Johan Blomkvist

Linköping University | LiU · Department of Computer and Information Science (IDA)

A defining characteristic of service design is the use of external representations, which support designers in making intangible aspects of services accessible and shareable. Both current and future states are externally represented, using different service design techniques, for the purposes of articulating insights, learning, communicating, colla...

A sign that the field of service design is maturing is the increase in service design education programs around the world. With this increase in number of students reaching the professional arena, it is important to consider the options for future employment. Service design is currently discussed as an activity by design consultancies. This paper w...

In this paper we take a closer look at the papers published during the first four Service design and innovation (ServDes) conferences and sources that the authors of those papers have referenced. The analysis uses the academic search engine Scopus and the references found in the conferences' Proceedings. In total 206 authors have contributed to the...

The purpose of lifelogging is to help users collect data for self-monitoring and reflection. We have in this study explored how lifelogging technology (a camera and a heart rate monitor) can change user experience (UX) research, and we describe a novel approach. Data was collected for three days with four participants, and a 4–6-hours co-creation w...

This paper uses a combination of empirical sources to discuss the use of desktop walkthroughs. Desktop walkthrough is a design tool that uses a collaboratively built miniature environment that allows participants to interact with abstract concepts such as service processes and flows. Facilitation of desktop walkthroughs in literature focus on utili...

Current tools and techniques used in everyday design practice are focused on managing the complex information of service systems primarily through visualization. The visual in methods has become a dominant norm prevalent in service design practice. In wanting to counteract the emphasis on visualization, we direct attention to qualities of sound in...

Service-dominant logic (SDL) is a theoretical framework that has impacted the development of service design. Resource integration, a core concept in SDL, provides a distinctive perspective that changes the perception of value in situations of interaction. In this paper, we explore the implications of applying the resource integration view on intera...

Service encompasses multiple interaction processes among many different actors. Comprehending the subtleties of what drives actors resource integration activities could therefore be valuable when designing for service. However, these nuances are not necessarily always captured in early representations such as prototypes of service due to variation...

Within the discourse connecting design and innovation, there has been a growing emphasis on the importance of cognitive processes in relation to design methods. However, the over-emphasis on cognition fails to clearly identify the triggers of change necessary for service innovation. In response, this article draws on classic American pragmatism and...

Service designers use different prototyping techniques to create representations and visualizations of future services. These prototypes can allow whole or parts of services to be experienced and evaluated. The approach and technique used to prototype by designers is influenced by when prototyping occurs in the overall design process and what the p...

This paper discusses the impact of service design by zooming in on the case of service prototyping. It is suggested that prototyping services is different from prototyping in other disciplines and shows how by discussing prototyping on different levels. On the service level of prototyping, a technique called ‘service walkthrough’ can be a way to un...

This paper makes a contribution to the current conceptualisation of service as a design material from three different perspectives. We use definitions of the term material, the connection with service logic and the techniques that service designers use to discuss ways to understand service from a design perspective. Service designers have tools for...

This paper introduces the first academic characterisation of the desktop walkthrough technique. Desktop walkthrough is considered here as a service design technique using a collaboratively built miniature environment to construct knowledge about a specific service. It is further examined as a technique for rapidly exploring and designing a service...

This study uses a phenomenological approach to examine software developers’ empathy with designers, as experienced by interaction designers. The results show many views on developers’ empathy and on the context of the phenomenon, including that developers tend to think design is unnecessary or a luxury that is not needed in order to create successf...

This presentation discusses the materials of service to give new insights into the nature of service itself. The basis for the discussion is that of Design, which at its core, is about transforming materials. If design is about a " conversation with materials " , what then are the materials of service? By examining service as a material, design has...

One ongoing debate in service design concerns what can and/or should be designed when working with services. I argue that, as service design grows both academically and in practice, the material of service design is collectively created by individual contributions to service development and design research. This paper looks at such contributions by...

In this study we look closer at content analysis as a tool in design research and question some of the, more or less explicit, assumptions about what can be achieved by such analyses. To do so, we applied a qualitative content analysis (QCA) on six interviews with service design practitioners.

Personal communication between User-Centered Design (UCD) specialists and developers is important for communicating user needs and design solutions in agile development. In distributed projects where opportunities for personal communication are limited, the design documentation is an important surrogate. This study has investigated the perceived ef...

The scope of service design calls for holistic design techniques that represent multiple service moments. One such technique is the service walkthrough that can be used to prototype and formatively evaluate services. A service walkthrough is an enactment of several consecutive service moments. This paper informs decisions about how to set up servic...

This thesis describes prototyping in service design through the theoretical lens of situated cognition. The research questions are what a service prototype is, what the benefits of service prototyping are, and how prototypes aid in the process of designing services. Four papers are included. Paper one suggests that service prototyping should be con...

To evaluate and develop a service supported by an IT (information technology) system the intention to use the future service should be in focus. The technology acceptance model (TAM) and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) can both provide knowledge about users’ intention to use a service, making them good models to base formative decisions on. U...

This full day workshop intends to explore approaches, methods and techniques that can be used in participatory prototyping of services. The participants will contribute with their experiences of different ways of working with participatory prototyping. During the workshop the participants will share, explore and give feedback on the method or case...

How can service prototypes be created and evaluated? This paper describes how methods like bodystorming and experience prototyping can be used in combination with pluralistic walkthrough in an evaluation method we call 'service walkthrough'. We put the method to test in the development of augmented tourism services at the author Astrid Lindgren's c...

Service design is said to be a holistic design approach. This is evident in most service design literature and textbooks but still services are prototyped by focusing on separate parts rather than whole service journeys. In this paper we propose a technique called service walkthrough that can be used to represent whole services. We explore what inf...

Prototypes based on user research are embodiments of hypotheses about how behaviour and experiences will change. The purpose of prototypes has been discussed in academic literature but in the case of service design, some of that knowledge needs to be re-examined. In Service design, one of the problems is that the impact of prototypes is complex and...

The view of the nature of services has changed with the introduction of the service dominant logic. An important part of the logic is that services create value-in-use for customers. Customer-focused disciplines such as many design disciplines have a history of working with prototyping to understand the value-in-use. The service design discipline h...

With new design disciplines that challenge the borders of design practice and inquiry comes new possibilities for prototyping techniques and approaches. The basis for such an evolution is a firm understanding of the existing knowledge generated in design and the challenges posed by new design disciplines, such as service design. This study identifi...

To date, service prototyping has been discussed academically as an unproblematic add-on to existing prototyping techniques, or as methods for prototyping social interaction. In fact, most of the knowledge on how services are prototyped comes from organisations and practicing design consultants. Some attempts to define service prototyping have been...

To date, service prototyping has been discussed academically as an unproblematic add-on to existing prototyping techniques, or as methods for prototyping social interaction. In fact, most of the knowledge on how services are prototyped comes from organisations and practicing design consultants. Some attempts to define service prototyping have been...

Services are by nature co-created. They are produced and consumed simultaneously through interactions between customers and service providers. The professional design of services is also highly associated with co-creation, which is evident in the sparse service design literature. This paper reveals what designers say they do to involve different st...

This article describes how we developed a new service design curriculum and integrated current research into the courses. We did this by prototyping the service design curriculum together with our design master students. The new curriculum is aimed at students who already have basic design skills and focuses on helping the students to reflect on th...

Case background Being a fairly young research topic, the structure and directions of research on service design is not definite. Service design research is currently evolving from the early efforts to establish the discipline towards a wide range of areas of inquiry. Blomkvist, Holmlid, & Segelström (2010) have provided an overview of peer-reviewed...

When constructing or improving large complex systems, design activities help establish the needs and goals of users, deepen the understanding of the system and facilitate ideation of new solutions. When service systems are large, dynamic and complex, the need for thorough design work is especially evident. However, design methods usually strive to...

As qualitative research methods have become more prominent within the development of services, the nature of the data available to service developers have changed. This leads to new forms of representing the data. Taking the intangible nature of (most) services into account, it should not be a surprise that various ways of visualizing the experienc...

According to the service design myth, the field was born when live|work was founded in 2001. However, research on service design had been done since the early 1990s. A fairly small number of researchers conducted research in the field for about fifteen years until the subject gained widespread attention. The newfound traction has lead to a surge of...

Boverket har huvudansvar för att skapa en portal för samhällsplanering som ska kunna förse kommuner, landsting, företag och privatpersoner med olika typer av kartinformation. Denna portal kallas Planeringsportalen och som ett led i dess utveckling hölls ett designmöte i april 2007. Inför mötet gjordes en analys av diverse förebilder för att beskriv...

Current trends in service design research include case studies and similar approaches that aspire to reveal what the practice of service design looks like. The understanding of how service design is performed can serve as a base for future research into more specific research endeavours. One area where knowledge is said to be lacking is service pro...

Exemplars play an important role in applied service design but are largely overlooked in academic literature. So far, most design research in other fields has concerned how surface properties of exemplars are incorporated in the current design, but services are different from most other design disciplines in regard to material. To expand the unders...

When constructing or improving large complex systems, design activities help establish the needs and goals of users, deepen the understanding of the system and facilitate ideation of new solutions. When service systems are large, dynamic and complex, the need for thorough design work is especially evident. However, design methods usually strive to...