We all know how good industrial design distinguishes products and drives success. Well if you’re an interactive designer, it doesn’t matter if you’re in marketing or product design, understanding the system you’re designing for and how it interacts with the other systems and channels surrounding it is critical. In order to improve experiences, the entire delivery system must be looked at holistically. That means everything from how the data is served all the way to where in in what context end-users interact with the finished product.
The following should be required reading for anyone in the interactive design world: The Design Council, “A User’s Guide to Service Design”
Here’s and excerpt:
Three quarters of the UK economy is due to services and 80% of employment is service related. While half of the UK’s manufacturers think design is crucial to competitiveness, our service industry, whether that’s financial services, retailers or public services, are less convinced. Only one in 10 services businesses thinks design can set them apart and make them more competitive.
That means the UK’s £1trillion service economy and its service business and public services are missing many opportunities to distinguish themselves from competitors by improving their offering, better communicating what they do or providing innovative new services.