Project.
Homestake Lodge, a nordic skiing, lodging, and wedding facility, approached Blacktail Design Studio for help revamping their nordic ski education program. The program works with over two dozen grade schools across three counties to bring classes of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students up to the Lodge for a day outside learning to ski. The program has been in operation for nearly 15 years and was in need of an organizational refresh. Blacktail Design Studio was hired to evaluate the program in its entirety, create documentation, and provide recommendations for improvements to the service.
What is Service Design?
Service design is one of the most consequential design disciplines, but it is also one of the most misunderstood. To make sense of service design, we first have to understand what a service is. Lou Downe, author of Good Services, describes a service very simply as "something that helps someone to do something". As an example, Spotify is a service that helps people listen to music. Most services are tied to a product that a person interacts with - in the case of Spotify, the product is a mobile application or website - but it is important to differentiate the service from the product in the context of design. Product design focuses on the details of how a person interacts with the product, such as sizes, shapes, and color palettes, but service design considers the overall functionality of the system or network of systems that operate in and around the product. Service design may include logistics, or it might include graphic design, or it might even include architecture. Service design is as broad as the variety of services it creates, but it centers around the thoughtful application of design principles to create the things that help us do things.
Research.
BDS Lead Designer!
In order to understand how to design a better service for the Lodge, Blacktail Design Studio first had to understand the unique circumstances that the nordic ski education program operates within. To do this, the studio sent Nic, our head designer, to actually work at the lodge teaching ski lessons and managing the gear rental facility. This immersive approach to design research gave the studio access to better information and deeper insights than conventional research methods.
Design.
Service design might not be as visually flashy as other design fields, but the details of a service are still interesting to look at. Below are some details from the service including journey maps, flow charts, floor plans, and sample pages of an employee training handbook.
