“As technology advances, it reverses the characteristics of every situation again and again. The age of automation is going to be the age of ‘do it yourself’.”
- Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan just keeps on giving and giving. I was so moved by this sentence because it was exactly the phenomenon I’m seeing these days. As technology because usable and more elements become standardized on consumer standards (up until now there have been mainly complex industrial standard) we’re seeing the general public get more involved in the making of things. Ready Made is a great example of this.
As part of this trend, the making process is being offered to the general public through services, this is often call service design.
I was having coffee with a professor of industrial design a few weeks ago discussing service design. Service design is something I’ve never really understood. I’ve had it explained to me several times by friends that do it, but it seemed as though it’s business consulting using very pretty presentations and leaving out the financial business case. I know this is not the case because many designers I respect do services design. Basically I never really got it…
Until this discuss over a coffee, as my friend was talking about his plans for teaching service design I figured it out! But I saw service design from the point of view of the product, not corporate need to create more revenue or competitiveness. A product and I would argue many products are and will evolve into services in the future.
Take shoes for example, as seen in many posts here on PD shoes have moved from buying them in a shop, or a classic product to designing them online. If you design a sneaker online and have it sent to you, that is a service offered by Nike, not a product. But it starts as a product or at least an idea for a product. I believe this trend will move into many more product areas such as automotive, home electronics and clothing.
The reason why this is now possible has mainly to do with technology. Technology that interfaces manufacturing is becoming accessible to more people. You can actually get a sewing machine with a USB port! As these technologies break down the barrier of entry to manufacturing, we will see more kids in their bedrooms coding interfaces to these manufacturing devices and making the darnedest things.
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