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Cornell University

Service Design Methodology

An Intervention for Engineering Design

1. Service Design Overview

Page Contents

Learning Objectives

  1. Designing Together: Understand the principle of designing services collaboratively with people, rather than merely for them.
  2. Methodology in Action: Explain service design as a methodology for developing and creating engineering designs.
  3. Service Design Framework: Identify the key elements of effective service design: people, processes, and props.
  4. Concept Mapping: Recognize the significance of service ecologies and blueprints in visualizing aspects of a design problem and potential solutions.
  5. Gathering Insights: Learn to collect and analyze user needs, user perspectives, and system constraints to inform engineering design.
  6. Incorporating Feedback: Explore real-world feedback in order to test and refine service prototypes of an engineering design.

Service design learning outcomes in action

Service design in action looks like gathering insights by conducting site visits!

Four people in a field. One woman crouches to cut plants while three others stand nearby, observing. A greenhouse is visible in the background.
Megan Moore, owner of theFarm at Hopshire in Freeville, NY, shows biological engineering students crop damage caused by cabbage moths.
People browse fresh produce, including radishes and beets, at an outdoor farm stand with a 'Birdskog Farm' sign.
Reuben Granskog, co-owner of Birdskog Farm, speaks to biological engineering students at the Ithaca Farmers Market about soil nutrients for his crops.

Service design in action looks like testing prototypes in situ!

two students, one with a cell phone and another with a laptop, look down at a camera device perched on the edge of a manure storage
Biological engineering students from the COWculators team test their manure volume measurement device at the Cornell Research Dairy barn on campus, accompanied by a Cooperative Extension associate.
overhead view looking down on two students with a camera device at the edge of a manure storage with a sign in front of them that reads "DANGER"

Overview Video

Service Design Overview Slides

To get a sense of what service design methodology is and how it can be integrated in engineering design courses, the following slides offer a definition, framework, and an example of failed engineering design.

You can also access this deck in Google Slides. We ask that if you use or adapt these slides in your course, you acknowledge credit to the Engineering Communications Program.