The design-related terminology can be very fuzzy. And although the Internet is full of materials explaining the difference between basic concepts such as UI UX Design, Service Design, or Product Design, the problem still exists. This is due to the fact that concepts often change with the advent of new technologies, trends or disciplines.
To a novice, it may seem that there is no difference between these concepts, and all of them somehow relate to what users see & feel when they interact with the product. But this is not the case.
Here, we will focus on the concepts of UX Design and Service Design, so that you understand what makes them different. In addition, we will also try to determine which problems are solved with the help of both concepts, and why the idea of service design can go far beyond the scope of ‘styling’.
UX Design
Any design, in one way or another, is aimed at the end-user. In other words, the task of all the concepts described above is to keep in mind the image of a user who will interact with the product. Moreover, the product can be anything, from digital products to multi-operational services such as airline companies or postal services.
In the modern world, UX design is most often used in the development of digital products, including applications and websites. Keeping this in mind, we understand that UI design agency San Francisco has a set of measures aimed at predicting and creating the most favorable conditions for the user’s interaction with the product.
Thus, best UX/UI agency is in charge of designing users’ touchpoints for a separate product.
Service Design
The concept of service design is broader than the previous one. In order to better understand the difference, let’s consider a real example — the postal service.
First of all, the postal service is a complex mechanism, which includes many operations and interactions with people and products. For example, we can list such things as:
- Finding the best locations for warehouses and delivery stations;
- Adjusting shipment of the goods;
- Managing logistics;
- Receiving orders;
- Reporting;
- VR and AR
- Accounting and more.
In this example, service design covers all processes. The scope of service design is large. It can be applied to car design, determining the best locations for post offices, and more.
It seems a little incomprehensible now, doesn’t it? Everything will become clear to you when we draw a line between both concepts. In order to do this, we need to consider the processes of both UX and Service Design.
The difference between the UX and Service Design processes
It can be hard to compare Service and UX design processes. This is largely due to the fact that some activities included in UX design are also part of service design. But we will try to describe it in a simple way, using the previous example — the postal service.
UX Design processes
Keeping in mind that today UX designers are mostly responsible for digital products, we can say that such a designer will work on a mobile application or a website for this postal service. So, the following processes will be carried out:
- Studying the app’s target audience, as well as its goals, needs, and possible problems;
- Designing key tasks that the user will solve with the application;
- Designing various options for each task that will help the user achieve the goal and receive value from the application;
- Repeating all of these processes for each task that the application will perform.
Based on the results, the UX designer often provides a set of screens with user touchpoints, which are delivered to developers who will then create a working application.
Ultimately, UX design is responsible for all forms of human-device interaction. The importance of the UX design is hard to overestimate because it helps to meet the users’ needs and is directly responsible for their loyalty to your product, brand or company.
Service Design processes
However, the work of the postal service isn’t limited to digital products. This is a huge service that includes many touchpoints, and either a site or an app is one of them.
In addition to digital products, the company should consider advertising, offline processes, and physical infrastructure. Ultimately, the work of the postal service includes hundreds of user touchpoints.
The service designer pays attention to how users interact with individual touchpoints but he/she also needs to understand how all these processes interact with each other — how people come to contact this postal service, how they interact with each part of this service’s work cycle, and what impression they have after using this service.
At the same time, such people consider more systemic problems and cannot improve a specific product. Simply put, the service designer is engaged in the design of a complete end-to-end service at a general system level.
Service designers deal with user experience on a global, systemic scale. They are in charge of creating a solution that will affect several global processes at once. Let’s say, the postal service sees a decrease in the number of customers and an increasing number of negative reviews. They can’t understand at what exact stage of the service cycle users receive this negative experience. They turn to a service designer to review the whole process.
Summing up
In the end, we would like to say that the line between the concepts is quite blurred, due to the fact that both UX design and service design are responsible for the experience that the user receives. However, service design makes it possible to consider problems at a global level, while UX design is a more sector-specific discipline.
