5 Magics of SERVICE DESIGN

📌International Design Agency based in Tokyo, Japan

Research and design processes explained in a technique-based case study.

*Project details under NDA, however available upon requests.

Magic 1 Desk research

Desk research based on structured logic flow：

• From history (comparing East and West) , global trends, company organizational structure and behaviors, perspectives/ angles of solutions, benchmarking of recommended practices( of companies in related domains ).

• Breaking down the research landscape into different stages ( easy to divvy up )

• Example-rich, information-rich findings

• Use data effectively

• Summarize & synthesize on agile basis

MAGIC 2 Participatory research

“Contextual inquiry” “Co-creation session”

Observe and converse directly with company employees on a project “Designing better innovation culture“:

• Observed employees working + interview after

  • warming up by storytelling: describe happy & unhappy moments

• Use of Projective Prototyping(2d+3d prototyping toolkit) to gauge employee experience, within the psychological safe space

  • asking why as much as possible

• Beware of possible cultural nuances in each working environment: English interviewer/ Japanese interviewer

MAGIC 3 Synthesis

Internally - Feedback gathering, both on content + research methods improvement.

Externally - Client involvement:

• Explain with the appropriate level of details

• Be open-minded and encourage client’s participation in ideation and HMWs

• Know what kind of feedbacks to gain, and what are the implied directions of feedbacks

Magic 4 Competitive analysis

Benchmarking not only products/practices in the directly vertical categories, but also partially overlapping/ inspiring components.

• Looked into products in multi-languages settings

• Recruited 5+ local experts across the globe to look into community-related services, regional practices (including remote areas),as well as cultural norms.

• Prioritize practices to share with clients