One of the fundamental questions facing the emerging discipline of service design concerns the definition of its object. In this thesis, I posit that the practice of service design, as a recent development within the tradition of industrial design, may be approached primarily as the design of interfaces between service providers and clients. In chapter 1, on basis of a critical study of the service literature spanning the disciplines of management, engineering, and economics, I argue for the importance of acknowledging the materiality of interfaces when designing services. In chapter 2, I comment on relevant views in the field of industrial design about the design of (service) interfaces. Then, drawing on postphenomenological studies in the philosophy of technology, I articulate an approach to service interfaces that stresses the mediating role of materiality in client-provider relations. Chapters 3 and 4 present empirical studies of a service, called DirectLife, where digital technology plays such a mediating role. This service, which was developed and commercialized by Philips, is intended to help people become more physically active. In chapter 3, I elaborate on the user experience of DirectLife from a postphenomenological perspective, describing how its material interface transforms clients’ perceptions of their bodies and social selves. In chapter 4, turning to the provider’s perspective, I analyze the multiple visualizations generated and interpreted by the designers of DirectLife in the process of materializing a new service interface. Chapter 5 seeks to extend this postphenomenological perspective on service design beyond the scope of client-provider interactions that are mediated mainly by digital technologies. Drawing on an empirical study of a design project carried out at the Service Science Factory, I demonstrate how human-to-human interfaces may be understood from a postphenomenological perspective, and I discuss the implications of this for the design of interpersonal services. To conclude, in chapter 6 I propose that contributions of this thesis may serve to deepen the debate about the distinction between products and services and to invite designers to rethink their expertise in postindustrial times.

Product Innovation Management

Industrial Design Engineering