Can service design be used to transfer an in-person project to an online-only based project?
I think it will depend on the scenario. We have to keep in mind that every challenge could be taken with different approaches, and those will depend on the budget and the certainty of the tools that will be chosen to lead the process.
Let me give you an example. Imagine we have to apply the service design process to improve experience in a supermarket. Part of the activities will be to set tools to gather data about customer behavior. We can use visual recognition to understand people’s journey into the store and cross the data with sales of the day. We can observe people in the hallways and take notes, or we can do an online survey asking about their behavior in the hallways. Which we are going to choose will depend if we have already set the infrastructure to apply each approach, the budget available to gather data, and the certainty of expectations.
In addition, we have to consider that in service design, we also use qualitative tools to understand behaviors and needs, and those tools are just as effective as quantitative tools in scenarios of high uncertainty, which is the most common state when we challenge innovation.
Nowadays, it is feasible to do online-only based projects because we have many tools that allow us to gather data and also lead interviews with digital tools that allow remote work. Nevertheless, we have to properly set the conditions to do tests, interviews, and other activities.