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.
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".
The way every discipline uses words is a funny thing. But I think you got the big ideas perfectly right:
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".
The way every discipline uses words is a funny thing. But I think you got the big ideas perfectly right:
- A service is made of different elements
- A service is often felt as "intangible" but some parts of it are definitely tangible
- 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.
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