Conference article

This paper introduces the first academic characterisation of the desktop walkthrough technique. Desktop walkthrough is considered here as a service design technique using a collaboratively built miniature environment to construct knowledge about a specific service. It is further examined as a technique for rapidly exploring and designing a service concept. The analytical lens of the paper is outlined from socio-cultural theories on human development where any human action is developed from, and emulated by, social interactions and the intellectual and physical artefacts herein. The analysis shows that desktop walkthrough enabled teams to design a holistic service journey with low threshold usage, and provided a means for exploring and designing the complexity of customer journeys and the backstage organizational processes.

desktop walkthrough, design games, case study, activity theory