No, Experience Design, Service Design and Product Design are not the same thing, but they share a lot of crossover.

Wait, who's doing what now?

There are so many design specialisms out there at the moment that you could be forgiven if you didn’t know which specialism you’re actually producing for. Certainly when I ask questions when getting approaches for these roles you can sense the panic in some of the replies because the approach is generally from somebody who has a title to fill but no real idea of what the role actually is.

This article is mainly for them.

In all honesty, they have my sympathy because the crossover of skills, of tools, of documentation, of approaches is so huge that the clear definition of each isn't easy. That’s why there are so many UX/CX tags on people’s profiles, so Many 'UX and Product Design' on their titles, so many 'Product and Service Designers' out there.

That’s not to say some people don’t just inhabit one space, obviously they do, and there is a lot to say for a dedicated specialist, rather than a generalists like myself, who focuses on just one of them, not least of which is that they don’t get distracted by ‘stuff’ that isn't in those crossover areas and build up a body of knowledge that is incredibly hard to replicate in any other way.

One way or another I've been involved with all of them over years and if I was looking at a Digital Transformation program it would be flawed, if not impossible, if I didn't utilise every aspect of these specialism to create a full solution. That doesn't mean I know everything, I happily admit to being a generalist, it does mean I can speak the same language of experts in those fields and can utilise their potential effectively without my eyes glazing over.

The usual arguments

Which is greater or more important? You’ll need to ask your client or employer. Their definition (and pay scale) will be far more accurate for your situation than mine.

Which sits within the other? You’ll get different answers depending on who you ask and whatever title they have. It matters not a jot, what matters is what you produce and how it affects your end-users and that together they make for a formidable joined-up solution that more organisations should invest in.

The Differences

For this document, let’s break this down into some very, very simplistic definitions of each design discipline.

What is an Experience Designer?

By definition the Experience Designer is focussed on the experience of the user, on how satisfied they are with the product or service, how easy it is to use. They’ll take full responsibility for this from research, through testing, through design to release, all the while ensuring that they are optimising the solution, be it product service or what have you, to meet user needs.

What is a Product Designer?

By definition the Product Designer is focussed on the Product. They will, in general, be more concerned about whether it operates as required, whether it meets all business needs and is technically achievable, more than they are with the UX, though they certainly treat the UX as a Business Need. They’re the design-engineers that spot and fix and problems, human and technical, that might affect the agreed product before it goes live and stop its success. If the end product is useful, relevant, cost-effective and functional than they’ve done their job.

What is a Service Designer?

By definition the Service Designer is focussed on the Service. Involving all the human touchpoints (and automated ones too) to help a service user get from Point A to point B as quickly and easily as possible. This may mean (re)organising both staff and consumers (Actors in SD parlance), changes to infrastructure and logistics, communication strategies and the physical components of a service in order to improve its quality or… it might just mean making the flippin’ signs in the store make sense.

Yes, we all know they all do more than the narrow, simplistic definitions I've provided here. This is a single article, there are books on all of these disciplines, I'm painting broad strokes to show the main differences, the focus of each, not details to fully explore them.

How to separate them?

Products are tangible, they sit on warehouse shelves, or on, or as, websites, or in homes or offices even when they are not being purchased or used and as such can be defined by function.

The technical foundation of Product Design is what sets it apart from Service and Experience Design

Services only exist when called upon, the variables for a service are far more complex, so you’re dealing with mitigating circumstances and scripts. For example, you can order a sandwich through a website, but will it be delivered or collected, is it hot or cold, what are the components, how is paid for, are the staffing levels required to enable the service correct, do they need to be dynamic, how is the order paid for, placed or changed etc. The service only comes into existence when needed - someone wants a sandwich - and its features and processes are myriad and changeable.

The variables and logistics of multiple actors and processes of Service Design is what sets it apart from Product and Experience Design

The Experience of both is whether the user finds getting hold of the sandwich easy and whether it delivers on taste and satisfaction.

The Psychological underpinning of Experience Design is what sets it apart from Product and Service Design

The Similarities

If you’ve been following along to this point you’ll have already spotted that there’s a lot of people, and you might be one of them, who do all this already, certainly it would be unusual to have a UX (for example) who didn't get involved in Product, or a Product Designer who didn't at least have some understanding of the Service that gets their Product to the end user.

Whatever the type of Designer they all have an understanding of the the others because of the similarities. What similarities?

All of them are Human Centred

If humans don’t want, can’t use, or won’t use the solution the designer has messed up! All of them test their assumptions, designs and solutions regularly with users/actors.

They’re all collaborative

If you’re not involving peer reviews and getting sanity checked with other disciplines, you’re doing your clients, your end users and everybody in between a disservice and just storing up problems.

They all iterative

All of them challenge, test, explore and adapt in a constant attempt to evolve a better solution.

They all drivers of change

They’ll have an effect of Marketing, Brand, Content and on each other. They'll affect not just the end solution but the ecosystem that arrives at that solution.

They (largely) use the same tools and documentation

Storyboarding, User Flows, Interaction Design (just not limited to digital), Wireframes (yes even Service Designers use wires occasionally), Empathy Maps, Service Blueprints, Communication and Messaging strategies, just in subtly different ways and with subtly different takeaways.

What’s the takeaway from this?

Like I said at the beginning of this, together all of these roles make a formidable solution. Without each other they tend to be, if not redundant, only addressing part of the whole problem.

If you don’t have a product what exactly are you servicing? If you have product but no service to get it to end users, what’s the point? If your service or product have terrible usability or actually annoy your consumers with the experience, then all your planning is for nothing. If you have no product or service, what exactly are your users experiencing? As my Design Tutors taught me way back when:

"It can look like a mighty eagle but if it soars like a turkey, your design has failed"

And the market, what does the market think of all this?

Well in general Service Design is only now becoming as valuable as it should be. Traditionally it's had more to do with marketing and sales than brand engagement and customer retention. Few roles but a growing demand.

Product Design has been around since the first products, if Ug the caveman cut his hand on his stone knife you can guarantee that whn Og who came up with a stone knife with a handle it was very popular. Until relatively recently it had more to do with function than usefulness and affordability than desirability and sustainability but it too is now a recognised and values discipline. Rapidly taking over from UX demand simply because it meets commercial needs more readily and produces something more tangible than experience. More and more roles appearing every day and more and more people taking those roles on.

Experience Design is as old as both, it's just nobody gave it a label and monetised it. At the moment it is probably the most overused of all the labels, especially if reduced to UX or CX. and suffers from conflation with UI. More roles than any other, probably, but more candidates too.

The Commercials

You’ll have more market worth as a Service Designer than a Product Designer, but you’ll have more market worth as a Product Designer than an Experience Designer.

All of which is a bit of a nonsense because with a little push, a little learning and a big change in approach the transition between all of them is minimal but if you’re happy in your role, making a difference in your role, are valued in your role, and can work with those other disciplines to produce a more rounded solution,what more do you want?

Addendum

For those who stumbled into this article by accident or are simply new to the discipline and are confused about the terminology in documentation here are a few links to explain what some of these things mean.

User Flows

The boxes and arrows that most people would recognise as indicative of our processes.

https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/what-are-user-flows/

Empathy Maps

A simple yet powerful way to visualise what your user/actor says, thinks, does, and feels, at any given point during their interaction with your solution.

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/empathy-mapping/

Service Blueprints

Visually lays out the different visible and invisible interactions for all users/actors of a solution's processes and interactions so that weaknesses can be easy identified.

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/service-blueprints-definition/

Journey Mapping

The narrative part of user flows that illustrate exactly what the human reactions to each touchpoint on the journey are.

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/journey-mapping-101/