Service design is the discipline of designing good services that users need to a certain standard.
What we mean by 'services'
When we talk about 'services', we do not mean a:
process
form
department
"To a user, a service is simple - it's something that helps them to do something." - Government Service Manual.
What makes a 'good' service
A good service enables the user to complete the thing they set out to do as seamlessly as possible.
Good services usually start with verbs - for example, booking a tip slot, paying for a Council Tax bill, or reporting a repair. This makes the purpose of the service clear.
Without service design, bad services are the default.
It is easy to design new services badly. Services often reflect the needs of the organisation over the people that use them. It requires time and effort to learn who might use your service and what their needs are, and as a consequence this often isn't prioritised.
It is also easy to let once-effective services become outdated and unfit for purpose. Most Council services were designed long ago in different contexts, for different people. These "legacy" services no longer meet the needs of our users. Most were not designed for the digital age, even if they have been lifted and shifted onto our digital platforms since. We are rarely building new services from scratch but this doesn't mean less dedication is needed to improve them.
The consequences of not doing service design
Bad services come at a high price.
Bad services that users:
don't understand
find hard to use
don't allow them to finish what they set out to do
leads to our resources being spent dealing with the fallout.
A common consequence of bad services is failure demand, with more contact into the Council that we use resources managing. In the worst cases, bad and inaccessible services can risk making people more vulnerable and may push them towards crisis point.
What service design looks like
Service design involves the whole picture, from:
end-to-end: this means from when the user starts trying to achieve a goal to when they finish
front to back: understanding and analysing all front-end and back-end parts of the service - i.e. both customer touchpoints and business/staff touchpoints
every channel: digital, phone, post and face to face interactions considered
Service design is an evidence-based, data-driven discipline. It involves thorough evidence gathering and analysis, to gain as much understanding of our users and their needs, behaviours, goals and experiences associated with each service.
To gain these insights to design our services, we use a combination of the following methods:
data analysis
user research
process analysis
There are many different tools and techniques we use to do service design, but throughout all our work is a desire to champion our users and deliver the best services we can for them.
Doing service design at Gateshead Council
We have a community of practise dedicated to supporting those who do service design, have an interest in doing service design, or do work related to service design. Learn more about this community.
