Imagine the shortcuts people will take

A new very first shitty draft about something I observed this weekend: as always, comments and feedback will help improve it :)

I'm early for an appointment. So I wander around the place where I have my appointment. Yes, I'm the type of guy that loves to arrive precisely on time.

I pass through a little park in Morges, Switzerland, as I'm walking.

The road in the park is there for you to enjoy a lovely walk. So it isn't a boring straight line. And on each side of that little road, you have grass, benches and things for kids to play with.

But when you are in a hurry and have to pass through this park, you just go for the straight line like everybody else. Of course, it means you cut through the grass. But as everybody else does it, the grass is totally destroyed where everybody takes the shortcut.

The people who designed this parc understood this! So they made sure that when you take a shortcut, it doesn't destroy the grass. So, where you can take a shortcut, they added tiny bits of cement to walk so that you don't break the grass and make the place all muddy.

As business owners and service creators, we often try to make our services as enjoyable as possible. The journey should be smooth and pleasant. Like the lovely curves in of the road of a parc. But as the parc designers did, we should do a little additional thing:

Imagine how people will take a shortcut and help them make it so that it doesn't break the service experience for others.

So let me ask you, how could you add positive shortcuts for the pro users and the stressed-out users in your service or product?

6 comments

Daniel Tuitt

Jan 28, 2022

Great post. Daniel this reminds me of a service design project where the focus was on "Always being on the customers' side" and making it easier to claim for their car insurance. Even if it was their fault.

I might add this case into the co-creation session for more reference. Looking at different customers perception of the journey to claim as well as their needs before, during and afterwards was key to the success of reimagine the experience for the business and customers

Daniele Catalanotto

Feb 18, 2022

Thanks for the feedback Daniel 😍

This idea of "making it easier to claim for the car insurance even if it was their fault" is really intriguging me 🤔 Would love to read more details about it!

Daniele Catalanotto

Feb 11, 2022

A reply I got from Linkedin by Genevieve Abbey which I found insightful too:

I do love this example! My sense is that as designers we will not always be able to imagine how people will use spaces (or products) up front. There are a number of reasons for this including the knowledge we have of the space (and people do crazy things!) My sense is that a) this is where user testing really comes into play and b) it is often more important how we respond to the findings than what the findings are and that we keep looking for findings! In this case, they added the concrete steps rather than forcing people to walk around. How we respond can be playful and increase the value of the product.

Thanks to Genevieve for allowing me to include her comment :)

Daniele Catalanotto

Aug 13, 2022

The second draft of this principle

I pass through a little park in Morges, Switzerland, as I'm walking.

The curvy road in the park helps you enjoy a relaxed walk. It isn't a boring straight line. On each side of that little road, you have grass, benches and things for kids to play with. As I'm early for my appointment (1) I really enjoy this long walk.

But when I'm in a hurry and pass by this park, I straighten through the grass. But when many take a shortcut like me, the grass could become a muddy unplanned road.

The people who designed this parc understand this! So they let me take a shortcut that doesn't destroy the grass. There are bits of cement on the shortcut path to ensure I don't break the grass.

We often try to make our services as enjoyable as possible. The journey should be smooth and pleasant, like the lovely curvy road in the park.

As the parc designers do, we should imagine what shortcuts people will take. Help them take it in a way that doesn't break the service experience for others.

So let me ask you.

How can you add shortcuts for the pro users and the stressed-out users in your service or product?

Footnotes

(1) Yes, I'm Swiss, so I'm the type of guy who loves to arrive precisely on time and will wait outside to neither be late nor early.

Daniele's personal notes

This is the second draft of this Service Design Principle.
I have reduced the length of the principle (outside of the footnotes) by -25.09%
I've decided to keep the comment of Genevieve Abbey out of this principle and to use maybe to create a fully new Service Design Principle. We'll see how that goes.

Deleted

Oct 29, 2022

So much better to tweak the landscaping than to post “do not walk on grass” signs.

Daniele Catalanotto

Oct 31, 2022

The third draft of this Service Design Principle

I walk on the curvy roads of a little park in Morges, Switzerland. It’s enjoyable a relaxing. On each side of that little road, you have grass, benches and things for kids to play with. As I’m early for my appointment (1) I really enjoy this long walk.

But when I’m in a hurry and pass by this park, I straighten through the grass. Fortunately, the park designers added bits of cement to the shortcut. So I don’t break the grass, don’t make it all muddy.

Like park designers, we can imagine the shortcuts people will take. And then help them do it in a way that doesn’t break the service for others.

So let me ask you.

How can you add shortcuts for the pro users and the stressed-out users in your service or product?

Footnotes

(1) Yes, I'm Swiss, so I'm the type of guy who loves to arrive precisely on time and will wait outside to neither be late nor early.

Daniele’s notes

This is the third draft of this principle.
I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 33 % compared to the previous draft.