How does service design differ from product design?

My two cents

  • Focused on intangible: product design works on what’s tangible both if the product is physical, like a chair, or digital, like a website. Service design tries to design the intangible stuff: the interaction between humans and organisations and the experiences
  • Taking into account the backstage: Service Design puts a lot of emphasis on taking both care of how things feel for the user and how things are made the backstage (the processes, the employees, the stakeholders, etc).
  • Thinks about the full journey: service designers try to think about the full journey someone goes on and don’t focus on just one interaction or product. In a perfect world, service designers even think about the services and interactions that come before and after the service they are building in order to create smooth transitions between them. Some product designers can have a tendency (which service designers also sometimes have) to only be focused on the thing they are paid to improve and not realise that this product is part of a more complex journey.

The AI answer

I've asked this same question to the ChatGPT generative AI. Here is the unedited answer it gave me. Take it with a grain of salt.
Service design and product design are related, but they have some key differences. Product design involves creating physical or digital products that meet the needs of customers. It involves designing the form, function, and appearance of a product, as well as how it is produced and distributed. Service design, on the other hand, involves designing and improving services that organizations offer to customers and stakeholders. Services are intangible activities or benefits that organizations provide to meet the needs of their customers. Examples of services include healthcare, financial services, education, and transportation.

There are a few key differences between service design and product design:

  1. Intangibility: Services are intangible, while products are tangible. This means that service designers need to consider how to make the service experience as clear and seamless as possible, while product designers need to consider the physical form of the product.
  2. Customer interaction: Services often involve a high level of customer interaction, while products do not. Service designers need to consider how customers will interact with the service, and how to make that experience as positive as possible.
  3. Customization: Services can be customized to meet the needs of individual customers, while products are typically mass-produced and cannot be customized in the same way. Service designers need to consider how to allow for customization while still being efficient.
Overall, service design and product design both involve creating solutions that meet the needs of customers, but they focus on different types of solutions (intangible services vs. tangible products) and involve different design considerations.

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