The aim of this research was to specify and develop a service that is capable of delivering personalisable running shoes with mass appeal. Current sports footwear personalisation services focus primarily on aesthetic design via the internet. Aesthetics do not appear to be the consumers primary interest when purchasing running shoes and a large number are also reluctant to purchase online; preferring to purchase from specialist running stores where they receive the advice needed and can directly interact with the product. After reviewing the literature, it was hypothesised that the implementation of a primarily comfort and performance running shoe personalisation service with an in store fitting element, utilising additive manufacturing as an enabling technology, would give the greatest opportunity for success. Survey methods and store visits were employed that targeted both qualitative and quantitative data, exploring consumer running shoe purchase preferences, running shoe use and opinions of current personalisation services. The findings from these studies supported the previously stated hypothesis and enabled the specification of a suitable service. Subsequently, the focus of this research was the development of a toolkit, a computer-based system that enables the consumer to make their selections, the core of most of the current services. Experts in biomechanics and additive manufacturing were consulted to ensure that a feasible yet innovative solution was delivered. The resultant toolkit prototype (www.yourstep.co.uk) was tested formatively, using multiple methods and summatively with a large sample. Using the toolkit was considered an enjoyable, intuitive experience; a large percentage (69%) of summative testing participants would consider purchasing personalised running shoes using this method. The approach adopted to specify and develop this service provides a framework, based upon empirical research, for those looking to implement a practical running shoe personalisation service that meets their consumers requirements.

Electric car sharing is gradually expanding as an innovative and more sustainable mobility alternative to private cars. Though, the use of such mobility service has not yet reached the desired levels worldwide despite attracting large number of customers. For car sharing operators, thus, it is imperative to understand the users and their needs beyond the existing demographics and quantitative data in order to design more desirable and useful services that expand customer acceptance and usage rate of such alternative. This thesis is an exploratory study about users’ needs, behaviors, and experiences toward electric car sharing and the service requirements resulting from these dimensions. Using user- centered service design approach, the study focuses in obtaining qualitative insights about users through workshops with focus groups in regards to LEV-pool, a research project that intends to field test a new approach to car sharing by offering small size electric vehicles for local mobility at a large workplace. Based on three user-centered service design methods: customer journey map, personas, and stakeholder map, a visual mapping of users, their needs, behaviors, and experiences, and service requirements is developed. The findings point at different user types with distinct purposes of using car sharing, whose needs for mobility (at work) are affected by external factors such as work activities and job occupation. Their mobility behavior differs in terms of how they interact with car sharing service and is partly influenced by the service offering. In general, users show various experiences toward car sharing systems, and many relate it to technical aspects of the service. In terms of service requirements, the results highlight available vehicles at the needed time, simple and easy booking system with many features responsive to users’ needs, maintenance and cleanliness of vehicles, effective communication of service offering, and simple pricing schemes. The underlying user dimensions explored show as relevant in shaping the users’ evaluation of a service and their decision to use a certain mobility alternative. / Electric car sharing offers a more sustainable mobility alternative to private cars. Though, the use of this service has not yet reached the desired levels worldwide despite attracting large number of customers. For car sharing operators, thus, it is imperative to understand the users and their needs in order to design more desirable and useful electric car sharing services. This thesis is an exploratory study of the users and the service of electric car sharing systems. Using user-centered service design approach, the study focuses in obtaining qualitative insights about users in regards to LEV-pool –a research project that intends to field test a new approach to car sharing by offering small size electric vehicles for local mobility at a large workplace. The study applies three user centered service design methods to capture and present a holistic understanding of users, their needs, behaviors, and experiences toward electric car sharing and the service requirements resulting from these dimensions. The findings suggest that users are distinct and have different needs for mobility (at work), which are shaped by the external factors such as work activities and job occupation. Their mobility behavior differs in terms of how they interact with car sharing service and is partly influenced by the service offering. In general, users have various experiences toward car sharing systems, and many relate it to technical aspects of the service. By exploring the users, the results point directly to different requirements that the service shall meet for it to enhance usage such as available vehicles at the needed time, simple and easy booking system with many features responsive to users’ needs, maintenance and cleanliness of vehicles, effective communication of service offering, and simple pricing schemes.

User-Centred Design (UCD) was proposed in the 1980s and, since then, its philosophy has helped to solve design problems, regardless of the advances in technology over time. The standard ISO 9241:210 (2010), formerly ISO 13407, provides guidance in human-centred design principles and activities undertaken throughout the design lifecycle to further support UCD. In addition, since it was mentioned in ISO 9241:210, UCD has also utilised User Experience Design (UXD) in recent years. There are many approaches that support UCD to ensure it is more attainable when designing. In addition, large firms, such as HP, IBM and Microsoft, use anthropologists in their user research in order to make products more user-centred. However, the concept of UCD should, theoretically, be more widely used in all product design and it is intriguing as to why it is not as popular as it should be. As noticed in the real world, imperfect designs still frustrate us everywhere. The aims of this thesis were to investigate the difficulties of practicing a UCD approach in idea generation and to design solutions for idea generation that would encourage further practice of UCD/UXD. In the first part of the thesis, there is an exploration of the problems encountered when practicing UCD idea generation. When examining the process, a multitude of problems were found, with most blamed as being costly, time consuming and requiring complex skills. In addition, it was suggested that a systematic solution was required to overcome such difficulties. Therefore, later in this research, a systematic model is proposed and evaluated using participants (both designers and target users). Due to the fact that design practitioners are not usually researchers, further help to implement the model in the form of persona application software is needed. Hence, the concept of service design was employed to further assist with the use of the model. In the end, computer-aided development was introduced, together with the integration of the systematic UCD model. The UCD model and the software have been evaluated as effective from both the responses of product design practitioners and end-users. Future recommendations and the research limitations are also discussed in each chapter and the overall results are given in the last chapter. This thesis successfully provided the complete process during the exploration of the low usage problems of UCD, and solutions were presented to assist designers with their UCD/UXD in the future.

The objective of this thesis is to explore the design of operational processes in information-intensive service delivery systems. Empirical data is presented which builds upon existing literature within the Business Process Management (BPM) and Service Operations Management (SOM) disciplines. Adopting a theory building mode, the thesis concludes with the formulation of several research propositions which specify the design characteristics of the processes that provide the service concept to the customer. The research addresses a number of gaps in the literature. First, there is little empirical evidence concerning the relationship between the service concept, customer inputs, and process design. Second, service classification schemes promote homogeneous thinking in the design of service systems delivering diverse service concepts. Third, the BPM literature provides generic process design principles which offer limited theoretical insights into the design requirements of operational processes. Finally, there is a need for process design research in information-intensive service organisations. A research framework that integrates theoretical models addressing service process design is investigated using a single case study approach. Fieldwork was carried out over a sixteen-month period in a large electricity supplier in the UK. In contrast to the macro-orientation found within the literature, this study employs a more granular level of analysis to address the unique requirements of ‘service concept – processes’ pairs. This approach results in a number of important findings which, in several instances, are in contradiction to current thinking. First, the results empirically validate the theoretical relationship between service concept, customer inputs, and process design. Different service concepts lead to different process designs, and the more customised the service concept, the more the process is uniquely designed. Significant differences in the design of the individual processes that collectively provide the service concept to the customer are highlighted. The results also provide some new insights into the design of front office – back office activities as well as into the design characteristics of processes characterised by low customer contact. In addition, the study refutes the view that generic process design principles are universally applicable irrespective of the context in which the processes operate. Finally, the research findings show that a process-based view of service systems allows for heterogeneity; that is differences in the design of service delivery processes within the same organisation.

Shaya Solutions AB verksamma inom IT-säkerhet, webbutveckling och digitalt strategiarbete ska ta fram ett digitalt system för hantering av internutbildningar med tillhörande verifikationsfunktion till finans-, kredit- och försäkringsbranschen. Målet är att underlätta hanteringen av internutbildningar och genom verifikationsfunktionen säkerställa att informationen når fram till de anställda. Detta examensarbete undersöker och definierar det tilltänkta tjänstens funktioner och utseende genom tjänstedesignsmetoder. Genom tjänstedesignmetoden kundresa och kvalitativa intervjuer med de inblandade aktörerna undersöks och definieras funktioner och utseende. Utifrån deras behov, krav och önskemål utformas sedan funktioner och utseende för att tillgodose alla inblandade aktörer. Resultatet är en kundresa där interaktioner och funktioner mellan personas är inritade. Utifrån kundresan har UX-design och visuella kommunikationsteorier använts för att skapa ett förslag på utformning och utseende för den framtida tjänsten.

Arbetets övergripande syfte har varit att kartlägga ­företagsinkubatorn Movexums kundresa, lokalisera eventuella problem och hitta ­­­­­­­­­­­förbättringsmöjligheter. En företagsinkubator hjälper entreprenörer och idébärare med att göra sina innovativa idéer att bli framgångsrika ­produkter och tjänster. Data samlades först in genom research för att sedan fyllas på med data genom observationer av det dagliga arbetet på Movexum och vid ­tillfällen där kontakt med kund sker, till exempel vid coachmöten, en kunds första intervju eller en av deras främsta tjänster, Boost Chamber. Även intervjuer med både personal på Movexum och med sju av deras kunder genomfördes, plus kortare samtal med nyblivna medlemmar i Boost Chamber. I det stora hela upplever kunderna sin resa hos Movexum väldigt positivt. Jag möttes av stor nöjdhet från dem, framförallt gällande personalen på Movexum och det bemötande och engagemang de ger kunderna. Men efter att ha analyserat den inkomna datan lade jag märke till att det rådde lite problem, förvirring och oklarheter gällande ­­­­informationen från Movexum. Exempelvis kunde kunderna uppleva svårigheter att veta om aktiviteter och information var relevant för just dem, men ­också att ­information ibland kom med för kort varsel. Dessutom rådde det ­­oklarheter hos kunderna om vad vissa tjänster faktiskt innebär för dem. Resultaten av detta blev tre förslag på verktyg. Det första är själva ­­­­kartläggningen av kundresan. En visuell kartläggning som på ett ­tydligt sätt förklarar den resa kunden gör från det att en idé föds till att man blir ­utskriven från inkubatorn som alumniföretag. Det andra ­verktyget blev beteendetyper. Ett verktyg med syftet att öka förståelsen för ­kunden och dess upplevelser under resan. Det sista verktyget blev en ­introduktionsguide. Tillsammans skapar de tre förslagen ett förbättrat ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­samarbete och underlättar arbetet för både Movexum och kunderna.

According to innovation literature, between 50% and 90% of innovations fail. An explanation for failing innovations is offered by scholars in the field of innovation resistance, who argue that it is more relevant to pay attention to the reasons why consumers reject an innovation, rather than learning about their motivations to adopt a new product or service. At the same time, previous marketing literature has devoted little attention towards design, despite its strategic importance and its role as a driver of innovation and competitive advantage. The purpose of this study was to investigate how companies perceive innovation resistance towards service innovations and how it is reflected in the service design. The major takeaways in this study revealed that companies were aware of all the barriers, except for social risk and perceived security risk. Furthermore, companies made most service design adaptations based on the usage and value barrier both prior and post launch. Also, although the tradition and norm barrier and image barrier were considered critical for an innovation’s success, companies did not change the service design accordingly. Finally, it was revealed that companies followed a hybrid approach of innovation, where more of a design-driven innovation strategy was used to generate innovation ideas and a user-centered approach was applied by involving consumers in pilot studies and listening to the consumer voices post launch.

O censo demográfico apresentado pelo IBGE em 2010 apontou cerca de 45 milhões de pessoas com alguma deficiência vivendo no Brasil, dentre as quais 35 milhões são deficientes visuais. Apesar de consistir grande parcela da população, são notáveis as barreiras que esse público enfrenta para ter acesso à cultura e ao lazer, pois as iniciativas de inclusão em ambientes de convívio social são limitadas e muitas vezes inexistentes. Sob o olhar do Design, e com base em métodos relacionados Design de Serviços, este trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa não propositiva sobre acessibilidade daquele público em salas de cinema, considerando toda a complexidade que envolve essa experiência, desde, por exemplo, a produção de filmes até a experiência propriamente dita nos espaços de projeção. / The census presented by IBGE in 2010 showed about 45 million people with disabilities living in Brazil, of which 35 million are visually impaired. Despite this fact, persons with disabilities face obvious barriers to cultural and leisure services due to the limitation or lack of attitudinal and environmental inclusion initiatives. From a Design perspective, and based on Service Design methods, this paper presents a research on accessibility in cinemas, considering the complexity that surrounds this experience, the production of films, and the experience itself in projection rooms.

Dans le cadre d’un projet industriel de conception de navettes de transport autonomes (sans chauffeur), nous avons analysé les expériences vécues et les valeurs en acte des régulateurs afin d'identifier leur contribution à l'acceptation et à la sécurité des navettes et du service associé. En effet, à l'étape du développement actuel du projet, le système de transport n'atteint pas le niveau d'autonomie visé et des régulateurs œuvrent au fonctionnement du service – dont des accompagnants qui sont systématiquement présents à bord de chaque navette. Nous avons mis en perspectives ces analyses avec les analyses des activités et des valeurs d’autres acteurs impliqués dans le processus de conception : les passagers, les usagers des sites non-utilisateurs des navettes, les exploitants des navettes, les concepteurs. Entre 2013 et 2016, des investigations ont été menées sur six sites européens sur lesquels les navettes étaient mises à l'essai. Ont alors été réalisés : des analyses systématiques des situations critiques gérées par les régulateurs, des entretiens composites (semi-directifs inspirés des techniques d'explicitation) auprès des régulateurs, des exploitants, des concepteurs, des questionnaires à destination des usagers des sites (passagers ou non). Les investigations menées ont montré que les régulateurs mobilisaient principalement 7 valeurs. Les investigations ont également révélé l’existence de 19 situations critiques (situations dans lesquelles les régulateurs doivent arbitrer entre des valeurs en conflit). Les réponses apportées par les régulateurs en situations critiques révèlent que la hiérarchisation de ces valeurs dépend d’arbitrages variables et situés. Nous discutons enfin de la contribution de ces réponses à l’acceptation du système de transport, notamment en fiabilisant sa performance, en gérant sa sécurité, en maximisant son utilité et en développant une relation de service auprès des passagers. Ces résultats conduisent ainsi à interroger le statut de l’humain dans les processus de conception et d’acceptation de technologies autonomes et sécurisées. / As part of an industrial project to design autonomous (driverless) shuttles, we have analyzed the experiences and values of the supervisors, so as to identify their contribution to the acceptance of the shuttles and related services and to be able to continue to design this transport service. It would seem that the system under investigation is currently not autonomous to the degree that had been expected, with a human supervisor operating on-board during every trip. In 2015 and 2016, studies were carried out at six european sites where shuttles were being tested. The following were performed : systematic analyses of critical situations dealt with by the supervisors, composite interviews (semi-structured, based on elicitation interviews) with supervisors, owners, designers, and questionnaires to sites users. Results show that supervisors mobilize seven values in their activity. We have identified 19 critical situations involving arbitration, in which these values appear to be contradictory. The responses of the supervisors, in situation, show that the prioritization of these values depends on various situated arbitrations. We then discuss how these responses contribute towards the acceptance of the transport system, notably by making its performance more reliable, maximizing its usefulness and developing a service relationship with the passengers. These results thus lead us to question the status of the human being in autonomous technology and related services, design and acceptance processes

This master thesis is covering a project that focuses on developing both babysitting services and dog walking services and facilitating them through a mobile application. Only the user interface for the service of babysitting was created because the dog walking service was considered to be less of a complex service, and not add to more to the insights in this project. The project was started due to observations that the babysitting service is highly used in America, but it does not operate in a structured fashion. Many parents are new to babysitting which creates uncertainty when ordering and scheduling babysitter. Babysitter, on the other hand, are usually younger and inexperienced. The user interface is created with a service design approach. Developing the service though by creating stakeholder maps, customer journeys, and, service blueprints. Creating the user interface with the service blueprint as a reference. By taking this approach business insight where created and the babysitting service could be created as a hollow organization. An organization that combines more than one service to create greater value for the end user. / Den här examens rapporten innehåller arbetet att fram ta en barnvakts service och en service för att hjälpa hundägare att rasta hunden när de är frånvarande. Ett grönsint har designat för att tillgodo se användaren med servicen. Hund servicens användargränssnitt har dock inte designats på grund av att servicen ansågs mindre komplex och inte bedrog till insikterna i projektet. Projektet startade på grund av en observation baserad på barnvakts tjänster använd i Amerika. Observationen visade att många föreldar använder sig utav barnvakter men kommunikationen mellan föräldrar och barnvakter varierade mycket. Variationen skapar svårigheter i servicen. Mång föräldrar som aldrig använt sig av barnvakts tjänster har svårt att bedöma vad som kan begäras och hur mycket de ska betala. Barnvakter som oftast är unga människor är de som lider av situation. Unga och oerfarna som är drar sig för att säga till när allt inte stämmer överens. Användargränssnittet är skapat med en servicedesign approach. Arbeta fram en service genom att ska stakeholder maps, customer journeys och service blueprints. Användargränssnittet skapades genom att använda service blueprinten som en referens till vilka funktioner som ska finnas med. Genom att ta använda sig av servicedesign för att ta fram gränssnittet har insikter skapat ur en organisatorisk synpunkt. Insikter som lede till skapandet av en ”hollow” organisation. En organisation som combinera fler typer av service för att skapa mervärde till slutanvändaren.