Unmaking the user journey. Fostering alternative Service Design futures

Abstract

This paper bridges the discussion on a more ethical Service Design practice with the one on Dominant Design. It points out the neo-liberalist and late-capitalist roots of Service Design, which are often a barrier to envisioning ways for the discipline to be more inclusive and sustainable. A closer analysis of the user journey, the backbone of Service Design practice, highlights its critical structural issues and how it informs potentially harmful processes and outcomes. The exclusive focus on user and human-centredness prevents service designers from embracing an ecosystem, plural and antihegemonic practice.