As I told you before, that’s the official date that you should keep in your memory! It’s the birthdate of Service Design as an official term. Hurray! So, today, in 2018, Service Design celebrates its 36th birthday! Quite grown up, isn’t it? We should fear the midlife crisis that could arrive at 40!
The term was coined by Lynn Shostack. I have to admit that I wanted to know a bit more about her as she is, in a way, the mother of the field I’m so passionate about. But I couldn’t find much. What I do know is that she has worked a lot in the field of banking with a focus on marketing.
There are two interesting papers by her that you should check out. The first is titled “How to Design a Service” and was published in 1982, and the second, published in 1984, is titled “Designing Services That Deliver”.
Let’s take a tiny moment to thank the mother of Service Design, Lynn Shostack, for having created this field even if back then, the idea was mostly limited to the marketing departments. Lynn, all the service designers in the world owe you so much!
Going further
This article is part of the book "A Tiny History of Service Design, " a tiny two-hour read that goes through the historical events that created what Service Design is today.