized by the fact that a UX manager exists in the company, and thus, a cross-departmental view of user experience design is possible. This establishes a link between UX and corporate strategy, but it remains inconsistent. Nevertheless, UX is often still consulted in the later phases of projects and, for evaluation.
- Integrated UX. Here, user experience design is used in all project phases but is still carried out by a centrally working UX team because not all company divisions have built up their own expertise. The user orientation is already established at this maturity level, and various prototyping techniques are used in the projects. However, the interdepartmental exchange is still expandable, and the business strategy is not yet linked to a UX vision.
- Institutionalized UX. This maturity level represents the ideal state of integration of user experience design in a company. Here, UX is so firmly anchored in the corporate culture that it no longer needs to be mentioned separately. Competencies in dealing with UX are established in all subareas.
What is Customer Experience Management (CEM)?
Customer experience management (CEM) is the term used to describe a customer-focused, interdisciplinary, and integrative management approach that aims to increase the quality of customer experiences with a companyʼs products and services by focusing on the customer perspective.
What is ‘Silo Thinking’?
The tendency to retreat to responsibility within the departments of a company is often referred to as “silo thinking.”
Explain ‘Touchpoint Management’
Touchpoint management is about analyzing the contact points of customers with a company and optimizing them both in terms of customer satisfaction and with regard to employee satisfaction and corporate structure.
What is the IMPACT method for assessing touchpoints?
- Ignore. This is a fundamental decision as to whether a touchpoint is relevant to the company and customers at all or whether resources can be saved here.
- Monitor. Every touchpoint that is relevant for the company should at least be monitored, e.g., in the form of data collection and analysis.
- Participate. For important touchpoints that are not operated by the company itself, such as blogs or forums, it is possible to follow the activities via participation.
- Activate. If specific customer needs for exchanges with the company are not satisfied by other platforms, it is advisable to create a separate platform for this purpose.
- Control. This is the complete and active control of a touchpoint from the enterprise side, such as switchboards, stores, or salespeople. This is also the most resource intensive way to handle a touchpoint. (Think Apple Store)
What are the methods (systems / models) used to create a quantitative analysis of touchpoints?
- NPS: This simply consists of asking whether a customer is likely to recommend a company and its services to others. The informative value of the NPS is controversial, with the main criticism being that the willingness to recommend is only loosely related to positive customer experiences. However, it is quick to perform and easy to calculate.
- Kano model: This is based on a questionnaire that surveys customer expectations of certain product or service features and their perception of performance in relation to these features. In this way, it is possible to differentiate which features are perceived as self-evident or annoying and which features evoke enthusiasm. However, the enthusiasm effect of features also diminishes over time.
- CES: This takes the customerʼs effort as a meaningful characteristic in order to derive forecasts for customer behavior. This is measured using response scales and is intended to provide better forecasts than the CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) or NPS method.
- Customer Engagement: This establishes a connection between customer enthusiasm and loyalty. Customer engagement is determined by the two key components advocacy and involvement, which are derived from customer behavior, i.e., not from surveys.
- TRIM model (three Ms: measure, do, share): This uses two questions on performance and preference to determine how satisfied and loyal customers are. Based on these two criteria, customers can be divided into four groups (satisfied and loyal, satisfied and disloyal, dissatisfied and loyal, dissatisfied and disloyal).
Unit 6 Summary:
User experience design can contribute to a companyʼs business success when the user-centered and holistic way of thinking that characterizes it is also part of the corporate culture and organization. In this sense, it has a lot in common with service design, which deals with the design of services and the necessary structural requirements within companies. While user experience design is often concerned with the design of very specific touchpoints, service design takes the entirety of a service or service offering as its starting point to propose changes to the individual touchpoints.
User experience design is also frequently used in connection with software products. In software development, agile work processes have become increasingly prevalent in recent years, but they present a challenge in the coordination of UX and software developers. Since collaboration is not practical in an agile working environment, there is the option of time-shifted sprints or the full integration of UX activities into the development teamʼs sprint planning.
User experience management and customer experience management exist as management approaches related to user experience design. User experience management is concerned with the structural conditions in companies, such as the institutionalized coordination and support of UX activities. Customer experience management operates more from a market research and business perspective to coordinate activities within the company that have an impact on the customer experience and business success. This also includes touchpoint management, which oversees and monitors the individual touchpoints of the customers.
