I liked this approach in explaining the service because it occurs to me that someone like my mom can understand it more easily than if I tried to simply explain it. My mom knows what texting is, but is only familiar with the limited scope of what texting is used for in social communication. Showing how a phone can help collect medical data in the field is captured here in way that illustrates how the "front stage, backstage" SMS interactions create this new service.A blueprint like this helps to visualize the opportunity and interplay of the technologies. The inclusion of the bobble-headed figures adds a "people" dimension to something that otherwise might seem like a disconnected technical solution.
This looks like an example of a system map, rather than a service blueprint (http://www.servicedesigntools.org/tools/28). They are similar visual techniques because they both try to depict the entire system and the critical information of the process. For the purposes of the class, I'm going to treat them synonymously, but I did want to point out that there is a difference in case you're ever interviewing for a primarily service design-oriented position.
ReplyDeleteThe system map is a newer technique and the primary difference, in my opinion, is primarily the greater focus on the visual representation (instead of the more "timeline" like service blueprint design) and, arguably, the system maps place a greater emphasis on the various socio-technical actors (although there is also an actor-diagram as another alternative visual approach). Service design is just a component of this course, so we're not placing a significant emphasis on all of the methods that can be utilized, but my hope is that by providing an introduction and providing links to key resources that if you ever need to take a service design approach to a problem, you'll have the base in place to find the answers you need (this is one of the areas of the course that could easily be broken out into its own stand alone course though).