The first thing that I can say about Service Design, Customer Experience, and User Experience is the fact that those three fields are related with Design Thinking This is a no-brainer, a familiar fact that designers or design researchers have accustomed to in the last few years.
The first thing that I can say about Service Design, Customer Experience, and User Experience is the fact that those three fields are related with Design Thinking This is a no-brainer, a familiar fact that designers or design researchers have accustomed to in the last few years.
A Brief History of Design Thinking
Design thinking didn’t rise to become household jargon up until the early 2000. But the practices and official mention of the method goes back to early 1950s. First appearing in the engineering department of universities which talk about innovation efforts and creative approach to problem solving.
The 1960s saw design approaches used in many fields such as engineering, architecture, product / industrial designs (including ergonomics), and systems design.
Then came the rise of design approaches in Urban planning, ca. 1980. Until this time, the approach of design thinking methods as philosophy for novelty can be regarded as mostly (if not exclusively) academic.
It was on the early 1990s that design thinking approaches are used widely in the business context. Capitalism, of course, fueled its growth and adoption. When business and organizations started expanding their venture to new markets and product / service opportunities worldwide. One of the first organization to apply this approach is notably IDEO (a combined forces of three Industrial design companies).
The route to specializations
What happened between the early 2000 up to 2010s are series of specializations. It was within this time that practitioners, agencies, and business consultants starting to use specific terms like User Experience, Service Design, and Customer Experience.
But no companies / practitioners deny their attachment to the discipline of Design thinking.
The way to illustrate the specializations that are happening, it’s worthwhile to compare the specialization route of “Design Thinking” to “Business Consulting” in the early 1960.
Business consulting comes in different disciplines and focus today. There are consultants that focuses on operational excellence (such as manufacturing, outsourcing, etc.). There are other business consultants that focuses more on legal and finances, acquisition strategies, market research, brand buildings, and so on. The list of companies that can be categorized as “business consultants” are endless, yet each one of those companies can also claim expertise on a much narrower topics.
The reason for those claims? I think it really depends on the background of each practitioners / organizations / consultants. People who have the background, or more familiar with certain aspects on the business can focus their attention to that areas, while still contributing the same consultancy excellence the business expects.This goes the same with Design Thinking Practitioners.
Designers who spent more time working on projects in an NGO, working to create humanitarian solution in the market might have more experience finding potential innovation or collaboration between different systems or varying government instruments. Hence, creating experts on Service Design. These people, then can come up to both government or capitalist organizations, applying the same rigor and expertise on system thinking and cross-organization interaction, looking for paths to deliver novel services to the end user. Creating new business models and new offerings by combining forces and expertise of different stakeholders.
Qualitative researchers who spent their time studying ergonomics and visual design may have more time diving deep into the design of apps and interfaces. These people who spent enough time working, tweaking, new GUI in digital touchpoints can proclaim they know details on the so-called User Experience field (UX, although encompass a wide spectrum of principles, is widely known for a discipline of product design that much incorporate screens and digital products).
I’ve also met some ex-marketeers or business strategy experts who got their hands dirty on product development works as well. These people usually care more about how a product is delivered, and what kinds of experience is needed to make the best first impression. These people not only focuses on how to make sure the experience of the product fits best with the user’s needs, but also making sure that the users are allowed the journey to discover, use, and also retain usage of the products. It’s understandable that these people, these professionals, feel that the label User Experience (whether it’s desingers or researchers), can be limiting. Hence it makes a lot of sense for them to call themselves Customer Experience specialists.
Making sense of it all
For me personally, the specializations can be easily accepted and understood, if we pay enough attention into the kind of deliverables we want to put our focus into. Knowing that the industry is still new, and there are still lots of untapped potential. From what I see in these fields, the need for good talents in each specific fields haven’t been met quite yet. So there are still indeed room for overlapping responsibilities and opportunities. However, to see it as three separate industry isn’t quite the right mindset as well.
Knowing that the 3 fields are a form of specialization from the discipline of design thinking, and also realizing that the methods used are quite similar between one fields to another, there are more similarities to discuss (both in terms of philosophy, or methods), rather than the differences. The main differences worth talking about the three, is mainly revolves on personal preference and experience.
If someone asks me on what to pursue between the three, I’d answer that it really depends on each of our intent, interests and previous work experiences. In which direction that our work experience and focus prepare us to go? How much we’d like to focus our attention to the different complexities involved in each business question? What kind of industry that we feel we’re generating the most impact (both for ourselves and for the organizations)?
So eventually, it’s more a question on “What kind of industry we’re willing to dedicate our efforts to?” and also “What kind of detail are you willing to dive deep into?”
If we want to create the most desirable e-commerce experience inside a digital app (or simply if now we’re working at an e-commerce app company), we can put our efforts and understanding of design thinking as a UX designers or UX researchers. We could dedicate our efforts in creating the most delightful ways to interact with an app. We’d work closely with flows, lo-fi to hi-fi prototypes, Sketches, cross-app analysis, hands-on research method such as Usability Testings and AB testings, and so on.
Let’s say we work in a traditional bank. And we’d like to put more of our attention (or when our job description says that we should focus on) to making sure technology or apps can assist a real-world practice that are still untapped by the organization, or perhaps technology is needed to integrate some of the brick-and-mortar efforts, then we can safely say that this job description can fit into the Customer Experience field. We’d do more ethnography, semiotics, cultural inquiries, as well as research in multiple organization touchpoints.
Or maybe in our company, we have already done all of the above, and now we want to look for opportunities for collaboration and cross-organizational benefit delivery. And besides, we’re ready to expand our efforts by managing more complexity and experimenting with new business model? Can we call it Service Design? Well I know that some practitioners are doing just that, and calling themselves that. Their work revolves around business and users interviews, understanding of organizational politics, as well as consulting and experimenting new stuff with business experts.
But are the method these people doing differ much? I hardly think so. They are still using the same approach in Design Thinking, but simply choose a different playing field / industry. It’s like seeing Volleyball players playing in an indoor court, on a beach, or inside a pool. Of course there must be some differences on requirements and skillset, but the philosophy of understanding each game, remains the same. When you see the game being played, even in different fields, you know what the objectives are.
In conclusion
So, Service Design, User Experience, Customer Experience. What are their differences? There are at least 3 angles that you can look at.
First angle, is depending on the kind of organization / industry the work is done. What are the main business objective of the organization? What does this organization / company / industry want to achieve? This question help us navigate to determine the kind of day-to-day focus of a design thinking practitioners.
Second angle, is depending on the areas of complexity / value chain you want to get your hands dirty on. Are you willing to go through the nitty-gritty details of a digital product (design decisions, user testings, etc.)? Or, do you care more about partnerships? Or perhaps, would you like to dive deeper on managing multiple channels that your users touch when interacting with your services / products?
And finally, the third angle, depends on the experience you gained in your previous professional life. Which one of those experiences are relevant most in your current business? Answering this, could also help you in navigating the kind of value you can bring along with your current work.