The role of design in the development of technology-based services

The goal of this paper is to examine the role of design in the development of technology-based services and reports on case research undertaken in new firms. Design was found to be applied to a broad range of service aspects in the case firms, namely user interfaces, tangible artifacts, documents, usability, service processes, revenue models, communication processes, community building, customer experiences and marketing materials. The application of design in the case firms was found to be motivated in part by the desire to either counteract or exploit one or more of the distinguishing characteristics of services, which are intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity and perishability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]