Good Services: How to Design Services that Work
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Service design is a rapidly growing area of interest in design and business management. There are a lot of books on how to get started, but this is the first book that describes what a “good” service is and how to design one. This book lays out the essential principles for building services that work well for users. Demystifying what we mean by a “good” and “bad” service and describing the common elements within all services that mean they either work for users or don’t.
A practical book for practitioners and non-practitioners alike interested in better service delivery, this book is the definitive new guide to designing services that work for users.
Publisher : Laurence King Publishing (March 3, 2020)
Language : English
Paperback : 192 pages
ISBN-10 : 9063695438
ISBN-13 : 978-9063695439
Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
Dimensions : 5.3 x 0.8 x 7.85 inches
Customers say
Customers say the book has great content. Opinions are mixed on the visual design and writing style, with some finding it well-written and plain, while others find it insane and hard to read.
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Illtron –
Great content, bizarre design choices
Iâm not going to let the design detract from my review of the content, which is fantastic. Thereâs a lot of very clear information in this little book.That said, the design is insane. And by design, I mostly mean the typesetting. Everything is bold Helvetica, with no space between paragraphs, and very little to break up long passages of text that often span two full facing pages. Luckily, the text is well written, taking good advantage of plain language principles. The text is incredibly poorly formatted, but itâs easier to read than I would have guessed.Some of the text colors may be problematic for people with low vision, but I actually liked them. I thought they were a bold choice (no pun intended).I saw a mention of typos in another review, and I canât help but wonder if itâs not obvious that this is written in British English. Iâm occasionally surprised by British spellings of some less common words, but nothing jumped out as a typo. It was a little odd reading Mike Monteiroâs forward with British spellings on his words, but thereâs really no reason they shouldnât be formatted like the rest of the book.If youâre really put off by the reviews of the design, get the ebook. Itâs a bargain of a book, with a lot more packed in than you might get from a Rosenfeld book for more than twice the price. Even with the design, Iâm glad to have gotten it in print, so I can have it as a reference I can flip through.
T Scott & Sammie Stromberg –
Excellent and thoughtful book on Service Design that is a must read.
If you are interested in a well written, common sense book on Service Design this is the book you want to read. Very informative and provides valuable insight into user centered design practices that align to Services. I highly recommend this book. The visual design and attention to thoughtful layout is a plus. A beautiful book inside and out.
Satan –
Good content, tragic design
Body paragraphs in Helvetica Bold? Who allowed this?The leading is poor, the line length is inaccessible, the margins are nonexistent. It’s not a graphic design book, but as a design book, it should be at least as readable as any other nonfiction. Right?!The plain language introduction to service design principles is nice. And the fluorescent colors are eye-catching. (Except when neon orange is used for body paragraphs – but who needs accessibility anyway? Certainly not government designers.)
jk –
A masterpiece (slightly biased review from a gov.uk nerd)
Another masterpiece. Reading this helped me finally bolt down the basics of “Service Design.” The book is split into 15 principles, each with memorable examples and helpful summary pages. I’m a little surprised this isn’t mandatory reading for government designers in the states (or contractors), because the principles listed here are much more relevant than the material we often find within the realm of UX/product design. Notably, I appreciated principle 11 in particular as Lou points out “A lack of diversity in your team = lack of inclusion in your service”… which is so incredibly true.
Pablo Alejo –
The First Book You Read To Understand Service Design
Within consulting, services are one of the more challenging concepts to explain to someone when you don’t have the right words. As a result, you either overcomplicate them, over-simplify them, or just say things that create more confusion.Service Design, as a discipline, is also tough to define when you don’t have a straightforward way to explain what a service is and how they impact the world around them.In this book, Lou Downe defines a service in the most elegantly simple yet quickly understood way I’ve ever heard/read, “Something that helps someone do something.” It doesn’t get easier than that.Lou’s 15 principles guide readers, with clear examples of failures and successes, on what makes up good services. These examples are easy to understand and show how each principle makes a fundamental difference in how it could change the user’s experience.I would encourage this book to be the first book any aspiring Service Designer reads in their growth journey. Before adequately designing services, you must understand what they are, explain them to a 5-year-old, and demonstrate their value to a CEO. This book will help you do just that and give you principles to help you design good services that will benefit everyone.I would also encourage anyone in government or business to read this book, especially if you deploy digital solutions. Understanding the services you provide or are a part of will significantly impact how you deliver those solutions.
Sundy Grubel –
Good Services is an essential guide for designers and industry leaders who work in service delivery
This book is an excellent articulation of service design, why it is necessary, and the tenets of what defines good services. Every chapter/principle is so very relevant to how experience is the primary driver of a customer relationship with products and services. Once I opened it, I could not put it down. I keep it on my desk and reference it in multiple conversations with colleagues almost every day. Bottom line, I find myself wanting to buy this book and hand it to everyone I work with to have a common language and purpose. Good Services is an essential guide for designers and industry leaders who work in service delivery.
Tim –
How to make services better (from someone that’s actually done it)
For anyone new to the idea of service design, consider this an amazing intro into the power and impact of services. It will change what you expect from the services you use on a daily basis.For service designers, this is one of those books that should always be close at hand to act as a reality check when you’re lost in the thick of a project.What’s so special about this book? Services account for nearly 80% of the U.S. economy, which means they impact all of us every single day. We all have service horror stories from the doctor’s office, the DMV, or the checkout line at Walmart. These services don’t feel designed – they feel accidental. Lou has been making proven, good services for awhile now and they bring that rare experience into these pages.
Rajesh –
The content is great but the size of the book is so small that it hardly solves its purpose. The service is flawed I would say! Many of the service design principles mentioned in the book are not followed by the publisher. What an irony!I was disappointed by the size of book and because of that the text is so tightly fitted that it has become unreadable.
Mirna Rodriguez –
I am a Service Designer and found this book insightful for me and even would recommend it for starters and those who have an strategic mindset.Equally good if you work in consultancy or product, as you will learn how to think and plan holistically.If you work in services, this book will make you level up your game.
Christopher Rice –
This book was extraordinarily informative about what a good service is. There were examples, highly digestible snippets of text, and passages were emphasized beautifully.It energized me and has me excited to apply these principles at my job. Thank you so much for writing this
Anon1254 –
This book has serious flaws, first and foremost for choosing BIS publishers.I don’t know what has gotten into this otherwise fine publisher but they’ve hired a designer that thinks a book with no margins, proper linespacing and the boldest of fonts makes a for a great read. Okay, admittedly, it looks great. But it makes for an awful read. For books that are about good design, BIS Publishers makes a poor execution out of it.To the content. Good services has some nice principles attached to it but I was clearly not its audience. The problem is twofold:- Evidence is presented throuh post-hoc, anecdotal material. All of the cases the author presents are cherry picked and often lack detail that would allow you to learn anything concrete about other than human centered design principles. Which brings us to the second problem- The book presents 15 principles for good services but none of them are proven and rely mostly on human centered design. Anyone who practices Human Centered Design, or understands its principles, will be disappointed by the lack of new content. Even the introduction on services is flawed by oversimplifying what a service is, should do, or why it should be considered as a separate discipline.In short, my impression of the book was that this would’ve made an excellent article for social media, to attract potential that are completely unfamiliar with the phenomenological approach of designers. But I can’t recommend the book for professionals that want to learn more within their field. This is Service Design Thinking/Doing by Marc Stickdorn is still the hallmark for that.
Ruth Lund –
A great book for anyone interested in how design can be applied to services – especially public services characterized by complexity and where there are multiple existing sources of information to link together. The book is written in clear and easy to understand language and uses lots of âstoriesâ or case studies to explain the practical application of the ideas in the book. Lots of lovely colour and key quotes throughout the book which make it possible to get some value from a 30 second flick through, but most importantly draw you in and make you curious about the rest of the content.Great work Lou! I follow you on Twitter but now I can have your great ideas permanently on my bookshelf ready to dive into at any point.Designing and redesigning public services with all their preexisting complexity is no easy task and itâs easy to lose hope of being able to simplify the current offering and make it accessible for all. Diversity, intersectionality and truly making our public services work for EVERYBODY is my mantra, but sometimes we get stuck and the task seems impossible. This book provides the inspiration, tools and encouragement to keep on keeping on, and most importantly a clear signal about what is most critical.A few nuggets of wisdom that stuck with me because theyâre particularly relevant to my work just now:âInclusion is a necessity, not an enhancement.ââA good service is good for everyone: users, staff, your organization, the worldââThereâs no such thing as a ânormalâ user.ââA good service is useable by everyone, equally.ââA service is still a service even if you donât provide all of it.âIf youâre involved in design of services in any way, you need this book. 🙂