At a seminar in Copenhagen the other day, Joe Pine from Strategic Horizons told about ‘services you didn’t ask for’ which triggered some thoughts on service experiences in general.

At Designit we’re currently quite focused on the global trend towards self-service and DIY. Self-service – in most cases – actually also happens to be something you didn’t ask for, and rather insisted on not having. But new divisions of labour between service provider and service buyer are here to stay, so it might be worth thinking about!

All sectors and markets experience a shift in user behaviour and service perception towards a preference for self-service and DIY. Not only for user but also for service provider this means new opportunities.

Even ‘mission critical’ industries like health care will become self-care in a couple of years from now. Take prescription drug vending machines for example. Chance is, that we’ll end up prefer self-service. And be surprised how self-service-capable we are – at least if the self-service experience is well designed and with user-capabilities in mind.

Within DIY activities the trend also shifts and creates new markets. Have a look at these two examples. Why not source back your typical DIY tasks (if you are a male) to a service provider. Here is the EasyCarWash offer reinventing carwash experience: Park your car at work, book a wash and enjoy a hand-washed car when you leave the office. A standard car wash consumes minimal water and costs approximately €15 so its benefits are both economical and environmental!

Or book a multi-handyman on the internet and get all the stuff done that used to require serious DIY-skills or two or three different professions + coordination. We tried it and it works! Next thing, I guess, will be a mobile hairdresser in the Copenhagen office saving time and probably cost too.

New, reinvented ‘service agreements’ between the service giver and service taker is the future. These new services are services that you did’nt ask for, but end up loving them and recommend them to your friends. Their logic is irresistible – and that’s why they’ll grow and change the game in the sector.

So, all you big established service providers with dated business and service concepts – rethink, get into the new game – or loose it!

Businesses and organisations often overly invest in short-term initiatives, instead of identifying the problem and developing solutions – the key to which is multi-skilled, stakeholder involvement.

One example is cycle helmets. Today, after more than 10 years of public campaigns with little impact, people are starting to don helmets. Why? A new product design approach is supplementing the public campaigns.

New design solutions make people want to wear a helmet. BELL, for example, has moved away from the typically unattractive cycle helmet to a tough and attractive piece of sports equipment. Yakkay has taken it a step further by placing the visual focus on fashion instead of safety. But their success isn’t just the result of good design, but also years of public campaigns. In other words: it’s a combined effort.

The lesson? Involving all stakeholders early on in multi-skilled, collaborative process will result in hitting target faster and more accurately. If the public health campaigners had teamed up with designers 10 years ago, we may all have been cycling more safely and stylishly for years now.

Consumer behaviour is changing as a result of the economic downturn– but how? I’ve observed how it’s affecting the eyewear sector.

Before the downturn hit, this is what eyewear consumers were doing:

1. Flashing money
Eager to flash the cash, consumers bought frames that looked expensive.

2. Standing out
Consumers bought flashy, expressive frames.

3. Changing styles
Consumers bought expressive and expensive frames because they could afford to buy new frames if they grew tired of a certain look.

And this is what eyewear consumers are doing now:

1. Choose sides
Brands that are neither cheap nor expensive are suffering as the middle ground disappears. So choose sides.

2. Stand out – intelligently
Consumers don’t want bling – but intelligent details and technical solutions that add value to their choice of frame.

3. Think longevity
Your consumers want design that lasts longer. Prepare for a return to rounder, friendlier shapes and less expressive colours.

As always – in recession either classic products or true innovation will prosper. Nobody wants more of the same.

Environmental requirements and resource shortage provoke designers and engineers to rethink before creating yet another new design. Surprisingly, limits often result in innovative and even cool-looking solutions. 

ecofont, invented by Dutch communications agency Spranq, is a needed rethink of typo and the prevalent ‘typo-fashion’ approach. The basic idea: to transfer the concept of a hole-beam (or a Dutch holey cheese) to a font and thereby set new standards for ink consumption, while creating a new, powerful visual expression at the same time. 

Right, fonts are tiny, but trillions are printed every day. What I like particularly about ecofont is the statement that everything matters and makes a difference. It insists that everybody, even typeface designers, can contribute to the global aspiration for eco-efficiency and responsibility. 

Hopefully, ecofont – besides bringing down the large amounts of toner and printing ink that is used every day to create ordinary, ‘massive’ art works – will spark more rethinking in ‘massive’ graphic design.

Governmental health care communication can be boring, finger-wagging and just a bit too lecturing. The result is that we don’t listen! So how do you get in touch with huge part of your target audience, engage them to listen and help spreading your message at viral speed? Here is a good example – it’s fun, entertaining, and works on your iPhone, too!  Click below to get the first (and fun) part. But you only get the full message by going to Computertan.com to get the sad end of the story. Anyway, if  you think you’re just a click away from getting the perfect tan online (like an unnamed colleague of mine here at the Copenhagen office did) you’ll be surprised.

Tired of getting out to refuel? Tired of getting hands and shoes ‘dieseled’ every time? Here is the solution. Automatic refuelling! It might be your most unrealised need.

The retailer will be happy as well. According to Fuelmatics, Easy-Fill® doubles customers per hour, increases their loyalty and rocket sales in shop! The latter is quite amazing as most auto-refuellers stay in their cars and never make it to the shop. Must be some new kind of remote shopping.

Anyway, I’m an automation geek and just I’m longing to do that drive-through fill up!

I’ve just had a meeting with a business man from Asia, who is about to launch an online service that allows design project owners to crowdsource on even complicated design projects. Three months ago I had a similar meeting with a Dutch guy, also about to launch a crowdsourcing tool.

This momentum just confirms my belief that crowdsourcing is a key design tool of the future. Why? It allows thousands of brains to chip into the development process, making the creative process quicker and more expansive.

My bet it’s not a stand-alone solution. Creative processes require considerable and careful management. But with a little culture change and enough contributors and users on board, I do believe that crowdsourcing is a key way forward for creative development.

Call it the democratisation of design – even non-designers can point and click their way to ingenious solutions with a crowdsourcing tool. Time to retire, I guess.

This sums up all the don’ts of urban waste management:

1) Find a suitable space – preferably a SLOAP
2) Take a standard paper recycling bin
3) Add a red, inventive flap and sign combo reading: ‘No Paper – Batteries – Iron – Metal – Electronics’ 
4) Dump the redesigned bin and other waste bins in the SLOAP to create a true downtown dump yard
5) Expect citizens to take this service seriously and back you up

If done properly, the space will look so trashy that even graffittists will stay away.

“What am I supposed to do with this thing?,” I asked myself while washing my hands and staring at a Hygiene Monitor. Apparently it is there to improve the airport toilet experience. I couldn’t help smiling, expecting some kind of service value moment to happen. But it just sat there…counting the minutes until next cleaning round. A lot of gear and very little substance. Over-designed and over-conceptualised? Mistake or innovation? You decide. Anyhow, I’d swop this monitor thing with a an organic wall, a SANIFAIR solution or simply maximise customer experience at security checkpoints instead.

Know road heating? That stuff has been around for about 30 years without really taking off. Bum heating in urban spaces will definitely make it big. This massive, concrete bench with built-in bum heating and internet access, and a halo found downtown Umeå, Sweden documents this trend. I guess the purpose is to get a couple of people out on the streets when it is minus 20°C and dark at 3PM. Cool thing but someone told me that each bench consumes the same amount of energy as a family home. You might want erect a wind mill beside it to get heated in a sustainable way.