thomasindc's review against another edition
I’ve owned this book for several years, but other than a really light skim some time ago, haven’t picked it up. I’m coming into a change management role right now and thought I should pick it up. Once again, this is a technical reference book (it’s literally called “A Practitioners’ Handbook” - so I don’t think it is really designed for someone to sit down and read it work for word like a piece of literature. That’s not what I did - I did a version of academic skimming with a few sections that seemed particularly relevant getting a deep read. I think the book wants to be read this way given it is highly sectioned and labeled, with key text highlighted. I really liked this.
This is certainly an element of change management from a very particular viewpoint: designers, primarily in the technology domain. That said, I think there is a lot here that can be applied analogously elsewhere. Many of the facilitation, ideation, and planning tools, in particular, strike me as useful. I really liked the tools around Personas and Journey Maps. I saw these in practice for the first time this week unrelatedly and it was great to see a different view of them.
A lot of this book comes across as… Not exactly “dumbing down” academic subjects, but certainly making them easier to digest. If you haven’t had an academic research course, and you’re not engaging in academic research, the research component of this book is probably very useful. If you have, it might just be a helpful refresher.
I made a lot of marks and bookmarks to come back to this as a technical reference and I do plan to keep it around for access to the tools and cases to see what I can use from it analogously in organizational and programmatic change management.
This is certainly an element of change management from a very particular viewpoint: designers, primarily in the technology domain. That said, I think there is a lot here that can be applied analogously elsewhere. Many of the facilitation, ideation, and planning tools, in particular, strike me as useful. I really liked the tools around Personas and Journey Maps. I saw these in practice for the first time this week unrelatedly and it was great to see a different view of them.
A lot of this book comes across as… Not exactly “dumbing down” academic subjects, but certainly making them easier to digest. If you haven’t had an academic research course, and you’re not engaging in academic research, the research component of this book is probably very useful. If you have, it might just be a helpful refresher.
I made a lot of marks and bookmarks to come back to this as a technical reference and I do plan to keep it around for access to the tools and cases to see what I can use from it analogously in organizational and programmatic change management.
juliana_aldous's review against another edition
3.0
This is Service Design Thinking was designed to be a much needed textbook on the new interdisciplinary approach to designing services. If you work at all in in high tech you would be well served by reading this book--but service design touches almost any business.
The content is good--I especially enjoyed the middle sections that describe a number of methodologies for designing services. I've worked with a few myself including personas, idea generation (SWOT and mindmapping), agile development, storytelling, and my personal favorite--business model canvas. (Damn, I need to make sure all that is on my LinkedIn profile!) I also enjoyed some of the included in-depth articles on deep service design thinking. The essay on "Integrating Service Design Thinking and Motivational Psychology" by Fergus Bisset and "Service Design and Biophila" by Renato Troncon are worth the price of admission.
A shout-out now if you want to see world-class design affecting real people in action. Watch this video by Krista Donaldson and the folks at D-Rev.
So now what I didn't really like about this textbook... And mind you, I'm coming at this from an experienced book editor in high tech. The book was crowd-sourced but I think lacks a strong lead editor. It is a collection of material and I guess that is okay for a textbook like this, but I prefer having one expert guide me through the work of others than sifting through myself.
And the book was so over-designed as to be distracting. It has a number of bells and whistles--color-coded sections, ribbon bookmarks, a poster, pre-highlights and so many icons there is a map to the icons in the back. All of this is rather distracting. I hate having my books pre-highlighted for me. If I find it important, I will highlight it. I can do that. I kind of disagreed with whoever made some of the highlighting decisions.
I hope there will be a second edition because this is a good book, but it needs the hand of a firm editor to take it to the next level for me.
But I will keep the book on my shelf and will probably check out other titles that are referenced.
And if you work on services-- do take a look at the Business Model Canvas. If I were to pick one method over the others that would be it for me. I can learn so much about how a business works by taking it through the canvas just on my own.
The content is good--I especially enjoyed the middle sections that describe a number of methodologies for designing services. I've worked with a few myself including personas, idea generation (SWOT and mindmapping), agile development, storytelling, and my personal favorite--business model canvas. (Damn, I need to make sure all that is on my LinkedIn profile!) I also enjoyed some of the included in-depth articles on deep service design thinking. The essay on "Integrating Service Design Thinking and Motivational Psychology" by Fergus Bisset and "Service Design and Biophila" by Renato Troncon are worth the price of admission.
A shout-out now if you want to see world-class design affecting real people in action. Watch this video by Krista Donaldson and the folks at D-Rev.
So now what I didn't really like about this textbook... And mind you, I'm coming at this from an experienced book editor in high tech. The book was crowd-sourced but I think lacks a strong lead editor. It is a collection of material and I guess that is okay for a textbook like this, but I prefer having one expert guide me through the work of others than sifting through myself.
And the book was so over-designed as to be distracting. It has a number of bells and whistles--color-coded sections, ribbon bookmarks, a poster, pre-highlights and so many icons there is a map to the icons in the back. All of this is rather distracting. I hate having my books pre-highlighted for me. If I find it important, I will highlight it. I can do that. I kind of disagreed with whoever made some of the highlighting decisions.
I hope there will be a second edition because this is a good book, but it needs the hand of a firm editor to take it to the next level for me.
But I will keep the book on my shelf and will probably check out other titles that are referenced.
And if you work on services-- do take a look at the Business Model Canvas. If I were to pick one method over the others that would be it for me. I can learn so much about how a business works by taking it through the canvas just on my own.
reydan's review against another edition
4.0
Good summary on what is called nowadays a service design, known for ages as user or human-centered approach.
givethatbooknerd's review
2.0
2 stars: a bit too much thinking, not enough service design.
The information: not as practical as I would have hoped. It starts with a ~holistic~(you'll get tired of that word) reflection on what service design is, which in my opinion is a bit too vague. The tools are nice, but not as well described, so you have to use your information a bit on how to apply them. The cases are good to get a general idea of service design in practice, but I was hoping for a bit more detail on how the tools were used. Instead, they only get a brief mention ("We used this method").
The readability: overall this was fine, but the first part contained too much abstract thinking and fancy words to my taste.
The structure: they did something funky to the structure. Like they explain at the beginning of the book, they try to treat it as a service. It's a fun gimmick, but I don't think it really adds anything to the book.
Best part: the medical case.
The information: not as practical as I would have hoped. It starts with a ~holistic~(you'll get tired of that word) reflection on what service design is, which in my opinion is a bit too vague. The tools are nice, but not as well described, so you have to use your information a bit on how to apply them. The cases are good to get a general idea of service design in practice, but I was hoping for a bit more detail on how the tools were used. Instead, they only get a brief mention ("We used this method").
The readability: overall this was fine, but the first part contained too much abstract thinking and fancy words to my taste.
The structure: they did something funky to the structure. Like they explain at the beginning of the book, they try to treat it as a service. It's a fun gimmick, but I don't think it really adds anything to the book.
Best part: the medical case.
nithou's review against another edition
3.0
J'attendais sans doute trop de ce livre, mais bien qu'il soit assez imposant et contienne plusieurs informations intéressantes il reste, à mon niveau, beaucoup trop en surface et en vulgarisation par rapport à tout ce que l'on pourrait dire à propos du Service Design. De même les études de cas sont au final assez décevantes étant fortement axées sur soit des organismes publics, soit des agences de Service Design et leurs spin off, avec deux petites exceptions mais dont on gratte à peine la surface (dont une non appliquée). Au final la trousse à outils est assez intéressante et m'a fait découvrir quelques outils que je ne connaissais pas et est donc pour moi un des gros points positif du livre. Pour toute personne n'ayant pas connaissance du Design Thinking ou du Service Design ce livre pourra servir d'introduction mais malheureusement ne va de mon point de vue pas assez loin (surtout au niveau du Service Design qu'il ne fait au final qu'effleurer).
lcelvenes's review against another edition
4.0
This Is Service Design Thinking is a collection of several authors with a wish to create a textbook on the subject of service design.
It consists of 3 main sections. In the "basics" section you're introduced to service design thinking, the core of what it is, as well as its importance to other disciplines like interaction design and management.
Section two covers some of the various tools used in service design. I thought the descriptions were a bit short at first, but on second thought there's a logic to this, as these are tools that really need to be put to use in order to really see the benefit and potential in them. For anyone reading this book, especially if you're not a student, I think actually putting its tools and advice to good use is the biggest challenge, but it will also be very rewarding.
The third section consists of cases of applied service design from several different areas of business. I found this part to be very interesting. Among the cases are a hospital, an online service, and a bank.
There is also an extra section of essays around service design. Among them the connection between service design and motivational psychology. Also, the book is well illustrated with a healthy dose of examples that help you understand what this discipline is all about.
I would recommend this book to most people, as service design thinking in some way can be applied to just about any situation where interaction is involved.
It consists of 3 main sections. In the "basics" section you're introduced to service design thinking, the core of what it is, as well as its importance to other disciplines like interaction design and management.
Section two covers some of the various tools used in service design. I thought the descriptions were a bit short at first, but on second thought there's a logic to this, as these are tools that really need to be put to use in order to really see the benefit and potential in them. For anyone reading this book, especially if you're not a student, I think actually putting its tools and advice to good use is the biggest challenge, but it will also be very rewarding.
The third section consists of cases of applied service design from several different areas of business. I found this part to be very interesting. Among the cases are a hospital, an online service, and a bank.
There is also an extra section of essays around service design. Among them the connection between service design and motivational psychology. Also, the book is well illustrated with a healthy dose of examples that help you understand what this discipline is all about.
I would recommend this book to most people, as service design thinking in some way can be applied to just about any situation where interaction is involved.
bindu's review against another edition
4.0
A nice read to know more about cross discipline collaboration! Also the principles of service design are well explained.
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