Books for Service Designers

February 24, 2009 in case studies, people, research

New: Service Design Books, a co-created library of recommended reading for service designers.

Earlier this week Marc Fonteijn from 31Volts put together a good list of service design blogs and other resources. His list prompted me to pull together some books off my shelf that make for valuable reading. Few of these titles are actually about service design, but each has something worthwhile to contribute.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. I’ve selected 15 books from my library that make sense to me and organized them roughly by my level of recommendation.

• In the Bubble – John Thackara
• The Experience Economy – Pine and Gilmore
• Why We Buy – Paco Underhill
• Service Breakthroughs – James Heskett
• Personal Space – Robert Sommer
• The Hidden Dimension – Edward T. Hall
• The Art of the Long View – Peter Schwartz
• Participatory Design – Douglas Schuler
• Managing as Designing – Richard Boland
• The Service Profit Chain – James Heskett
• The Goal – Eliyashu Goldratt
• Natural Capitalism – Paul Hawken
• The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces – William H. Whyte
• Punching In: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front Line Employee – Alex Frankel
• Understanding Comics – Scott McCloud

Finally, a couple books that I haven’t read yet but are on my list (among dozens and dozens, unfortunately).

Systems Thinking in the Public Sector – John Seddon
From Products to Services – Laurie Young

I’d love some help adding to the pile.

Update: Three more books; thanks Marc!

Subject to Change – Adaptive Path
10 Faces of Innovation – Tom Kelley
A Whole New Mind – Daniel Pink

And another vote for Laurie Young’s book, above, and one more to add from Nick Marsh (I’ve Americanized the link).

New Service Development – Bo Edvardsson