The place of service in the economy has seen enormous growth in the last 40 years, increasing from 40% to 70% of the total gross domestic product in all developed countries. New challenges are emerging under the pressures of a rapidly changing market. We are witnessing a process of economic dematerialization in which the notion of access is replacing that of ownership. The “object” consumed is transformed into a medium that interacts with the environment, the context and the user. Service can be defined as a way of producing, exchanging and consuming what I like to summarize as the integrating dimension of a global user experience.

Service sesign (SD) is thus the application of  approaches and skills related to design to the development of service, based on an understanding of the user’s logic and that of the provider. SD attempts to script events, actions and information in order to enhance efficiency, perception and quality. Unlike other forms of design, SD is not limited to a specific field of intervention; instead, it intervenes in the case of a variety of devices: objects, spaces, interfaces, culture ... taking into account the entire service ecosystem and trying to maintain contextual coherence and users’ cognitive continuity.

Professor, Universidad de Monterrey, Mexico.