Vol. 19, No. 1, Winter 2008

Michael D. Eckersley, HumanCentered

Considering that services account for a huge portion of all commercial activity in advanced economies today, as HumanCentered's Michael Eckersley points out, there is bound to be growing market demand for sophisticated and systematically designed services. Not only that, but services are crucial to a company's very identity. They may be treated differently than product-based offerings, writes Eckersley, "but services are central to what a company is, not just what it makes. By this logic, flawed services reveal seams in the organization itself." That said, it's true that services tend to be a complex mixture of socio-techno-economic systems, and companies have a hard time innovating them. One reason is that services are an integral part of a company, and designing them cannot be done at arm's length. Eckersley's team found that their greatest successes came when they embedded themselves firsthand in the operations of organizations and in the lives of their customers. Two case studies, one on the operations of fast-food restaurants, the other on designing services for a new hospital specializing in maternity and infant care, make this clear.

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