Turn things upside down to go through the crisis

Daniele Catalanotto

Oct 7, 2022

A Service Design Principle to find new solutions during difficult times.

We’re chatting with a student about how the covid lockdown situation she experiences blocks everything on her project with a local theatre (1).

After some time, we come to this conclusion.

Once we reverse how things usually work, there are a lot of opportunities.

For example: don’t bring people to the theatre but bring the theatre to people.

This trick even works for defining a new set of interactions in the theatre. For example, touch is a big problem because when people touch something with their hands, they end up later putting their hands in their mouth, and there is a contagion danger.

So here again, we turn the situation around. Instead of using hands for interacting with objects, what if we use feet?s Most of us don’t lick our shoes after going to the theatre.

So let me ask you this.

What’s the reverse way of how you do things usually in your service? How can this improve your service or product?

Footnotes

(1) This student is part of the Spatial Design bachelor program of the HSLU in Luzern, Switzerland, and she is working on improving the experience of a tiny local theatre.

Daniele’s personal notes

This is the second draft of this Service Design Principle.
The length of this principle has been reduced by 35% compared to the first draft.
Once improved even more, this principle could be part of the book “Service Design Principles 201-300”
As always, feel free to share comments, feedback or personal stories to improve this principle.

3 comments

Deirdre Malone

Oct 13, 2022

Great principle. When going through or to get through a crisis sounds more natural to me.

Daniele Catalanotto

Oct 15, 2022

Thanks Deirdre ❤️

Daniele Catalanotto

Oct 30, 2022

The third draft of this Service Design Principle

Turn things upside down

I chat with a student. The covid lockdown blocks everything on her project with a local theatre (1). Suddenly we find a solution.

Reverse how things usually work to create new opportunities (2).

For example, touch is a big problem. People touch something in the theatre with their hands. Later on the road back home, they lick their fingers as they eat something. So there is a contagion danger.

Now turn things around: what if we use feet to touch objects? Most of us don’t lick our shoes after going to the theatre.

So let me ask you this.

What’s the reverse way of doing things in your service? How can this improve your service or product?

Footnotes

(1) This student is part of the Spatial Design bachelor program of the HSLU in Luzern, Switzerland, and she is working on improving the experience of a tiny local theatre.
(2) (2) This is a very common idea generation trick. It’s also part of a tool called the Fast Idea Generator — Fast Idea Generator. Nesta. Available at https://extra.swissinnovation.academy/gb1T accessed 30 October 2022.

Daniele’s notes

This is the third draft of this principle.
I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 28 % compared to the previous draft.
I’ve added a reference to the Fast Idea Generator.
I've shorten the title of this principle