BACKGROUND
I have been a trained classical pianist for 17 years. Music has always been a big part of my life, so it was natural for me to somehow incorporate it into my Masters thesis. After some service design work that I did in my first year of graduate school as well as the work I did with IBM Reserach for an internship, I began to see interesting parallels between the two fields... so much so that I decided to focus my thesis paper on this topic.
THE PAPER
So, what can services learn from classical music?
In my Masters thesis paper, I discuss the growing field of service design, and parallel it to the well established field of classical music. I argue that services can be thought of as performances, and if so, then many aspects from classical music could be used to provide applicable approaches to service design. The topics that are paralleled in the paper are the following: how services can be thought of as performances, how the roles inherent to music find similarities to roles defined in service design, and how music notation systems are essential in connecting different music roles together and why service design should adopt a notation system of its own.
PROCESS
collection of process documentation (click on image to see full size)
OUTLINE
The paper is still in the process of being finished, but here is the outline that I am working off of... expect to see the finished product in a couple months!
Introduction
- What is service design?
- The difference between services and products
Paralleling Music to Service
- Music and services as systems
- Music impressions
- Music styles
- Music lifecycles
Paralleling Music Roles to Service Roles
The composer/service designer
- –giving shape to ideas
- –keeping an organic relationship to his work
- –being a master of elements
- –creating possibilities for the unexpected
The performer/frontline employee
- –giving movement to a static idea
- –reproducing intetntions with conviction
- –being an executant as well as an intepreter
- –being aware of performance conditions
- –establishing trust
- –creating the unexpected
The listener
- –the four stages of listening
- –being a discriminator, advocate, and educator
- –wanting an experience
Notation systems
- Role of notation systems
- Introduction to service blueprints
- Limitations to service blueprints
- How we can look to music scores
Future direction
Conclusion