Micro businesses and service design

One of the things that this course has helped me do is recognize service design. I remember when I had my first visual design class in undergrad and I started seeing the world differently and noticing things like alignment, proximity, fonts, and so forth in the media around me. Now the way I perceive the world has a service recog capability that wasn't there before. So I recently saw a very interesting business in my local town that I think is awesome because it's people recognizing a need that is not being met and then fulfilling it. It's not super-complicated but it's a good example of how micro-businesses can work.

The service is called ikea*run. Our city is about 4 hours away from an Ikea store but there are enough people in town who have lived other places and traveled to know that we like Ikea. If you've ever tried to order from Ikea online then you know about their ridonkulous shipping fees. So these clever folks have started a business where you can order Ikea stuff and they will go get for less than the Ikea shipping and without the hassle of going yourself.

http://ikearunhsv.com/index.html