Seasoned Thoughts: From Intent to Impact

In conversation with Sarang Bobade, founder of Donatekart, this article reframes giving not as a transaction, but as a carefully designed service system. The discussion explores how transparency, verification, storytelling, and operational clarity influence donor trust and long-term engagement.

From the challenges exposed during the Chennai floods to building trackable, need-based giving systems, the piece highlights how platforms can transform emotional intent into meaningful action while also exploring the importance of designing with dignity and honesty.

Freshly Baked: Design for Healthcare Access

Isha Nadkarni examines healthcare access through a service design lens, arguing that healthcare failures often begin long before a patient reaches a hospital.

Using the story of Ramesh, a migrant worker navigating rural healthcare systems, the article explores how barriers such as lack of information, transportation, financial insecurity, and limited community support create systemic exclusion. Through journey maps, ecosystem thinking, and the socio-ecological model, the piece shows how service designers can identify invisible breakdowns and design interventions beyond hospital walls.

Rich Insights: Designing MVPs to Catch Service Failures Early

Kavya Murugan explores why product innovation often fails when teams validate features but overlook the services surrounding them.

The article introduces the shift from Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to Minimum Viable Service (MVS), highlighting how end-to-end service prototyping can uncover operational failures, behavioural gaps, and hidden dependencies before launch. Through a detailed mobility systems case study, the piece demonstrates how service walkthroughs, Wizard-of-Oz testing, and cross-functional simulations can help teams design more reliable and trustworthy experiences.

Across all three contributions, a shared thread emerges: meaningful experiences are shaped not only by products or interfaces but also by the invisible systems surrounding them.

SDD members and volunteers behind this issue: Anannya Bhowmik Paul, Sakshi Kumari, and Suprabath Talluri.

📩 Have a perspective to share? Reach out at hello@servicedesignindia.com.

Service Design Bites: March ’26 Issue was originally published in Service Design Case Studies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Rich-in-Sights: Scaling In-House Service Design

In Rich-in-Sights, Saksham Panda explores what it truly takes to scale service design within large organisations. Moving beyond surface-level adoption, the article unpacks two critical dimensions: horizontal scaling, where service design spreads across teams and departments, and vertical scaling, where depth of expertise, methods, and strategic influence are strengthened within teams.

Seasoned Thoughts: Designing for Health, Designing for People

Sakshi, from the SDD India team, talks with Thongsuanmung, a seasoned public health professional with over two decades of experience working across India’s national health programs. From his experience within the government systems, he reflects on why public health cannot succeed through policy and scale alone. The conversation explores the complexity in the domain where standardised solutions frequently clash with local contexts, shaped by language and geography to resource constraints. Through stories from the field, Thongsuanmung emphasises that systems must be designed with, and not for, the communities they serve to create lasting impact.

Freshly Baked: Belong & Beyond

In Freshly Baked, Sunayana Das, Devyani Krishna, and Priya Rathod present Belong & Beyond, a service design project focused on post-child adoption transitions. Grounded in deep field research with adoptive families, counsellors, and institutions, the project highlights the emotional gaps that often follow legal adoption. The proposed solution, the multi-phase Adoption Transition Kit, helps families before, during, and after a child comes home by using stories, rituals, and community support to build trust and a sense of belonging.

SDD members and volunteers who are behind this issue: Sakshi Kumari, Sanika Harshe and Anannya Bhowmik

📩 Have a perspective to share? Reach out at hello@servicedesignindia.com.

Stay curious, stay engaged!

Service Design Bites: September ’25 Issue was originally published in Service Design Case Studies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I recently pressed a button in an elevator with my finger. Shouldn’t have! Paranoia hits, so I poured some sanitizer to clean my hands only to realize that I had opened the sanitizer bottle with my bare hands, which could be carrying those invisible spiky spherical monsters! Paranoia hits again, so I pour some more sanitizer, but this time, ironically, to sanitize the sanitizer bottle itself.

Users are paranoid about every touch. And every touch-point in a service is now a major point of concern. And for an organization, service design is now playing a major role in keeping this stress away from the user’s mind.

Some organizations are launching contactless delivery as a solution, Dominos for instance. Meanwhile, companies like Tesla have launched remote locking and unlocking of cars, providing a “No-touch service” to get one’s car serviced. Organizations are preferring online payments over cash to avoid touch. Some are delivering products at the door or at some specific drop-off areas. And for the sanitizer paranoia, there are self-dispensing sanitizers that use proximity sensors to avoid touch (Thank you, Airport washrooms!)

Although these solutions seem pretty interesting, they come with certain caveats as well. Take Dominos again for an instance, when the delivery person arrives, (s)he has to wear disposable gloves, often made of plastic. A dentist’s clinic that I recently visited offered these disposable plastic gloves to every individual that entered its premises. Plastic gloves, especially disposable ones could unfortunately pose a huge challenge to our environment.

This leads us to keep thinking harder about discovering more innovative service design solutions that not only keep us out of “touch” with the viruses but are also sustainable as well as economical at the same time.

During the Corona Epidemic, a Brief Look at the Changing Touchpoints. Literally. was originally published in Service Design Case Studies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I recently had the incredible opportunity to attend ServDes 2023 in the captivating city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Let me tell you, it turned out to be an absolute delight, a perfect blend of learning and Vitamin Sea. As someone obsessed with everything related to service design, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. ServDes is one of the first conferences dedicated solely to this field, and it truly felt like finding my tribe.

This bi-annual international design and innovation event attracts experts and practitioners from all corners of the globe. It originally started as a yearly Nordic conference in Oslo, Norway, back in 2009. However, due to the growing global interest and recognition, it evolved into a bi-annual international conference, with the second event taking place in Linköping, Sweden, in 2012.

ServDes offers a wonderful platform for engaging in discussions that shape the emerging discipline of Service Design. Whether you’re an academic or a professional in the industry, you’ll find a wealth of insights through papers, discussions, workshops, and forums. It’s an excellent opportunity for those interested in exploring service design to familiarize themselves with the domain.

Being a former design student and now a practitioner in India, I must admit that there are limited discussions around service design in my country. Breaking into this field has been a challenging journey filled with self-doubt and imposter syndrome. However, attending ServDes made me realize that there’s a world where people passionately discuss all things service design. It’s a tight-knit community that radiates a sense of camaraderie.

The journey to Brazil might be lengthy, but trust me, it’s absolutely worth it. Rio de Janeiro is a city like no other, welcoming, vibrant, and stunningly beautiful, which more than compensates for any jet lag.

This year the theme for the conference was ‘Entanglements and flows’. The conference lasted four days, with an additional day reserved for a pre-conference event, including a book reading and a DESIS lab forum where social innovation case studies from various parts of the world were discussed. Each day was packed with captivating keynotes, insightful paper presentations, engaging workshops, forums, and discussions. I highly recommend checking out the detailed program schedule to get an overview of the wide array of topics covered.

I had an amazing time learning about the diverse approaches and outcomes of service design projects. It’s fascinating to see how individuals apply service design differently in their respective areas while facing similar challenges and celebrating shared successes. Witnessing the application of various tools, methods, mindsets, and expertise to create better holistic experiences across different geographies and cultures was truly inspiring. The conference showcased not only academic projects but also practical insights from industry practitioners working in both small and large companies. Their experiences ranged from solving internal operations to delivering value to customers, redefining ways of working, and designing for society and climate. It was a real eye-opener to see so many incredible SD teams working on such brilliant projects.

The workshops during the second half of each day were equally engaging. Some were part of ongoing larger research projects, while others allowed participants to reflect and explore various dimensions of service design. The central question guiding it all was, “What does serving mean? What does it mean to serve?” These discussions delved into compelling topics such as social innovation, self-identity and values as a designer, and the decolonization of design and innovation.

Beyond the enriching sessions, one of the highlights was the lively interactions during breaks. We gathered over scrumptious local yet vegan food and drinks, fostering connections and conversations that transcended cultural differences. With participants from over 20 countries, the energy and enthusiasm were palpable.

Lastly, Rio de Janeiro itself added a spark to the entire experience. The city offers a unique blend of modern and heritage architecture, breathtaking beaches, vibrant graffiti, classic monuments, groovy music filling the streets, and an abundance of other activities and places to explore. It’s a culturally-rich city, constantly evolving, and experiencing it all during my short stay was an absolute delight.

I extend my heartfelt thanks to BT Group for granting me the opportunity to be a part of ServDes this year. I’m also grateful to NID Gandhinagar and IIT Roorkee for their unwavering support during my project. Special thanks to my partner in crime, Shagun Bajpai, for the fantastic collaboration and being the best travel companion ever. And, of course, immense gratitude to the organizers and everyone at ServDes for creating an event that brings together all the service design enthusiasts from around the world. It truly was an unforgettable experience that enriched my passion for service design even further.

Always up for a discussion on all things design. Feel free to drop me a message or connect on LinkedIn.

Sun, Sand, and Service Design: My Experience at ServDes 2023 was originally published in Service Design Case Studies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This issue explores how service design borrows from adjacent disciplines, adapts to evolving customer expectations, and responds to regulatory shifts—always with people, context, and emotion at the centre.

Rich-in-Sights: Directing Service Design

In Directing Service Design, Dharna Mudgal draws a compelling parallel between film direction and service design. Much like cinema, services are carefully constructed experiences shaped by narrative, environment, rhythm, and emotion. Dharna breaks down film direction into writing, execution, and editing — and maps these stages to planning, delivery, and reception in service design. The article invites designers to think beyond utility and consider atmosphere, storytelling, and emotional arcs, reminding us that great services, like great films, are remembered for how they make people feel.

Seasoned Thoughts: Designing Luxury Customer Experiences

This issue’s Seasoned Thoughts features an in-depth conversation with Sonali Gogia, a CX leader with over two decades of experience designing luxury brand experiences. Sonali shares how emotional connection defines exceptional luxury experiences today. From hyper-personalisation and storytelling to employee empathy and leadership mindset, the conversation offers practical insights that extend far beyond luxury. The takeaway is clear: regardless of scale or sector, service excellence begins by aligning employee experience with customer experience.

Freshly Baked: From Compliance to Value

In Freshly Baked, Tanvi Gokhale explores Digital Product Passports (DPPs) through a service design lens. As industries prepare for upcoming regulations, the article reframes DPPs not as compliance burdens but as opportunities for value creation. Here is a practical example of DPP: https://artknit-studios.com/.

By embedding sustainability in business incentives—such as resale, repair, and customer engagement—this project demonstrates how service design can transform regulatory mandates into meaningful, user-centred systems. The work highlights foresight, assumption-making, and stakeholder alignment as essential tools when designing for uncertain futures.

SDD members and volunteers who are behind this issue: Alomi Parikh, Puneeta Kashyap, Sakshi Kumari, Kanchan Joneza and Anannya Bhowmik

📩 Have a perspective to share? Reach out at hello@servicedesignindia.com.

Stay curious, stay engaged!

Service Design Bites : June ’25 Issue was originally published in Service Design Case Studies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Rich-in-Sights: Strategic Airport Advertising

In this piece, Labhdi Doshi examines how physical spaces — often overlooked in service design — shape our experiences. Using airports as a case study, she unpacks how advertising can become more than just a revenue stream. When approached through a service design lens, airport media can reduce passenger stress, guide navigation, and transform waiting into meaningful engagement. Advertising here isn’t just selling — it’s serving.

Seasoned Thoughts: Service Design in the Global South

We sit down with Ricardo Martins, a seasoned professor and practitioner, who reflects on service design’s evolution in Brazil and its parallels with India. His insights emphasize the importance of systems thinking, cultural adaptation, and deeper education in design practice. Martins challenges us to move beyond Western frameworks, reminding us that service design must respond to local contexts and complexities if it’s to create real impact.

Freshly Baked: Sort’d — A Student Relocation Concierge

Students from Atlas SkillTech University present Sort’d, a relocation service designed to ease the chaos of moving to a new city. Through immersive research and prototyping, they created tangible experiences — from welcome kits to university-integrated touchpoints — that help students and parents feel supported. The project highlights how storytelling and empathy can transform fragmented services into holistic journeys. A wonderful project presented by: Mihir Mehta, Mansi Naik, Gun Agarwal and Aashi Agarwal.

This quarter reflected the momentum within our community — Grab a Coffee sessions across Indian cities, collaborations with universities like ISDI ATLAS, and strong representation at SDN Next Gen, where Indian designers showcased their talent on a global stage.

SDD members and volunteers who are behind this issue: Pramadha Mohana, Tanya Chandnani, Poorva Soman Lavate and Anannya Bhowmik

As Service Design Bites continues to document the voices shaping our industry, we invite you to share your experiences, insights, and case studies. Let’s continue to push boundaries and create meaningful change in service design!

📩 Have a perspective to share? Reach out at hello@servicedesignindia.com.

Stay curious, stay engaged!

Service Design Bites: March ’25 Issue was originally published in Service Design Case Studies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As we wrap up another insightful quarter, we take a moment to reflect on the latest edition of Service Design Bites. This issue, rich with expert perspectives and thought-provoking discussions, explored critical themes shaping the field of service design in India and beyond.

Freshly Baked: The Gender Data Gap in Digital Spaces

Service design thrives on inclusivity, yet the digital world still struggles with persistent gender biases. In this edition, Shravani Shinde and Parul Gupta dive deep into the gender data gap, exposing how professional women remain invisible in algorithm-driven hiring and networking. Drawing on research and global insights, they illustrate how AI-powered systems can both reinforce and remedy these gaps. Their call to action? A systemic overhaul of data collection practices, ensuring diverse professional experiences are accurately captured and valued.

Rich-in-Sights: Navigating Stakeholder Complexities

Securing stakeholder buy-in is a challenge every service designer faces. Sayali Bharambe’s article deciphers stakeholder archetypes within organizations and explores strategies to turn skepticism into collaboration. Through years of experience, she has identified recurring behavioral patterns among decision-makers — from those focused solely on KPIs to risk-averse skeptics. Her piece equips designers with the tools to engage different personalities, using visual storytelling and incremental implementation to drive impactful change.

Seasoned Thoughts: A Service Design Leadership Journey

In an insightful conversation, Kala Manjappagowda shares her transition from HMI design to service design leadership at Philips. With over 15 years of experience, she underscores the importance of systemic thinking and empathy in bridging gaps between UX, technology, and business strategy. Her journey highlights the evolving role of service design in India, emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary collaboration and measurable impact to solidify its value within organizations.

Team behind this initiative: Pramadha Mohana, Kanchan Joneza, Puneeta Kashyap, Saksham Panda, Sneha Vidyasagar and Anannya Bhowmik

As Service Design Bites continues to document the voices shaping our industry, we invite you to share your experiences, insights, and case studies. Let’s continue to push boundaries and create meaningful change in service design!

📩 Have a perspective to share? Reach out at hello@servicedesignindia.com.

Stay curious, stay engaged!

Service Design Bites : December ’24 issue was originally published in Service Design Case Studies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It was a recent visit to Lifestyle outlet in Koramangala (Bangalore) after two years. Tits & Bits of new concepts that elevated the shopping experience, relevant & contextual to the Indian Audience.

How many times did you have to stand in a fitting room queue and get bored?

Ticketing of the Trial room: A kiosk has been placed right in front of the trial room. A shopper can put the mobile number and collect a token (A very popular concept in EU public Service offices). On allocation of the trial room, the user receives a text alert.

Pro: A Time Saver & Skip Que. Positive influence on sales indirectly.

Con: Privacy Concern

We often mismeasure ourselves in terms of sizing. Don’t we?

Altering the size of the chosen garment: In the trial room, a shopper could ask for a different size by pressing a button. It adds up to the convenience of a solo shopper (Generally, we are accompanied by friends who helps us in this exchange job and save time). The symbols added to the door is another step forward in giving convenience.

Pro: Operational Efficiency for the floor management, As well as a time saver for the shopper.

Con: Not noticed as such in the first glance

Stiletto hurts and you want to sit down.

3. In-store snack stop: A stop for bored kids, husbands (or boyfriends) as well as the lady on high heels wants to relax for sometime and wishes to make a call. (It’s yet not popularized in a Brand based outlet like Lifestyle in India.)

Pro: Additional Source of Profit, Customer convenience

Con: Not noticed as such in the first glance

Bonus: Promoting online shopping channel in the store queue

Service Design in Retail Space: Urban India was originally published in Service Design Case Studies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Upon completing five years at SDD India, we are thrilled to announce the launch of India’s first-ever service design magazine, Service Design Bites. Filling an important knowledge gap and responding to the need expressed by many, this pioneering publication is set to become a vital resource for designers, practitioners, and enthusiasts across the country, offering a fresh perspective on the rapidly evolving field of service design.

Service Design Bites brings together a rich collection of insights, case studies, and thought leadership from leading professionals and upcoming service designers in the industry. In our inaugural issue, we delve into the following:

In ‘Inside out Service Design’ Saksham Panda writes about how having an in-house service design team is a step towards design maturity for an organisation, especially when things become complex and legacy practices become blockers. He details the different ways in which this model may manifest itself, what a day in the life of a service designer looks like, along with the challenges and opportunities.

‘Seasoned Thoughts’ is an interview with Namrata Dhanak, an experience strategist and design leader with more than a decade of rich experience working with the likes of Accenture and Designit. In this conversation with the SDD India team, she shares her career journey, how she got introduced to service design, some projects she has worked on, and how she identifies the need for service design in a project. She also offers advice for professionals transitioning into the world of service design and her perspective on what the practice may look like in India in the next few years.

As part of ‘Freshly Baked’, Pramadha Mohana pens her thoughts on a topic not discussed often enough but deserves more dialogue- ‘Data Economy and the Climate Emergency’. In today’s world, we are surrounded by data-driven personalised services that give us unparalleled convenience. But what is the cost we are paying for that? Read to find out.

Read the 1st Issue of Service Design Bites Magazine on our website. Stay in touch via our LinkedIn & Instagram. We publish quarterly.

The team behind this magazine: Anannya Bhowmik, Kanchan Joneja, Puneeta Kashyap, Shreya Karmakar

Special mention to Sneha Vidyasagar, Aakash Jami

Launch of Service Design Bites was originally published in Service Design Case Studies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Stages of Product Development

Discover Research, presented by Leena Jain

The Principal UX Researcher at Peepal Design kicked off the workshop by explaining the stages of product development. From inception to ideation, screening, concept creation, testing, and prototyping, she emphasized the importance of asking crucial questions at each stage. Leena particularly focused on discovery research, which involves understanding the problem, context, pain points, and opportunities. She illustrated the significance of asking these questions through real-world examples, including the Oral B + IDEO kids toothbrush case study. Furthermore, Leena shared her own projects, such as exploring the sexual wellness landscape in India, where research played a vital role in understanding societal viewpoints and developing a brand voice.

Key takeaway: Discovery research is instrumental in uncovering valuable insights that shape the direction and strategy of a product.

Unveiling Insights After Discovery, presented by Sailee Adhao

Sailee at delved into the research process beyond the discovery phase. Drawing from her experience in the medical industry (working at Qure.Ai), Sailee discussed the challenges of breaking and classifying contexts, understanding the resources available, and comprehending the nature of organizations. She also highlighted the need to create users out of experts, particularly in the context of doctors, who may underestimate the risk of error. Sailee emphasized the importance of observational skills, asking specific questions, and addressing biases as researchers. She concluded by introducing the concept of “healthcare researcher syndrome,” emphasizing the need to be open-minded and constantly seek new perspectives.

Key takeaway: Overcoming biases and embracing a broader perspective allows for a more comprehensive understanding of user needs and contexts.

Continuing Research Post-Launch presented by Ayushi Johari

Ayushi, shed light on the importance of ongoing research even after a product is launched. She shared an experience at BJYU, where designing a note-taking feature resulted in unexpected usage patterns and low success rates. Ayushi stressed the significance of considering extreme users, who represent the range of difficulties or easiness in performing tasks. By incorporating “extreme users” into the design process, a better user experience can be achieved. Additionally, Ayushi discussed the challenge of stakeholders relying solely on numbers and provided solutions such as referencing research papers, sensemaking of data, quantifying qualitative answers, validating hypotheses, and involving stakeholders in workshops.

Key takeaway: Addressing the needs of extreme users and effectively communicating research findings help create user-centric products while aligning stakeholders’ expectations.

In conclusion, the event brought together a diverse group of professionals and students, fostering knowledge sharing and inspiring attendees to enhance their research practices. By understanding the importance of asking the right questions, breaking biases, and considering extreme users, participants gained a deeper understanding of how research can shape successful product development.

Decoding Product Research was originally published in Service Design Case Studies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.