Best & Worst Service Designs

Best: Metrocard Vending Machine

Traveling throughout the city means you need to have a metro card on you at all times. In order to purchase one, you can either buy one from a booth where a person will be able to assist you or from a metro card machine. However not all subway stations have a booth available so interacting with the machine is required. For me personally, I think the metro card machine is extremely fast and efficient. I remember the first time I ever used one, I read whatever was on the screen carefully and use my finger to pick my options. As I began to use the machine more frequently, I realized how fast and useful it really is. it is a perfect example of service design because it is a machine that forces you to interact with it. it is a form of communication design.

The machine is made out of steel and other materials; the interface used is a combination of director, photoshop, illustrator, and visual basic software. Its dimensions are approximately 6' 7 7/8" x 41 11/16" x 26" (203 x 106 x 66 cm). The MTA's vending machine leads customers through the process of buying metrocards in a manner that is efficient and no-nonsense, in a very New York spirit, suggesting colorful, never-boring transit ahead: the buttons on the screen are large and the purchasing choices are clear; the machine itself is done up in bright, almost toy-like primary colors and, with its enamel-coated steel, it is both graffiti- and scratch-proof.

 

The metrocard vending machine is a successful service design because it gets the job done in an effective manner. No matter where you are in the city, every subway station has the same exact machine with the same exact instructions for use. Once you have mastered its process, you will never have to relearn it again, the experience you share with this machine will be exactly the same at any subway station. I admit that for first time users it may be a bit complicated, however for people who are not fluent in English, there interaction can be made easier by choosing the option to proceed in a different language. There are four language options on the machine; English, Espanol, Italian and Deutsch. Picking a different language can help some people but for others just reading whatever comes up on your screen can automatically help you get your metro card.

The advancement in technology is what makes the metrocard vending machine so efficient. In the reading, Service design: Practical Access to an Evolving Field by Stefan Moritz, the relationship between service design and technology is discussed. Technology is a main component of rising service designs; Moritz states, “Technology has changed the relationships between clients and service providers. Therefore technology represents new possibilities as well as challenges.” I encounter many service designs throughout the day, for example going to the atm etc. the only draw back I find with these other machines is that they are always different wherever I go. Atms in particular can be hard to adjust to and are not nearly as quick as the metrocard vending machine.

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Worst: Self-Checkout Machines

Standing on line to purchase an item can take some time. Inventors believed that in order to speed this dreaded process up, self-check out machines should be built and put into various stores including super markets, department stores and so on. I for one am not a huge fan of these self-checkout machines. The first time I ever used one was at my local grocery store. I found myself going extremely slow and making sure the prices the machine rung up were correct. There were many items I was buying, for example fruit that did not have a price tag on it and had to be weighted in order to determine a price. To do that, I had to call over an employee to assist me. By the time that was all done, my entire checkout procedure took twice as long as it normally does. I did not fancy this concept at all.

The few variables that I think made this service design a fail was that for stores with this much variety, it is hard to program every last detail into one machine. First off, the software was not extremely fast, which is fine but the faster the better. The second obstacle was that some items would not ring up properly so you would have to go back and retry (wasting time) and putting in your store card number was an entire procedure on its own. Lastly, whenever there was a problem with the self-check out, you had to contact a person who worked there to come over and help you. That itself, ruins the entire concept of a self-checkout.

In order for a service design to be successful, it cannot be for something too complicated. In other words, the machine should be able to do exactly what you need it to without any human assistance at all. In the Mager Service Design reading, the purpose of service design is stated, “Service designers visualize, formulate, and choreograph solutions to problems that do not necessarily exist today; they ob- serve and interpret requirements and behavioral patterns and transform them into possible future services.” Successful service designs should also provide people with the same exact experience every time they use it (no matter where there location is.) I think that is what truly makes the metrocard vending machine a true victory. I understand that for people who are in a hurry and do not have many items that the self checkout is actually efficient for them, however I would rather wait the extra minute on line in guarantee that I will have no problems dealing with the machine. Nowadays, there are express lines in most grocery stores anyway. I think that self-checkouts can definitely be successful, however only in certain types of environments.