Service Design by Prof. Yuriko Sawatani

Professor Yuriko Sawatani conducted a lecture for her course entitled “Service Design,” an elective course from the Global MBA catalog. She discussed various models of service design and shared her design experiences with students. This course aims to give students an understanding of what service design is, and execute service design methodology in groups to create a model for 2030. Initially, students learn methodology based on IDEO cases and then identify important viewpoints in discussion.

In this course, students research and interview subjects to develop a persona. As a team, students share what is observed, discussing these various viewpoints. They use design research to describe insights from the discussion and further define the persona. Each team creates a life in 2030 concept and a prototype targeting a defined persona utilizing insights learned from the team discussion.

Students discussed the gaps between the present and future and how to fill the gaps between current life and a life in 2030. To do this, they must create a strategy and road map to achieve the developed concept and present their findings from concept to strategy to the class.

The goal of the course is to endow participants with an understanding of the role of service design broadly and specifically, and to understand and develop the concept of prototypes with knowledge of how to use them appropriately. Participants from around the world learn not only how to take actions to ensure a proper creation of a strategy and a road map to achieve the developed concept of the service design, but also how to recognize cross-cultural pitfalls that may disrupt the process