Is this a product or a Service?

Is this a product or a Service?

The full question

Noelle M. asks:

"So i have a question - might be a convoluted one. So I am designing a website for a bank (which allows me to take a loan). The interaction with the bank through the website is a service provided by the bank and the website itself is a product. Am I right? or have I mixed that up?"

My two cents

Indeed that's a way to see it ;) The website is a tangible element (so we can consider it as a product) but the overall interaction which might take you through a website, a phone call, a live meeting, and so on, is what we can call a service.
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In the "academic" language of Service Design, we say that a website is a "touchpoint", but in UX design this website might be called a "product".
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The way every discipline uses words is a funny thing. But I think you got the big ideas perfectly right:

  1. A service is made of different elements

  2. A service is often felt as "intangible" but some parts of it are definitely tangible

  3. Thinking about those systems can feel pretty overwhelming sometimes, so the need for simplification is really there :P

Go further

You can find more definitions about what is a Service and what is Service Design in my free course about the basics of service design.

Q&A: Basics of Service Design

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  • ▶️ Does every service need service design or just a specific type?

Basic definitions

  • What is Service Design?
  • Is this a product or a Service?
  • What are other names used for service design?
  • Is there a common acronym for Service Design?
  • What is service thinking?
  • Is service design strictly for digital services?
  • What are typical examples of industries in the service sector?

The work of a service designer

  • What does a service designer do?
  • How to implement a service you deliver correctly?
  • What are the parts of the Service Design job I love the most, and which ones are the ones that I hate the most?