#serv216 fall2014

Storytelling has become an important part of any field of design. Narrating a story with believable characters that face problems people face everyday, and how the service, product, or software comes in as the hero which will solve everyday struggles and conflicts. When you create a compelling story, it makes the whole concept much more understandable, and both clients and others in your team will grasps the concept more easily. A story also makes any given scenario more believable, and puts the idea as a real possibility, not just an abstract concept.

The greatest ideas of the world have always scared people. Art, science, design, the greatest inventors of all time have been rejected and questioned by others who do not understand or do not see the greatness of what they are doing because it challenges their current reality. To make a great idea become a reality, learning how to pitch it is primordial, since it will determine the success or failure of it coming to life.

Implementing a new service, or an improvement can be quite costly, so before actually putting it into action and making clients spend hundreds of dollars, it should be prototyped. This will uncover mistakes, new opportunities and changes. 

Comparing service design to theater has become quite common, actors, props, sets, scripts, they all have a representation somehow in service design. Everything has to be rehearsed, well crafted and planned before hand to be able to put on a good performance. Things have to go well backstage so that the audience can witness a good show. And even though the performance is practiced hundreds of times, there are always external factors that can completely change the expected outcomes, factors that can not be controlled by anyone. 

On October 29 I attended the lecture by Brian Gillespie, who spoke about his experience at the Service Design Network Global Conference. He talked about coherent systems, and how they meet the world's increasing complexity. About micro interactions, small experiences that have a big impact. He also said that we as service designers need to pave the way for easy implementation, we have to create an openness to change. I find this very true and a very compelling statement, because usually people fear change and they avoid it, and service design is all about changing things, restructuring, reframing, so to really make things better, things need to change first. But how do you overcome people's apprehensiveness to change?

Two videos About Design, innovation and business