How can service design skills be used outside of work in day to day life?

My two cents

In December 2022, I wrote in my newsletter a piece called “We all serve others. You too” There I explained that:

  1. We all design experiences for others: when you throw a party, you have to make choices about music, the type of food, the timing, how you welcome people, what types of games you’ll play, etc. These are all things that you do so that people have a lovely time together and with you.
  2. The art of designing experiences is Service Design: creating a lovely time for people is exactly what Service Design tries to do.
  3. We are the Service Designers of our lives: in some way, we are all service designers, as we all create experiences for others.
  4. We can all benefit from Service Design skills: As Service Design is the art of creating lovely experiences, and we all try to do it, we can all benefit from the skills and knoweldge that Service Design brings in order to help us create better experiences for the people around us.
So in short, Service Design can help you in your personal life to:

  • Throw better parties (what in Service Design we call: designing an experience)
  • Ask better questions to your loved ones in order to better understand what they really want from you (what in Service Design we call: doing user interviews)
  • Solve problems without stress (what in Service Design we call: ideation and prototyping)

The AI answer

I've asked this same question to the generative AI ChatGPT, here is the unedited answer it gave me. Take it with a grain of salt.

Service design skills can be useful in a variety of settings outside of work, including in your personal life and in your community. Here are a few examples of how service design skills can be used outside of work:

  1. Improving the customer experience at a local business: Service design skills can be used to understand the needs of customers and design solutions that improve the customer experience at a local business, such as a cafe or retail store.
  2. Designing better events: Service design skills can be used to design events that are more enjoyable and efficient for attendees, such as weddings or parties.
  3. Improving community services: Service design skills can be used to understand the needs of community members and design solutions that improve local services, such as public transportation or healthcare.
  4. Simplifying personal tasks: Service design skills can be used to identify and eliminate friction points in personal tasks, such as grocery shopping or paying bills, to make them more efficient and enjoyable.
  5. Designing better travel experiences: Service design skills can be used to design more enjoyable and efficient travel experiences, such as creating personalized itineraries or designing better airport experiences.

More Service Design questions and answers like this one