Service Design for Sustainability - Susiane Santos

Hoje posto a entrevista concedida pela minha amiga Susiane Santos ao site Service Design Research. Parabéns Susi, muito sucesso!

Ela é Mestre em Design pela UFPE - Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (2008-2010), especialista em Administração de Marketing pela FCAP/UPE - Universidade de Pernambuco (2005), bacharel em Desenho Industrial/Programação Visual (2007) e em Turismo pela Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (2003).

Service Design for Sustainability
9th April 2010
PhD Student
UFPE – Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brasil

1. In your view, how is your research/work related to Service Design?
On my opinion Service Design is an evidence of the evolution of designer’s roles. Instead of dealing only with tangible materials, designers nowadays found a new path in services, systems and communities, which demands new skills and new levels of involvement. Design approaches these new areas with a systemic and holistic perspective, a multi and interdisciplinary way of working and a better consideration over sustainability.
Among all the specialties of services (such as financial, communicational, transportation, education, governmental, commercial and leisure), my research concentrates on the tourism sector, focusing on the hostelling segment. This choice is due to the importance and growth of this kind of service in my country (Brazil) and the lack of studies connecting this sector to design and sustainability.
So, in synthesis, the research aims to propose a model to assist designers in the project of tourist services considering sustainable aspects. It started in 2009 and will develop into practical experimentation in 2010; the PhD thesis is also supported by other models and methods like those proposed by Service Design Tools (www.servicedesigntools.org/) and the LOLA Project (www.sustainable-everyday.net/lolaimplementation/lola_brazil/), which engage communities in a co-design process for social innovation.
Important to say is that tourism activity should consider, besides the qualities and goods offered by local communities, the solutions people develop for their daily problems, according to their context and resources. This aspect emphasizes community participation in the process of service design.

2. In your view, what is the most/less interesting aspect of Service Design?
I think that the most interesting aspect of Service Design is the great variety and complexity of variables that influence each project; above all the improbability to obtain all the planned results, mainly because the key resource of services is people, which is of course impossible to control or predict.
In the same way, this heterogeneity of services brings a further difficulty to the profession of Service Design: how designers can participate in developing platforms to enable the desired behavior and interactions to emerge?
This is in fact a good and long discussion. Despite that, designers, nowadays, have an important and peculiar role in the society, that is leading projects, services and people to better respond to the needs of the society and of the environment. It’s not only necessary to be economically efficient but also ethic, fair and sustainable. Designers need to get along with this change and contribute to the achievement of a better way of living, for everyone.

3. Can you tell us about a Service Design research project(s) you did or read about?
I read about Service Design mainly thought writings by Morelli, Sangiorgi, Cipolla and Koskinen. In particular Dougherty and Manzini, with their focus on sustainability and design, introduced me to an interesting approach. Their visions about designer’s role led me to see what design can embrace as a profession, not only in the operational field but also at a more strategic level. The challenges of design are increasing every day; moving from a production line to a systemic and interconnected net of problems and solutions, which change rapidly and dynamically in a way that it’s difficult to measure or control.
So, in this scenario, my research tries to find ways designers can contribute to a dynamic equilibrium for the planet and to people’s well-being. For example, in Brazil, where I live, some organizations are being certified and recognized due to their work embracing sustainability. Also, designers are acting inside communities to find out solutions to cooperate to their daily life and working with them to help generating new opportunities of work and employment. Some examples of designer’s activity and sustainability are presented in the following sites:
www.ufpe.br/sendes
www.closchiavo.pro.br/
www.centropedesign.com.br/projetos_design_social.php
www.prainhadocantoverde.org
www.ltds.ufrj.br/desis/des-serv.htm

4. Are there area(s) that you would like to do or see research on?
Well, I’d like to see and read more about cases and models of Service Design applied to the tourism sector, and also about Service Design and Sustainability. It’s important to my research and to its development to see models and methods working in reality – even if, adapted to each particular reality. At the moment, I’m looking for ways to continue the research and to discover solutions and new ideas amongst Brazilian cases, mainly in my state, Pernambuco. (Pernambuco is located in the North East of Brazil, that is well known for it’s natural beauties and cultural icons such as: Porto de Galinhas, Fernando de Noronha, Olinda, J. Borges, Mestre Vitalino and rhythms as Frevo and Maracatu ).

Blog Susiane:
https://sites.google.com/site/serviced4s/

Site Service Design Research:
http://www.servicedesignresearch.com/