Conference article

In this paper, the idea of leveraging traces in service design for sustainability is presented. Physical evidence is an essential aspect of services as the service experience exists as a choreography of people, things and processes. These designed, tangible aspects of services play an important role in the overall service experience and at the same time act as affordances, leading the user through a desired service journey without interpersonal interactions. Viewing services in the context of actor network theory, as networks of humans and non-humans suggests that this service evidence act as a carrier of explicit knowledge relegated to it by the designers. Integrating tacit knowledge in the design process is a meaningful endeavour especially in the context of service design for sustainability. Traces is a notion associated with focal practices that shed light in this unexplored direction of service design. Traces exhibit similar characteristics to evidence but in a capacity of carrying tacit knowledge.

traces, service design, craft, tacit knowledge, social innovation