My two cents

In March 2023, I hosted a webinar where I explored the history of Service Design in a 40 minutes talk. You can rewatch the webinar, get the slides, the automated transcript and even additional resources.

But shortly said here are a few interesting dates to keep in mind:

• 10’000 BC: The first service.

• 9000 BC: First humans in Switzerland.

• 1231: First Landsgemeinde.

• 1291: Founding of Switzerland as a state of will.

• 1815: Swiss Neutrality.

• 1858: Mass tourism in Switzerland.

• 1874: Introduction of the referendum.

• 1891: Introduction of popular initiatives.

• 1880s: “Le client n'a jamais tort” — César Ritz

• 1965:Trial of the first self-checkout Migros shop.

• 1982: The Service Design term is born.

• 2004: The Service Design Network (SDN) is born.

• 2014: First Service Designer role in Switzerland.

• 2016: FJORD opens a studio in Switzerland.

• 2018: Swiss Chapter of the SDN.

• 2020: First Service Design Master at HSLU.

More dates

You can find 110+ historical moments, both small and big that have shaped Service Design in Switzerland in this notion database.

More Service Design questions and answers like this one

Check out all the questions about Service Design in Switzerland.