Service Blueprinting

What is it and how has it been used in this project?

Service design is the process of designing sustainable and optimal solutions and experiences paying careful attention to the needs and circumstances of actors involved, touchpoints, physical artefacts and locational factors.

The NN group defines a service blueprint as “a diagram that visualises the relationships between different service components — people, props (physical or digital evidence), and processes — that are directly tied to touchpoints in a specific customer journey.”

Example of a service blueprint. Credits: NN Group

In this project we have not used the standard format for service blueprint as prescribed above but a more visually driven one. Details of the differences is given below.

They key features of the service blueprint which have been modified to be represented more visually in the version created for this project are -

1. A representation of the service as a timeline of activities (from left to right)

2. The mapping of different actors and their interactions during discrete steps in the service

3. The vertical separation of different activities based on the visibility and level of interaction.

4. Capturing details like the locational characteristics of the touchpoint and objects/props involved at each stage of the service

A major inspiration for this modified format comes from the work of BRND Studio for Aangan Trust (link with proper credits will be posted here soon). In the next section you will see how these aspects were captured visually in the service blueprints created in this project.