Research Group Product Development

Service Design Lab

Context

In an ever-growing experience economy, I advocate that services can and should be designed with the same care as products, with the goal of maximizing the customer experience, journey and all touchpoints. Both in research and teaching, but also as founders of Service Design Network Belgium - I rethink, reimagine and create every stage and aspect of the interaction between customers and any organization. Using the Product-service system (PSS) design process and tools, we (re)design current and new PSS offerings, offer our experience in how to integrate this design approach and support building the appropriate organizational logic.

We see the revolution of services as catalyst for sustainable everyday life (experiences) that pursue harmonious interactions between people, society and the designed environment.

Topics

  • Immersive narratives in PSS & Service Design
    Service prototyping, storytelling, customizing, customer journeys, touchpoints, rituals, acceptation to implementation, adoption, user testing, scenario testing, explaining what does not yet exist

  • Measuring
    Social impact, before, during and after the design process, implementation and rollout, user subjective experience evaluation (monitoring), influence of data and data visualization,

  • Radical Services
    The role of human relations as determining factor in touchpoints, personal (personified) services (I-Thou interactions): characterized by relational services, interpersonal relations <opposed to> artificial service provision (I-It interactions): ease of automized comfort and unburdening, mediating technology, alternative to un(der)value jobs and income gap for services or characterized by shame of interaction with the service provider

  • Participation
    Interdisciplinary action research, how to bring (research) data outside to spark conversation on societal matters? How to activate people (with the right background knowledge) to (on the basis of data and identified problems) to reach workable solutions? How to collect insights, opinions and solutions of citizens, so that policymakers can work with them?

  • Design for sharing
    Tools and methods for sharing, ownership of product-service systems, code of conduct, redesigning products for the sharing economy, modularity and recalibration, delayed product differentiation, customization, business adaptability, peer-to-peer, platform economy, …

Services

  • Support in PSS design tools, process & preconditions
  • Facilitation, co-creation and collaborative spaces & materials for service design
  • Setting up collaborations (in research and education) with:
    • product-/service design agencies
    • industrial companies
    • service providers
    • governmental institutions
  • Talks

Projects

Improve the sexual well-being of young people at the time of widespread pornography use

Abstract: In the SBO project SWYPPE we look at the sexual wellbeing of young people (in times of widespread pornography consumption). We focus on the social context, healthcare context, family context and school contexts. To improve our SWYPPE proposal, with this SEP grant "Iswyppe" we will improve our SBO proposal at 3 levels: 1) Understanding Parental Resistance towards sexual education and porn literacy education; 2) Understanding how different motivations and habits, education, gender identity and pornography categories are linked to problematic consumption and sexual dysfunction; 3) Testing a new diary tool to understand sexual habits (Severine Van Hoecke appointed as researcher, Ivo Dewit as supervisor and delegate of the project)

Researcher(s): Severine Van Hoecke

Promotor: Gunter De Win

Research team(s): Guido Van Hal; Inge Glazemakers, Michel Walrave and Ivo Dewit (delegate of level 3)

Project type(s): BOF/SEP

REuse Lab

Abstract: The REuse Lab is a service platform that supports industry in the circular transition throughout the implementation and development of reusable alternatives for single-use products. The REuse Lab excels in the generation of applicable knowledge and insights in technical quality assurance, quality perception through trust and ease of use and experience, and for the optimisation of quality assurance through the value chain and new services. The multidisciplinary REuse Lab offers expertise to address, in cocreation with companies and sectors, the barriers that hinder or delay the introduction of products for reuse, through data collection in a scientific experimental setting. Building further on current research, this IOF funding allows the REuse Lab to develop the necessary basic business structure to leverage new funding from both third and fourth funding stream.

Researcher(s): Joren Van Loon, Laure Herweyers, Esther Noëth, Charlotte Harding, Paola Travella, Marie Das, Kaat Dhondt

Promotor: Els Du Bois

Research team(s): Ingrid Moons; Ivo Dewit; Dirk Van Rooy

Project type(s): IOF: Service platform

Related courses

Master level

  • PSS Design Project, Master 1
  • Master thesis, Master 2
  • Summerschool Social City Design
  • Leading Change by Design, Postgraduate

Bachelor level

  • Product & Analysis, Bachelor 1
  • Product Development, Bachelor 1 (Fac. of Applied Engineering)
  • Product Development, Bachelor 3 (Fac. of Applied Engineering)

Team

Principal Investigators:

Researchers: 

Alumni researchers:

Associations

We always search for collaborations with product, service and system design agencies, industrial companies, service providers and governmental institutions