ABSTRACT
Service design’s emergence as a new fi eld of design at the end of the twentieth century, and its ongoing evolution into an interdisciplinary, collaborative, and holistic fi eld of design, is not easily defi nable. Equally, its origins cannot be attributed to developments within one design discipline, nor can it be viewed, unlike its more traditional counterparts of graphic and product design, as a clearly bounded design practice. Service design’s arrival at the start of the millennium is shaped by its intrinsic human-centered approach and the unique nature of services that are irrevocably entangled in a socio-technical and political landscape. In this chapter I explore the different paths that led to service design, from both practice and research perspectives, with the aim of showing how its origins and future directions are interlinked.
