We at the SDN are thrilled to share with you our brand new SDN Glossary!
This glossary can be a helpful resource for service designers because there are numerous terms used in the service design industry.
Many terms have variations, and new terms are added daily, so it's important to stay current. Explore our SDN Glossary and learn new terms, what they mean, why they matter in the service design field, and how you can apply them to your service design work.
Service Design choreographs processes, technologies, and interactions within complex systems in order to co-create value for relevant stakeholders. (Birgit Mager, 2012)
Service design is the practice of designing services. It uses a holistic and highly collaborative approach to generate value for both the service user and the service provider throughout the service’s lifecycle.
In practice, service design helps to choreograph the processes, technologies and interactions driving the delivery of services, using a human-centred perspective. Service design today is applicable across multiple sectors, helping to deliver strategic and tactical objectives for both the private and public sector. (SDN, 2019)
A role in the service experience. Actors can represent those that consume (e.g. Customers, users, patients) or provide (e.g. client, employee, doctor, etc.) a service.
A map is used to visualise all of the people involved with a service system. This map can be used to show how people can fulfil unmet needs and or leverage resources in a new ways to improve a service in the future.
Refers to the domain of service elements (touchpoints or processes) that are invisible to end user of the service.
The act of involving the end-users and other stakeholders of a service in the design of (elements of) the service itself.
A user-centred approach aimed at understanding users and exploring design opportunites. Probes are based on user participation be means of self-exploration. They might include audio documentation, photos, diaries, collections of evidences - the cultural probes are designed in correlation to the issues that are being explored.
A specific term describing a type of user: In this case, one that has an existing transactional relationship with the service provider.
Extended journey map with an explicit visualisation of the emotional reaction of the users throughout the process.
Exploration refers to the phase of activity in which a team determines the context for the design work they will undertake. This includes an understanding of the user groups and stakeholders in a service, external factors, competitors, existing service experience, etc.
Refers to the domain of service elements (touchpoints or processes) that are visible or perceptible to end user of the service.
The process by which concepts (or ideas) are generated. The process is structured around specific exercises aimed at generating ideas that may be evaluated later for possible applications.
It describes the step moving into production and rollout. It can involve various fields, such as change management, software, and product developement, engineering, architecture, and construction.
A mock-ups is a low-fidelity prototype of an element of a service. It is used in research contexts to determine how something will perform with real end-users, without investing the effort required in creating a fully-working and complete product.
Personas are fictional users profiles based on research data collected in the exploration/discovery phase. These composite characters include name, picture, descriptions of needs, preferences behavioural patterns and relevant demographic data - and often a significant quote. Personas are used to summarise research findings and make them concrete, in the form of tangible representations of key actors in a service.
A prototype is a simulation of a service through different touchpoints that can be used in research contexts to see how it performs with real end-users.
Research refers to the phase of activity in which a team determines the context for the design work they will undertake. This includes an understanding of the user groups and stakeholders in a service, external factors, competitors, existing service experience, etc.
A collaborative, theatre-based and physical approach to bring ideas and sequences of service scenarios to life. The service design team or co-creation groups embody the various roles in a service scenario in order to uncover insights into transactional moments in the service. Enactments can be used in ideation or in prototyping phase.
A service blueprint shows systems and processes that must be in place to delivered a desired service experience. In the same manner a customer journey, it follows the progression of a user through a service (or phase of a service), and shows the underlying elements that come into play. These can be activities and roles played by people and or systems, some of which are visible to the user (typically, "front stage"), and others which are invisible ("back stage").
A service blueprint is crucial to accomplishing the orchestration of different touchpoints to provide a holistic experience. It can also serve as one of the final deliverables of a service design engagement, because it can be used as a briefing document (specification) for detailed, touchpoint design activities, such as UX design.
A visual diagram displaying the importance of and relationships between actors within a service ecosystem. This diagram exclusively displays actors who have direct or indirect influence on a service provision, service delivery systems, or individuals within the service ecosystem.
A visual representation of a service (concept), with a focus on the user's perspective. The actors (e.g. Customer, service provider), the stage (e.g. Context or setting) and the props are visualised with a focus on the key moments of the service experience. A storyboard can be low-fidelity (e.g. Pencil sketch or cartoon) or high-fidelity (e.g. Detailed illustration). It can also lerad to an enactment or a video-representation of the service.
The tangible or intangible medium upon which a service provider comes in contact with the service user.
The role in a service scenario which makes use of the service without necessarly paying for it.
