Andrew Polaine

is book’s companion website (rosenfeldmedia.com/books/service-design/)

. Interaction and user experience design are often understood as design for screen-based interactions, but service design covers a broader range of channels than this.

www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/service-design/) and we will try to make amends, either on the site or in future editions. The Service Design Network (www.service-design-network.org) and Jeff Howard’s excellent sites—Service Design Books (www.servicedesignbooks.org) and Service Design Research (http://howardesign.com/exp/service/index.php)—are good places to find service design resources

places more emphasis on qualitative over quantitative research methods.

Market research is typically quantitative and prefers large numbers of respondents. This research can yield some “truths” that are statistically significant and correct, such as the percentage of people who use a certain kind of service ().

Qualitative research helps designers dive deeper to understand the chaos and emotions that make us human and behave in seemingly illogical ways. We are interested in people’s needs, behaviors, and motivations because these can form the basis of design problems that we try to tackle as designers.

To design for people, we need insights into people’s needs, motivations, and behaviors. Qualitative research can usually provide the data for these insights better than quantitative research.