Defining strategic design, service design and user experience design

People often use the words strategic design, service design and user experience (UX) design interchangeably. And to be honest, if you aren't at the pointy end of the disciplines, it can be challenging to discern what makes them different. Add to that, that designers in these fields are often required to work across these specific disciplines, and you have a perfect storm of confusion.

This lack of perceived distinction can cause problems for designers and clients:

Struggle to prove value to clientsStruggle to understand colleagues' or designers' rolesStruggle to understand the boundaries between disciplinesStruggle to achieve alignment and collaboration between disciplines

To ground designers and clients alike in the nuanced differences and similarities and equip them with the skills to identify and adequately communicate their offerings and their needs, this article should help anyone, from a confused designer to an equally confused client, on the specific meaning of each term.

What do these forms of design have in common?

One thing these three forms of design have in common is a human-centred design thinking approach. They all focus on people and their needs and recognise the process is not the problem. It is the solution.

They also all look for patterns, commonalities and logic in the users of a service or product. In other words, they look for the following:

1. Patterns: Patterns are ways of behaving or doing things found repeatedly across people, for example, rituals, gestures, expectations and norms. Patterns help to design strategies, services and experiences that people understand and can relate to.

2. Commonalities: These are shared traits across people. It can be helpful to break down these commonalities into ages, cultures and geographies to understand and plan for the needs of different segments or groups and how that may affect their needs.

3. Logic: This is where designers look for patterns in behaviours and expectations that lead to behaviour change or reinforcement. Remember that all behaviour is intentional, though some behaviour is subconscious; people make decisions. Designers look at this decision-making, and actions are taken in the process and intervene to influence people into action.

Designers in strategy, service and experience ask what the needs of my clients and their users, customers, or citizens are. What problems do they have, and how might we solve them? And the three forms of design all use some form of design thinking framework that emphasises research and an evidence-based approach, synthesis or sensemaking where complex data or relationships exist, action-oriented prototyping and testing, iteration and continuous improvement.

Finally, all three designers tend to use co-design or co-creation methods. They don't design for their clients. They design with them.

What is Strategic Design?

Strategic design is concerned with creating an optimal and viable organisational context for future growth and prosperity. It addresses the long-term organisational health and viability of the organisation.

Strategic designers think strategically and look for patterns, commonalities, and where they might lead. They make sense of complex relationships and facts and bring their strategic expertise to help an organisation set goals and identify its opportunities and threats.

Strategic designers consider organisational culture, values, structure, processes, strategy, personnel, finances, funding requirements, and interdependencies. From this perspective, strategic designers make sure they know the business problem before starting to design solutions that inform the organisation's strategic direction and goals for the future or design organisational structural change and operational processes.

Strategic designers are often business subject-matter experts. They are well-versed in the methods, processes and tools of strategic design. For example, they can help set internal organisational goals through workshops, visioning sessions, strategic thinking games or creative strategy sessions. They can help identify the organisation's resources, capabilities, skills and gaps and help define where internal resources or expertise are needed. They can work with the organisation to develop a long-term strategy or consider changing direction quickly to respond to new market conditions.

What is Service Design?

Service is the relationship between the service provider and the customer or user. A good service solves customers' needs and considers their Jobs To Be Done (JTBD). A good service provides a positive value proposition to the customer. Good service design provides a customer with a why.

For example, most people can mow a lawn. Why should my customer choose me to mow their lawn? What positive value proposition do I offer that is more competitive than my customer mowing their lawn? Am I solving a problem for them, giving them more free time, or improving the health and aesthetics of their lawn beyond what their skills can perform?

Service designers are service delivery experts and bring more of a customer-focused mindset to their work. Accordingly, they can help organisations think more customer-first and empathise throughout their services and processes.

They ask those questions using research, why is our service more competitive, what is the value proposition how is our service more competitive? Service designers help organisations understand the internal and external needs, motivations and expectations of customers or users of their organisation's offering. They design services that meet users' and customers' needs and elicit the tacit or desired behaviour from users and customers.

Service designers also consider the logistics and backend requirements of delivering services. They focus on internal processes, operations systems, and data flows. They consider these things and can help deliver seamless and streamlined service experiences for users and customers.

For example, a service designer will consider a business' operations system and infrastructure when redesigning its online checkout process to improve the service experience. They consider the relationships and integrations required to enable an online checkout. Payment processing such as gateway and merchant accounts, tax calculations, 3rd-party integrations such as shipping and tracking services, and customer relationship management software all support and promote repeated business and support excellent services.

By doing this work, service designers can streamline the end-to-end service experience, drive customer satisfaction and improve customer retention by optimising the service experience for customers and supporting suppliers, partners and employees to deliver a seamless end-to-end service experience from start to finish.

What is User Experience Design?

User Experience (UX) design has gained enormous popularity. It is a multidisciplinary field that deals with all aspects of a service's touchpoints and experience.

UX specifically considers the user or customer experience and journey using the service. And in particular, they are often an expert in usability and accessibility. UX designers focus on the immediate and short-term interactions with a service or product, such as a website, app, kiosk, call centre or shopfront.

UX designers consider the physical constraints and psychology around how people interact with services and systems; and how design can influence their behaviour, emotions and perceptions and overcome constraints to access and use.

UX design aims to create an optimal and effortless user experience and reduce friction that might cause a customer to abandon the service. UX designers work iteratively with users and customers to develop, test and iterate a service to create an optimal experience that meets user needs.

UX designers have a considerable effect on the experience of a service. How does the service make people think, feel and act?

Conclusion

Strategic, service, and experience designers all have a part to play in supporting organisations to operate successful, viable and sustainable businesses by driving customer value and engagement. They all support organisations to meet customers' needs effectively and improve the customer experience through innovative design thinking and collaboration.

They also all support employee and partner experiences by designing systems and experiences that lead to effective cultures, services, processes and touchpoints that meet organisational needs and improve the relationships and experiences between employees, customers and the organisation.

But because each design discipline or skill set has different needs, specific tools and approaches are required for each discipline. And each discipline depends on the other to help it articulate its thinking. For example, service designers often work with strategic designers to determine the organisational goals and objectives to develop services that align with organisational strategies. And UX designers often work with service designers to develop experiential designs that organisational operations, systems and processes can support.

Therefore, good strategy, service and experience design teams and practitioners must understand how each discipline can help develop solutions to support organisational goals and customers' needs. Teams must collaborate to develop and implement solutions that enhance customer engagement and drive business value.

Question: How might you support your organisation to improve its strategies, services, processes and touchpoints?