European Academy of Design - Crafting the future - Service Design stream

NB: Deadline for abstract submission is 15th May 2012!

Today it is not questioned that service design is interdisciplinary, neither that it is an increasingly important area for designers to work within. Design research on the topic has since late 1990's framed different aspects of service design. Research to date has looked at areas such as visualizations, prototyping, interactivity, systems and activity theory, as well as the relationship to service management. However, very little seem to focus on the craft of design in design of service.

  
Following the interdisciplinary character of design of service, there are ongoing discussions if service design should be seen as a design discipline in its own right, with the same status as e.g., graphic, interaction or product design. Or, if it should be viewed as a practice that underpins all design activity explicitly interested in value creation and holistic experience in correlation with service logic perspective.

  
Design of service is according to the descriptions alluded to above, carried out with a set of, preferably co-creational, tools and methods. In addition, a designerly approach is argued to bring in a holistic perspective, a human centered mind-set as well as a high degree of, and variation in visualization techniques. Increasingly the role of the designer in this context has become the facilitator, described as e.g., the negotiator, mediator, navigator and visualizer. To this track we invite researchers to explore what the craft of service design is and where it can be found. We anticipate a wide range of authors interested in theoretical frameworks and approaches suitable for framing design practice in design of service. The research should have a strong connection to practice as well as being theoretically informed. 
  
The track will address, but will not be limited, to the following questions:
- Where is design practice in service design situated? When, where and how do designerly practices take and make place in design of service?
- What are those practices? How can they be described? What is designers craft in design of service?
- What frameworks and approaches are suitable for framing the crafting in design of service?