I finally picked up a copy of Lou Downe's Good Services: How to design services that work. Why did y'all let me wait so long to do that?!?
https://good.services/home
Just over 50 pages in, and this book is in my top 3 for service design books. Truth be told, they had me at page 25 with this:
https://good.services/home
Just over 50 pages in, and this book is in my top 3 for service design books. Truth be told, they had me at page 25 with this:
...services often keep a channel as a back-up long after the technology has ceased to be the main means of access for users, which in turn leads us to try to run the same service in multiple channels, without thinking of how that service would work natively in its new environment. The simple fact that our services weren't designed for the channel they're delivered in is one of the most common causes of service failure.
Anyone who has listened to me rant about "digital transformation" and the way that so many people simply try to "digitize" their existing analog processes, to complain about how so many people continue to think in atoms instead of in bits, can imagine my reaction on reading that paragraph.
Also from that page is an observation that ties into that, the difference between "of the internet" and "on the internet". Music to my ears.
One more quick quote, this one from page 36.
Service failure is hidden in wrongly worded questions, broken links and poorly trained staff; in emails not sent, phone lines that have been closed or inaccessible PDFs. In short, it's hidden in the small, everyday failures of our services to meet the very basic needs our users have - to be able to do the thing they set out to do.
The bulk of the book consists of 15 Principles of Good Service Design, such as "be easy to find" (1), "be agnostic of organizational structures" (7), and "be usable by everyone equally" (11). You can find a summary of the principles on the School of Good Services site.
https://good.services/15-principles-of-good-service-design
But it's not just the content of the book that I'm loving. The design of the physical book is just, well, good. Heavy stock, multicolored pages of fountain pen friendly paper. Almost like it was put together with construction paper for a school project. Main text that is not to big, not too small. Pages with large text to call out main points, multiple colors, and a sprinkling of diagrams. A pleasure to hold, to read, to write and doodle in.
Which makes sense, since it is published by BIS Publishers, who also published the book that sits at my number one, Thinking in Services by Majid Iqbal.
https://www.bispublishers.com/thinking-in-services.html
I highly recommend getting, reading, absorbing both of these books.