Can you see the forest for the trees? Awareness of service design for successful UX design
Matthew Carroll
I design inclusive UX into heartless problems and make them come alive ;)
One of my favorite idioms is "you can't see the forest for the trees." What it means generally is that you are so focused on a particular thing that you can't see how and where it fits into the bigger picture.
In the fields of UX, the ramification of this is that you risk not being able to understand how something is part of a larger problem or the impacts of local change. In UX speak, it's also known as focusing on a symptom, not the core problem, or implementing a fix that is doomed to fail because it doesn't fit the system it is in.
Service design is a particular aspect of UX that focuses more on the forest, less on the tree, and is one of the most valuable skills a UX professional can have, regardless of whether they truly utilize it. You can also call it 'perspective', and it is important because it allows you to see how your solution fits into a user's world.
In our lives, we tend to become most familiar with the work we do. In complex processes, we tend to know where the handoffs are because they directly affect us, but we don't generally need to understand the complete system and how we fit in, so we don't bother. As designers and researchers, we do need to bother.
An example is getting a beverage from a drive-thru or counter. You know you need to request something, and you know you will get something for your money and request, but exactly how what you asked for was produced is not too important so long as the service meets your expectations (drink is hot, received it in under 5 minutes, tastes as I expect it to, etc.). Do you care that the product you bought was delivered to the store recently? Not really, but it does impact your experience in an indirect way.
As a customer, you want the ordering and receiving process to be smooth and enjoyable. As a designer, you may be focused on any part of the system; the cup, the menu, the ambient music playing, the actual beverage, its ingredients, and how it tastes.
Each of these aspects are a unique UX in themselves, each combine to build a comprehensive brand experience (BX) or customer experience (CX). Each are part of a larger system that ensures an order is processed and delivered to a set of criteria.
And, that system itself is part of a larger system - ensuring there is product in the store, the store's design and layout, the people and training that ensures the function we desire. As you scale out and up, it can become overwhelming to keep track, but the awareness that these systems exist and effect each other is the important lesson.
At some point, you need to set your boundaries - where does the larger system really no longer apply to the work before you? It can be a tough answer to find. The 'back end' of the experience is really what service design is all about, and paying attention is where designers can resolve invisible issues before they impact users.
领英推荐
In my experience I have seen many great designs fail not because they were bad, but because they didn't 'plug-in' to the larger system they needed to work with. This is the risk we face as designers and researchers if we fail to at least acknowledge the external forces that drive our users and the outcomes they seek.
The take away? Awareness. Take the time to understand how your local experience meshes with others, and how your 'fix' in design can impact the system. This is the level of thinking needed to mitigate inconsistency or outright breakdown in an experience.
I can go on, but perhaps let's leave that for another time. ;)
For reference or further reading, here are a few leads to follow. Perhaps something to add to your 2024 resolution to keep growing and learning.
PS - I love this photo by Filip - there are so many trees that could be the focus, and each draws your eye in different ways. Looking at the photo, what tree caught your eye first? Which held your vision?