To create fulfilling service experiences, facility and design managers need support from methodologies capable of putting people, their experiences and behaviours at the centre of the entire design process. Human-Centred Service Design represents such an approach. Here’s how to adopt it.

1. Human-Centred
Service Design
Creating great service experiences
in the 21st century

2. I call human-centred an approach to design and research that takes seriously the
proposition that behaviour and understanding go hand-in-glove, that the use of artefacts
is inseperable from how users conceive of them and engage with them in their world. Let
me state the proposition more concisely: humans do not respond to the physical qualities
of things but to what they mean to them.
- Krippendorff, 1989

3. What is human-centred
design?
Human-centred design taps into the creative abilities we
as human beings have. Creative abilities that often get
overlooked by conventional problem-solving.
It is based on the use of techniques which communicate,
interact, emphasize and stimulate the people involved,
obtaining an understanding of their needs, desires and
experiences. In turn the process leads to products and
services which are physically, perceptually, cognitively and
emotionally intuitive.

4. The 4 fundamentals
of human-centred design
It’s Optimistic
Human-centred design is
developed on basis of the
fundamental belief that
we all can create change,
no matter the constrains
surrounding us.
It’s experimental
Human-centred design
is about experimenting
and learning by doing.
Don’t be afraid of taking
risks and don’t expect
perfection. This only
limits our possibilities
to create more radical
change.
It’s Collaborative
With the belief that
several minds are
stronger than one,
human-centred design
greatly benefits from
the views of multiple
perspectives
It’s emphatic
Unlike traditional
design processes,
human-centred design
begins from a deep
understanding of the
needs and motivations of
people.

5. Human-centred service design
Human-centred service design is crucial for successful facility services management in the future.
For facility services to be effective and have the desired impact, it is essential to gain a deep
understanding of the people you will be serving.
This should not only be constrained to what they need and desire, but what limitations they face,
what motivates them, and what’s important to them.

6. Human-centred service
design
Physical environments, such as the workplace, influence how
people feel and give people signals about how to behave.
Utilizing human-centred design, designers and facility services
managers can help make the emotional parts of a space as
important as the functional and thereby promote a sense of
purpose and belonging among the employees.
To create these emotional connections in workspaces,
service managers must be inspired by behaviors rather
than demographics, rely on dynamic conversations
rather than scripted interviews and let the process
take place in natural contexts rather than
controlled settings.

7. Human- centred design consists of a series of questions and
answers which span the spectrum from the physical nature of
people’s interaction with the service to the metaphysical.
Service Designs whose characteristics translate to the
questions in the top of the pyramid are capable of giving a
new meaning into a person’s life. In return this allows
companies creating meaningful workplace environments that
both strengthen the employer brand and the commercial
aspect of the business.
The human-centred design pyramid
Source: Joseph Giacomin, Human Centred Design Institute, Brunel University - 2012
Meaning
(Why)
Semiotics, Communication
and Discourse (How)
Interactivity (When)
Activities, Tasks and Functions (What)
Human factors (Who)

8. The human-centred
design toolkit

9. Applying the human-centred
approach to service design
The human-centred approach to service design is a circular
process which starts with people and ends with innovative
solutions that are tailored to their needs.
Ideation
Observation
Implementation
Iteration
Experience Prototyping
User Feedback

10. Phase 1
Observation
Contrary to traditional design processes that tend to be based on briefs and
assumptions, human-centred service design must be initiated through real life
observations that allow the designer to understand and feel what is important
and valuable. It is only when a designer puts emotions to work that emotionally
evoking spaces can be created..
The purpose is to identify patterns of behavior, pain points, and places in the workplace
environment where the employees experience difficulties.
Observing these behaviors and perceptions will help service designers to understand the user
experience and feel what the users feel during each touch point in the user journey.

11. Phase 2
Ideation
The second phase of the design thinking process is ideation. As more brains is better than
one, a team will go through a process of synthesis in which they distill what they saw and
heard into insights that can lead to solutions or opportunities for change.
Working in a team, helps multiply options to create choices and different insights about
human behavior. By testing competing ideas against one another, the likelihood that the
outcome will be bolder and more compelling increases.
Being fundamentally experimental, human-centred design is a process where
the designers should not expect perfection and be afraid of taking risks.
Instead, the attention must be placed on the needs and desires of the
people the service is designed for. Doing so, the ideas will eventually
evolve in the right solution.

12. Phase 3
Experience prototyping
When the team of service designers have identified the best idea, it is time to create a
experience prototype that allows the designers to show and test the solution through
an active participation of the users.
The purpose of this phase is not to create the perfect
solution. Rather it is to test whether your solution is
somehow hitting the target. Don’t be afraid of testing
several experiences and measure the outcomes up
against each other to identify the right solution.

13. Phase 4
User feedback
Following the experience prototyping,
user feedback is the most critical phase
of the human-centered design process.
Without inputs from the end user you
can only wonder whether or not the
solution is on target.

14. Phase 5
Iteration
After user feedback follows iteration. Here
designers have got user feedback that can
fuel changes to their current service design.
Iteration may take a few rounds with
continuous tests and feedback integrations
until the service is fine tuned.

15. Phase 6
Implementation
The final stage of the human-centred design process is implementation.
Implementation represents a concrete, fully conceived action plan created on basis of
ideation, prototyping, user feedback and iteration.
During the implementation phase, the design team helps
tocreate a communication strategy that is suited
to communicate the solution to diverse
sets of stakeholders inside and outside
of the organization.

16. Would you like to learn more
on how to create excellent
service experiences?
Download the ISS 2020 Vision White Book: Future
of Service Management