Innovation through Service Design
From Research and Theory to a Network of Practice
Stefano Maffei, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Birgit Mager, Köln International School of Design, Köln, Germany
Daniela Sangiorgi, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
The statistics of international trade in goods and services in the advanced industrialised countries
tells us something important about the future of economic and social innovation.
A great amount of the revenues of GNP of these countries comes from the production, distribution
and trade of services: this economic sector had been constantly increasing in the last decade.
Global International Trade Treaties like GATS highlight that these peculiar types of economic
activities will soon become the most interesting part (in terms of added value) of the world trade.
This paper investigates the importance of design research and design education in order to fortify
the strategic use of design within this contemporary scenario generally known as service economy.
In particular the authors describes the evolution of the Service Design research and theory toward
the recent start up of an international Service Design Network and anticipates the potentials of a
complete multidisciplinary and integrated service design approach for the development of
industries and institutions.
From intuition to innovation
The Service Design concept was born in the 90’s (Manzini, 1993; Mager, 1994; Erlhoff et. al.,
1997; Pacenti, 1998) starting from the awareness of there being a lack of an organic and
autonomous service design culture in contrast with the dominance of an economy of services and
the consequent demand for more conscious design shapes. This intuition opened to the design
world a new experimental and research area.
A basic Framework has been developed. service specific design tools have been developed and
tested. Successful projects with industry lay the foundation to ongoing research. Different design
streams and education curricula like strategic design, design for sustainability, interaction design
and system design have contributed to the development of Service Design
The richness of this background is also, at the same time, the weakness of the service design
discipline still struggling for a validation and a recognisable professional and research identity.
A need for integration
The development of service design therefore asks for different levels of integration:
- an integration among the different actors (network of Universities, research centres, design
studios) working on the service design theme in order to strengthen the professional and
discipline identity and visibility;
- an integration of the different competences and tools necessary for a complete service design
project and for an effective design education and professional practice within industries and
institutions;
- an integration of the different levels of approaches to service design (strategy, process and
interaction levels).
The just born Service Design Network proposes Service Design as an important component of
design and business education and as a mean for market and social innovation.
References
Erlhoff, M., Mager B., e Manzini E., Dienstleitstung braucht Design, Professioneller Produkt- und
Markenauftritt für Serviceanbieter; Herausgeber: Hermann Luchterhand Verlag GmbH, 1997
Manzini, E., Il Design dei Servizi. La progettazione del prodotto-servizio, in “Design Management”, n° 7,
Giugno, 1993
Mager … 1994
Pacenti, E., Il progetto dell’interazione nei servizi. Un contributo al tema della progettazione
dei servizi, tesi di dottorato di ricerca in Disegno Industriale, X ciclo, Aprile 1995 – Ottobre 1998