Service Design or Retail Design?

If you haven’t read this quick story-you should.

Layout for Robbery

Sounds like poor SERVICE design not poor RETAIL Design. But this story does point out the importance of Service Design and how closely it is tied to our retail designs. Changing the architecture or interiors of an existing service, even slightly, can impact the way an employee delivers services to customers.

Q1.Do you all agree that when it is appropriate, we should encourage our clients to work with us to re-think their service at the same time we are re-thinking their architecture?

If you do, then you realize this means bringing in additional key decision makers on the client side that may not normally be directly involved in retail development for their company. For example to provide the most basic level of service design for Wachovia, we would have contacted some of the key service-oriented executives upfront and included them on team meetings as opposed to the one-off interviews we conducted.

Q2. If you still answer yes to my question, then would you be willing to tell a client that in order to serve them properly, we need a time commitment to the project from key (customer and employee service) decision makers before we kick off this project? Of course, many times they will say no and we will do the work to the best of our ability.

I truly am curious about everyone’s response to the two questions, so please reply to the group with your answers.

-Nikki

Bio-Fuel by Dupont & BP

Dupont is doing some really amazing stuff.. had their little contamination/micro-organism/ pathogen tools been incorporated into all restaurants I may not have gotten sick.. on another note they are partnering with BP to produce a Bio-fuel. You can watch a little presentation at the link below. It is pretty cool!

Knowledge Worker

It is amazing to see how rapid our decline in knowledge workers will be in just the next 5 years. The important question will be where the gaps form and will they fill or collapse around a society that is continually being built on the knowledge of the worker.

Inside Innovation

Business Weeks "IN" has a great article about the new innovative tools being used to create new and different products, alot of which are based around the consumer or user. How can we apply some of these materials to the architectural process and what would that mean for traditional architecture?

It also goes indepth with Ziba design, who is a research and design company from Portland. They recently won some big awards for Lenovo, who is one the best among its breed of computer companies.

Jonathan Ive?

Here is a great article about Jonathan Ive. For those of you who don't know him, he is a big reason why Apple has become the innovative empire it is today. Jonathan is the anti-superstar designer among so many of today's extravagant designers. He is a low key 39 year old that attributes much of Apples' success to their process of design and strength in collaboration.

Windows HS: Microsoft designs a school system

Microsoft has unleashed a high tech school of the future in Philadelphia in collaboration with the Philadelphia School District:Students -- who are called learners -- use smart cards to register attendance, open their digital lockers and track calories they consume. They carry laptops, not books, and the entire campus has wireless Internet access. Teachers, or educators, rather than using blackboards, have interactive smart boards that allow teachers to zoom in and out, write or draw, and even link to the Internet.

What is Sptball?!

Sptball is an attempt to inspire the design process. Through capturing and sharing cultural and informative data and resources i.e. images, articles (whatever sparks your design interest) we hope to generate new ideas both individually and collectively.

The name Sptball symbolizes the effect of ideas- some stick and become a larger part of design/life while others dissipate. Whichever direction your idea flies we are certain it will leave a mark somewhere.

How do I start spitting?

1. Find something interesting either local or global, i.e. you found a new bar and you would like to get everyone together for drinks, you just heard about a new and fascinating product design, you read a really cool ethnographic article and you want to share it with the world. Whatever it is just remember it should promote culture or inspiration.

Next- Write up your own article or copy and paste text from another article, email it off to Fawn (fawn.ellis@gmail.com). She will edit and post your piece, provided it fits the mission statement. Try to keep your text short and also try to include an image in your email as it makes your post and the blog in general much more interesting. Additionally, it will draw readers in.

2. Comment on blogs- This is a great way to generate discussion and new ideas.

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