Alignment Tools in Experience Design. Collect and Represent Picture of Reality.
By: Andrii Rusakov
Tags: Service Design, Alignment, Service Blueprint, Experience Design, Diagrams

Designer’s job is to help clients by solving their problems. We aren’t the only guys who do this. Business analysts and software architects make same efforts for solution elaboration. However focus is put at different branches of the same solution. This leads to variety in exploration methods and artifacts.

No one can offer a reasonable solution without a thorough problem understanding. Existing state of things comprehension and their interactions are basis knowledges required for reasoned decisions.

Problems should be identified and framed before proposition of ideas and solutions. Complexity to this task may be increased by variety of people and roles should be served with solution.

That’s why first dive out steps should be about current state understanding and alignment on it. Approaches from this article has experience design flavor, but it is easy to see similarities with Object Management Group practices like BPMN, sequence and activity diagrams.

Service Blueprint

Service blueprint can be considered as a relative to user journey map. They both represent user experience through the time. However user journey map serves for individual experience representation while service blueprint is focused on relationships between involved parties.

As a method it was originally proposed in the article “Designing Services That Deliver” by Lynn Shostack in 1984. During several decades it has evolved and nowadays perfectly explained in article “Service Blueprints: Definition” by Sarah Gibbons.

Nowadays service blueprint model based on NN/g diagram

This schema can be read in the following way. Individual client representative conducts a journey with some company service. Each his step initiates action on the service side. Service actions divides into visible/not visible for the client and 3rd party involvements during support processes.

Modifications

There are several reasons for original approach modifications:

1. Real time moderated alignment between people of different backgrounds requires really simple tool for all participants engagement.

2. Cases that require exploration context shift from user individual experience to system inner relationships representation.

3. Cases that require big picture representation.

Real Time Alignment

Simplification of original schema to information minimum that still makes sense will distinguish: user actions, service actions and touch points. Client side usually may be extended with multiple representatives.

Actions based modification for real time alignment

Result approach is easy to conduct and allows interactions mapping between multiple client and service side representatives. Each step is described in a format of initiated action with received result and specified interaction channel. All the steps are grouped within bigger stages.

Flow Sequence

Complex interactions mapping for service organizations and B2B have led to approaches capable to capture them. The following one has been appeared as service blueprint combination with UML sequence diagram.

Flow based modification for real time alignment

Mapping exercise stages:

1. Identify involved parties on client and service side

2. Define key stages of the process

3. Define flows for each stage

4. Illustrate connections within flows

The main differentiator of approach is ability to represent system’s big picture on a flows level instead of independent actions.

Summary

There are a lot of similar tools in different disciplines serving alignment between people. Sometimes you even have chance to evolve existing approaches and fit them to your direct needs.

Don’t look only to the established practices of your field, because as more you know as more you can combine and adjust for successful solution.

Reference links:

1. Guide to Service Blueprinting (Adaptive Path)

2. Service Blueprints: Laying the Foundation by Izac Ross (Cooper)

3. Service Blueprints: Definition by Sarah Gibbons (Nielsen Norman Group)

4. Designing Services That Deliver by G. Lynn Shostack

5. Object Management Group