the service.
This section illustrates my appraisal of my service concept and how it was articulated. It also depicts the feedback gained from testing the service.
I believe the service behind Douceurs very much capitalises on my research findings and I have successfully unpackaged the process of letter writing.
“Douceurs has the potential to become the most meaningful communication medium as it is such a thought provoking process”tester one.
My service is very people centered and is designed around particular behavioural traits and values - my favourite part of this process has been truly learning about people at a new level. I have most definitely cultivated new skills for empathising with people. I am a visual thinker and I think I have successfully utilised user insights gained to translate multiple perspectives into a concrete solution. The main key to success behind this service concept was the fact the purpose and target group of Douceurs was very well defined, and always very clear in my own mind.
" Technology is not a hero. Service is not a hero. People and their lives are heroes."Gill Wildman.
I regret not having a concise metaphor to illustrate the service concept more effectively during short conversations. Despite efforts I could not create a metaphor I was happy with therefore creating metaphors to communicate concepts is a technique I intend to master.
I feel my empathetic skills have improved whilst designing this service. The experience is an emotional one and this led to me exploring moods, sensibilities and sensitivities, values and pressures. I have been forced to truly make things work for real people , I am confident I have proven there is an opportunity for my service – this has been a huge journey : starting with the understanding of users, imagining what it could be, experimenting through prototyping and conversations and encouraging participation from myself
The way a service flows is very important. This has been challenging at times as my service is very long term; questions such as what if someone moves house? what if someone dies? etc have all been addressed. Regretfully, I have not fully addressed questions such as is there a trash button? Is there duplicates? These are questions that do not have a concrete conclusion yet...
However, my learnings on Service Design have highlighted it is more about the flow of the experience rather than the components. I believe the edges should blur and the focus should be on interactions.
Creating service evidence has been a huge learning curve for me as I have limited experience with graphics and print. I strived to communicate what my service would look like if it existed . I tried to provide clues and I am confident I was creative in doing this rather than using computer software I used photographs and sketches as well – receipts, emails, adverts etc. Realising the service and making it happen - implementation and delivery - has been very exciting. I genuinely believe I have developed the tools and approaches utilised in my development stage - such as creating service wall charts and character profiles. These tools were essential to enable me to create a visual working platform and they were very useful when visualising the service. Before this project I underestimated the usefulness of the simple post-it note! I now realise what an important tool they are for getting complex ideas down visually and quickly.
I am happy that I have embraced the power of imagery and words throughout this project. After all, the project arose from my love of words and my interest in this area is now even stronger. I really enjoyed creating a mood board to show my target audience, taking the advice of Professor Tom Inns I used words and images to visually depict personalities.
I have learnt that blueprinting is no simple task – for among the many other intriguing characteristics of services, it is infact that services ‘exist’ in two different states of being. You can enter services from so many angles and perspectives - to capture this graphically was a hurdle but I am happy with the result.
The design of the service website was a challenge as I have never designed a website for public use before. I am happy with the corporate persona my website creates and I feel it reflects the soul and the spirit of the service in a comprehensible way.
"Good service design is remarkably simple but extremely effective."David Townson
I sent letters to the ten people who responded to my advert in the Evening Telegraph. I placed this advert in the paper at the end of the development stage. I am glad I made this decision so early on and I am delighted at the response I got.
The letters I sent to the people informed them of Douceurs and asked them to write the letter they would send if Douceurs really existed. I have arranged to interview each individual after I receive their letter to ask their opinion on the service as well as learn more about the customer journey. These results will be documented here asap.
These responses show that the there is a definite market for my service. In advertising the characteristics I outlined in my development stage I gained responses from people ages 15-60+. Without knowing any details about Douceurs all these people were keen to be involved and learn more purely because they all shared the characteristics of a typical service user.
The way I have set up the testing will definitely improve my interviewing skills. This nature of testing has reinforced my aim from the very outset - this project is all about people: real life scenarios with real life people.
A service is never likely to be perfect and can therefore always be improved. My efforts ensure the best possible service performance. But systems are complex and as the environment changes it will always be necessary to test, improve and maintain the service.
The future for Douceurs is full of potential as my research has shown that privacy will become more critical as years pass. The simplicity of the nature of the concept and it's relationship with a humble piece of paper – has revealed unexploited potential - designing this service was an opportunity to investigate an unlived and unexploited customer touchpoint
"Admirably simple and beautifully rich concept"Graham Pullin
Learning to use free mind an interactive mind mapping tool was interesting and I am now equipped with a more professional way to capturing my thoughts in mind map form.
I believe I have successfully tested and experienced the service. I have designed everything necessary to plan and specify a service. While being really clear what the service is and how all the components link together. I often could have been better at simply explaining the service to people- enabling understanding . Similarly, I would have to like to visually illustrate the future possibilities I have explored in a more captivating manner. I am proud of myself for stepping out my comfort zone when approaching sensualisation - visualisation for all senses. I used a wide range of mediums such as hand sketches, photo shop mock ups, video montages to real life prototypes. I am confident I reached a different level of abstraction and detail than I have ever had done before.
It is important to note that I often found it challenging to create the connection between my project and its reality due to the nature of my concept being based on the future.
I believe self referential design has been an important fact when designing the service. Self referential design is when the designer projects their own goals, motivations, skills and mental models onto projects and is careful to verify assumptions. This has been really important for me as I believe my personal traits and characteristics encompass all the traits of a user of the Douceurs service.
"You can't experience the experience until you experience it"Bill Moggridge, IDEO
The fact services are ‘living organisms’ and as designers we nurture them, but they keep on living for years and years is particularly relevant to this service. Putting Douceurs in a future context has been at the forefront of my mind whilst designing this service. This is a aspect that I predict would perhaps get slightly neglected when designing services so I am grateful that the nature of Douceurs forced me to think about it.
“content of the letter was secondary to the act of sending it”tester two.
The future will involve researching further the ethical and cultural impact of the service. Looking at how the touchpoints would need to change for utilisation in different cities.
"The future is shifting pleasure, status and cultural status from what we have but what we do." Gillian Cramption-Smith.
This is an example of the feedback from the people of Dundee who responded to my advertisement. This letter was written by a young girl called Gillian- a creative writing college student who chose to write a letter of hopes to herself, ten years from now. She described the experience as 'strange but good' and the overall concept as 'excellent.'
This letter is the result of user testing with Paul Montgomery, a leisure development assistant. Working every day with children Paul expressed his strong belief that the concept of Douceurs could benefit the education cirriculum tremendously. In particular, when focuing on hand writing and spelling as well as learning values of life in classes such as Personal Social Education.
During a lesson creating time capsules with a group of eight year olds, one boy voiced " I would like to write a letter just now and get it back when I go to the big school."
This testing has opened up a new avenue for Douceurs to pursue in the future. This feedback is exciting as it creates a new market to approach and new branding etc. aiming the service at children and education.
User Testing
Further interviews were carried out with the participants pictured below. After they had written there letter to the future, I then visited them in their homes to find out more.
Margaret is aged 70+ years old, she divorced many years ago and lives alone - never having had any children. She lives an active life and is a keen gardener. Margaret has a strong relationship with her sister, they go for lunch every Sunday. Having studied for many years of her life and had a successful career as an English teacher she is very knowledgeable with regards to the english language and etiquette. She often writes letters and keeps diaries and journals.
Having recently completed a large project researching her family history Margaret wrote a letter of legacy to her niece to tell of her findings and encourage her niece to find the missing pieces in the family tree.
Jonathan, is 18 years old, he lives in student halls of residence with four other boys of similar ages. Having recently moved out of home he has embarked upon life at University studying Physics. He is an excellent football player and a keen musician. He plays drums, piano and guitar. He is part of a band in which he plays drums. Jonathan is a very family person, with a close relationship to both his parents and his older sister. He is very intelligent and likes to make people laugh.
Jonathan wrote a letter of future thoughts to himself as he liked the thought of capturing what his life is like now, at 18, and receiving it when he is 'old and married.'
Shona, is 40+ years old, she's in the process of moving house. She lives in Perth with her two children - Ally aged 22 and Nicky aged 19, whom she is close to. Shona has an identical twin sister and works in a pharmacy in town. She loves to cook and enjoys learning new recipes. Shona likes to travel and often goes on trips abroad.
Shona wrote a letter of hopes and dreams to her son Alastair as he is soon to start a second degree at university. She wanted the letter to be delivered in 6 years when her son is soon to graduate again to remind him of her love for him.
