What is design thinking?
Design thinking is an approach to solve complex problems in a user-centered way. It’s a hands-on approach, following a structured process to come to innovate solutions. Using an elaborate set of design tools, design thinking brings together what is desirable from a user’s point of view, technologically feasible and economically viable.
Design thinking can be applied to a wide variety of fields, most obvious the field of product and service innovation. But, not so obvious areas like politics, human resources and education are more and more working with design thinking and delivering tangible results.
*Design thinking definition based on Tim Brown’s book ‘Change by design.’
What is service design?
Service design is the practical and creative application of design tools and methods with the goal to develop or improve services. It is the activity of orchestrating people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to create value for all stakeholders involved, build a distinctive brand experience and maximise business potential.
As the definition already states, Service design is applied to develop or improve services. Service designers have a service-oriented view of the world, where all interactions between a brand and a user are regarded as services. E.g. looking at a drill: people don’t want a drill, they want the service of making a hole in the wall, or even more: they want to keep the memory of their grandmother alive by hanging a frame to the wall. The drill is just a material component to deliver the service.
More information about service design? Check out our blog ‘What is service design?‘.
“Service design is the practical application of design thinking for the development of services”
Service design vs design thinking
So, looking at both methodologies, there are actually more similarities than differences. To name a few important ones. Both methodologies:
- Are very well suited to handle the complex, ambiguous phases at the beginning of the innovation process, where uncertainty rules (the fuzzy front end).
- Are truly user-centered and rely heavily on empathising with users.
- Use a very similar process. The service design process is actually based on the design thinking process as described by the d.school of Stanford – emphatise, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
- Use the left and the right brain, creative and analytical thinking, throughout the process in a thinking and doing approach.
- Stimulate co-creation between many stakeholders from various disciplines in order to maximise support and draw from different expertises, in the end maximizing the quality of the outcomes.
So, what is the biggest difference between design thinking and service design?
As we see it, service design is the practical application of design thinking to the development of services. However, the biggest difference lies in its practitioners.
- Design thinking is mostly practised by non-designers.
It’s more about a mindset, a way of thinking. It is about using a process of diverging and converging to solve a wide range of problems. A lot of ‘soft’ factors are involved, like team dynamics, changing mindsets and user-centricity. - Service design is mostly practised by human-centric designers.
It makes use of more elaborate and extensive design methods, focuses on the development of services and can directly impact all facets of an organisation. Applying tools is important and business objectives are service-related, like increasing NPS or minimising churn.
And there you have it, an extensive comparison between service design and design thinking.
About the author
Back in 2009 Robbert-Jan van Oeveren co-founded Koos. It was one of the first agencies active in the field of service design. Since then, the agency has evolved into a strategy and design agency with a strong focus on digital product design. Koos has a long track record of offering service design services to clients across Europe, the Middle East, North America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. Our mission: crafting human-centered solutions that help you achieve your business goals and move the needle in your organization and industry.