Service Design Case Study
Theo G
Week 1
After getting the prompt outline, I had a couple of research topics in mind that I wanted to explore before fully delving into one idea that I wanted to share with my team. I took this class with the intentions of gaining the skills needed to create something that could fill a need for people, so I wanted to do this with intention.
Over the summer I came across a few YouTube videos that went into the concept of a third space, how there used to be more of them, and the reasons for their decline. The first one I deiced to watch was on the history of the Auto-mat, diners and cafeterias.
Kendra Gaylord details the history of all three, starting first at the auto-mat. One is depicted in the thumbnail of the video above; they were locations were food was sold and consumed on a mass scale with the biggest chain operating, Horns Hardart, in Philadelphia and New York. Its was a large “arcade like”, in the words of Gaylord, building where you would exchange a dollar for nickels at the front, and then roam the floor where along the walls, were stations of food with windows for viewing. After selecting the items you want, you insert you nickel and grab your food. Gaylord highlights a documentary that depicts all types of people who’d eat there and the type of food and seating offered.
The menu offered a wide range of options at multiple price points to accommodate a range of needs. The seating was cafeteria style, putting people right next to those of varying classes and cultures, all in one spot. The documentary Gaylord used even has a quote from Philly's first black mayor where he explains how he ate so much meatloaf at this brand of auto-mat back in the day, because the auto-mat was the only place he and his colleagues felt they could organize safely as activists.
The diner filled a similar niche except at a different scale. The buildings were small, meant for singles at the bar and small groups that could fit in a booth, serving only breakfast and lunch quickly and at an affordable price. They were all over cities like New Jersey and Massachusetts, and they became a regular spot for many people to eat and socialize. Cafeterias are similar to the automat, except they are usually apart of larger buildings like malls or offices, and they cater to a niche group of people who have access to said spaces.
The next video delves into the specifics of what third spaces are and why there is a lack of them today.
Elliot Sang uses the definition of a third space, as brought fourth by Ray Oldenburg in his book The Great Good Place, to be a space outside of work and home that serves as a informal public gathering location. Sang reads from the book an excerpt which describes that these informal gathering spots — the sidewalk cafes of Paris, the pubs of London, and the piazzas of Florance — become the soul these cities, the very image that comes to mind when the name is heard. It is the space where the “neighborhood is united” and is a place for “all types of people” to converge.
Sang addresses whats been dubbed the “loneliness epidemic” and a study which highlights the fact that older generations statistically had more friends they considered close than generations of today; the study notes that young people aged 15–24 spent about 70% less time in person with their friends in 2020 compared to the previous years, in no small part due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Adults and those in authority attribute these trends to an over reliance on social media and that kids just need to put their phones down and talk to each other, but Sang explains that there are larger societal issues influencing these trends.
The fact that most third spaces have a barrier to enter by way of financial constraints, its not as simple as turning the phone off and going outside, as Sang notes. Most restaurants and stores arent accessible to low income patrons with the pricing, and some are enforcing age restrictions on their spaces, with young people being denied unless theyre accompanied by an adult. More and more, as Sang goes on, our culture separates the youth from adults in these third spaces, keeping them out entirely.
They are not only kept out of these spaces, but adults have normalized a culture of ridiculing the interest of the youth as unimportant, as well as told them that their existence in public spaces upsets the older people around. The youth internalize these thoughts and, with no spaces to go and no social outlets, were seeing an increase in individualization as a means to separate themselves from other teens . There are expansive online communities dedicated to niche individual interests and the extent of these teens social network often only extends to those people they meet in these space. They fall into online echo chambers of people who they feel identify with them and those who do not arent considered apart of that network. There is a focus on what these personal relationships offer to the individual as opposed to how their relationships serve the larger community. Sang explains that while is useful to have these personal online communities with personal connections that keep you in the space, but staying in spaces of only like minded people makes seeing dissent uncomfortable instead of seeing as an opportunity to understand someone more.
Sang then explains how capitalism plays a role in keeping individuals separate from each other, as when the whole of a community comes together, historically those groups have rallied for social change, as noted by Gaylord in her video on the automate. This all calls back to the article we read about “Group Think” ( Jonah Lehrer 2012) in which its shown that healthy conflict is important to the idea generation process because it forces a person to understand the perspective of others, as well as reevaluate their own. With this in mind, I knew I wanted to create a type of third space for the youth that allows them an in person community space to be around all the kinds of teens who are in their neighborhoods.
Week 2
I sent the videos I watched to my group in order for them to understand what direction I was thinking of going and so that they could send me the research they had done. They didnt send anything my way, so I was prepared in our first group meeting to elaborate on the direction id like to go, but offering them the space to tell me in person what they had found and what they are interested in designing. I opened the floor and asked if anyone had ideas, to which they all said not really, what was i thinking. I explained the concepts from the videos and how designing a third space for the local high school aged kids I see all the time in the Brooklyn commons would be filling a community need. They had some knowled of third spaces and were into the idea of creating a space specifically for teenagers. We listed out our availability and formed a project plan about next steps in terms of research.
We started brain storming spaces that are third spaces such as the Brooklyn commons, local parks/basketball courts, and fancy apartment buildings that have rent-able spaces with amenities like pools and movies rooms (however, this has a much higher barrier of entry and is not what comes to mind as a third space that teenagers regularly have access to now. We noticed that most of the spaces we listed were outside public areas that arent meant really for people to linger; when the weather turns, these spaces are no longer the best option. We wanted to know when the kids have time to themselves, when the teens spend time together, if at all, and where they most often do it. A preliminary gallery of the items discussed was made in order to present to the class and get feedback on possible directions for our interviews.
Week 3
The gallery of our initial ideas was created with the images being of the typical spaces we found teenager spend time.
Feedback given was geared toward what age demographic are we aiming to design for; it was also brought up to potentially look into the way churches extend spaces to their communities. Exclusion in the space we create wasnt something i wanted to be possible, so having spefic age caps on who wed like to help wasnt that helpful of a question. As Sang mention in his video, there is a lack of intermingling between different age groups, and because of this, younger people feel less comfortable reaching out to their elders, even when they need help. Some restrictions will be in place to ensure the safety of all those in the space, but limiting to just high schoolers or just middle schoolers isnt something we wanted to be set in stone. With this is mind, some interview questions were formed in order to get a clearer picture in what direction the service should go.
The plan was to conduct three or so interviews each, for roughly 7 mins. We initially struggled to interview people due to our schedules, plus the intimidating aspect of walking up to a group of teenagers to ask them a list of personal questions. I suggested we do the interviews together for this reason, but timing was off. So we instead deiceded to age up the people we ask, but to ask them these questions in the context of what they did when they were that age. I was able to do four each going about 30 minutes. I learned that most of the people i interviewed had roughly 3–4 a day of free time, time that doesn't have obligations, and they typically spend that time alone as they spent so much of their time around others. Three respondents had a small group of friends that they'd chose to hang with either at a local cheap restaurant, in empty classrooms, on basketball courts, and just on the street in their neighborhood. They chose to smoke weed, play basketball, talk/daydream, and just hangout when they are together, and when alone, they typically chose to scroll social media. Two respond-ts spoke about feeling lonely and left out due to hoops they felt they need to jump through in order for their peers to warm up to them. One concern of note brought up by two respondents was the lack of respect they felt from those older than them; one respondent mentioned how he and his friends couldn't use a certain basketball court due to the competitive, mean-spirited nature of the older teens and young adults there. The other mentioned feeling left out as a new kid and she didn't really fit in with anyone of any age until they deemed she’d jumped through the right hoops. This respondent also wished that there were more spaces for her to learn skills like crochet as a teenager; she felt too much free time was reserved for game play and not enough on interesting crafts and skills. Two respondents mentioned how lack of privacy in their lives is a concern for them when it comes to their use of free time; when they are moving freely, they are in spaces where anyone can hear or see them, or as one responded who lived at boarding school informed me, anyone could enter room as the doors didn't have locks.
A persona was created based on feedback:
We relayed our interview responses to each other and created a preliminary prototype map.
Week 4
The first prototype was a maker space type structure with resources available for the users to create things and learn skills through attending workshops if theyd like. One respondent mentions wanting to learn crochet and having a space to learn a skill and have something tangible to take home, so we formulated an idea fro a workshop model that allows for people to donate resources for use, as well as their time if they wish to lead a workshop. The location was to be outside, or with access to the outside. The group tossed around ideas of creating a representation of the space in minecraft or the sims, to which I suggested we do a low effort model with paper (like the one movie we watched in class) to see how people would use the space and what theyd like to see in it, but this idea was not taken. The group stalled as thanksgiving break came, and next steps weren't to be deiced until we reconvened. One thing that we didnt address was howd wed go about accommodating them in the space if they all have the same 3–4 hour window of free time at the same time. The idea of making it a cubical(s) that are at different locations outside was also brought up way to incorporate nature and accommodate more users.
A map of potential stakeholders was created as we needed to consider locations for the cubicles, funding for the project, safety insurances, and cleanliness. The fire marshal was also considered in the secondary stakeholder section.
Week 5
The week back from break was supposed to time in which we were testing the workshop model and seeing how our target users interact with this workshop model, but no communications happened. I really wanted to do as much as a team as possible but I couldn't seem to coordinate us doing the interviews or prototype testing at all. I conducted two more interviews to get a gauge on the workshop model and if that is something a high school aged person would use their precious 3–4 hours of time on. What i learned was that these two had a wide range in interests that they wanted to be able to partake in at different times and for different duration. One loves to act, play basketball, listen to music, enjoy nature; and the other person likes to nap, read, and play online games with their friends. In our next meeting, some concerns were brought up about the workshop model being hard to maintain as the amount of donated resources might not be enough for how we want the space to be used. Based on the other two interviews I did, i suggested we pivot away from the workshop as the focus and spend our effort on designing the space in a way that the user is choosing what kind of experience they have. I relayed the fact that most of the kids are interested in a range of things, so we should give them the agency to partake in them all whenever they want.
The second prototype was to be a room with amenities that support the interests of the users who use the space. A certain number of base amenities will be provided like tables, seating, and media but the focus is on how the user wants the space to be used. Expanding on the cubical idea from the first prototype, they would be different sizes to accommodate different groups of people and activities, as some dont need as much space as others. They would be able to access the space through a reservation type model that works to like a word cloud where anyone can enter what they’d like to use the space for, like singing, dancing, video games, etc, where the more people who vote for a particular activity, that word gets bigger and all the other activities are around it to the size that represents its votes. from there, the biggest word shows the activity with the most interest and would be held at the bigger cubical, while the other activities would be spread through the others based on size and kind of activity. The larger activities in the bigger cubicles will be open blocks with no options to prepick group size, it will be first show first serve and the entire blocked time will be for that activity. The smaller activities will have their time divided in the smaller cubicles as well as have to that a wide range of interest can be accommodated in the same time frame that everyone has. While the blocks are timed, they are still first come first serve. The users can then interact with the space as they need to fit the intended activity, like moving chairs around to knit on the floor, or pushing tables together to host a dungeons and dragons mission. They should feel comfortable bringing their interests to the space and using that time to freely indulge how they please either alone or alongside others.
some concern arose in the group about the sustainability of this user input model that sees the room changing often, but that was under the assumption that we the designers would be in charge of the changes. This was cleared up in that, the users is having their agency given back to them, so all were doing is giving them the space and resources to do that, however is looks for them. This seemed to calm that concern. A question as to why there has to be a word map also came up; the reason is to allow the user access to the different interest that people in their community have. There are plenty of online spaces dedicated to staying around people who like the things you like, so I wanted to mitigate that in this third space. The word map model exposes users to interest they may not have heard of, and with the open nature of the cubicles, they will have the opportunity to enjoy a new activity.
Some preliminary prototype drawings were done by me:
Next was to do another round of interviews going back to the original respondents and asking them specifically they'd like to have all the time in the space.
Week 6
I was able to speak with three of the respondents to gauge what kind of things theyd like to have in a this kind of space.
With these base amenities included in the cubicles, a more realistic model was created:
and an idea for the reservation model was created:
No time was allotted to test this prototype, and the reservation model doesnt fully reflect the model as i described with the word map or the open blocks for the more poplar activities. cubical space selection should be based on popularity of activity and expected turnout, as well as what amenities said activity needs to run. Having there be a select number of guests also defeats the purpose of those being a community space for as it takes away chance encounters with new people. I would have loved to test it with people and get their feedback, but the group was pretty last minute at getting ideas together, leaving no real room for testing our assumptions.
Week 7
The presentation of the pitch went well and the feedback given was somewhat helpful. We were told from an administration standpoint that fundraisers in low income communities seldom produce the results needed to get the project off the ground, which does effect our ability to reach out to underfunded areas. Focusing our efforts on donations and partnerships with non profits seems to be where focus should head in the coming stages. If the cubicles don’t work out, we were asked what we thought of suite based rooms, like a We Work. our group had a member who worked in one of those offices and the business like nature of the experiences as well as the locations uptown, make it hard to implement for our intended user. Lastly, we were asked what a potential value proposition would be for a scale up and I personally dont see anything more than it could really help teenagers gain confidence and social skills. I cant really get my head into that of a capitalist ti think about anything other than the value it provides to the intend users. I cant think of any better “selling point” than it could really help kids out.
