Discovering Service Variations through Service Prototyping

Designing services require embracing the variability that makes it unique. This paper investigates how the use of a service prototyping technique enables participants to explore the variations inherent in services. The video data are analyzed using qualitative content analysis and the articulated variations are abstracted as categories. The resulting categories are then mapped across the service logic framework and the corresponding provider, joint and patient spheres. This paper aims to contribute to research on service prototyping by augmenting the use of prototyping methods to gain an understanding of the sources and possibly types of variations in a particular service. It clarifies how prototyping a service allows people untrained in design to diagnose variations that may occur in a future service and the decision-making process in accommodating variation. Further, the knowledge gained enables improved value co-creation opportunities in a service.