Service Design + Longevity Planning with Sheng-Hung Lee
Urban Technology at University of Michigan week 298
“Service design” are two words that most people have never heard combined into a single phrase, and yet you’ve been on the receiving end of service design most of your life. Services are the things that we humans experience when we go to a restaurant, use the library, rock out to music on a streaming service, or exercise at the gym. The places in which those things happen, the people that animate them, the props that help you complete your tasks successfully—that’s collectively the result of service design. But because service design as a discipline is small and relatively obscure, many people (in America) know it primarily through its absence: by being lost inside a hospital, by feeling like city hall is foreboding and inaccessible, by not knowing how to accomplish the tasks that are important and urgent without stress.
For Urban Technology, the importance of service design is that it provides a clear and coherent set of tools to own the user experience across digital and physical interactions. Having an electric vehicle is one of my favorite examples in this realm. The satisfaction of an EV owner is not determined by the car itself, the phone app used to manage the car, or the network of private and public charging options in your city. It’s the result of all of those and how well they work together.
This is why service design is a required part of the UT curriculum, recently taught by Alex Johnston and Ron Bronson, and also why we’re excited to welcome our new colleague Sheng-Hung Lee who brings additional service design chops to the team. Interview below.
💬 Hello! This is the newsletter of the Urban Technology program at University of Michigan, in which we explore the ways that data, connectivity, computation, and automation are being harnessed to nurture and improve urban life. If you’re new here, try this 90 sec. explainer video.
👴 Interview with Sheng-Hung Lee
Sheng-Hung Lee comes to Taubman having recently completed his PhD in service and system innovation at MIT. Upon arrival, he established the d-mix lab to build out a research program on Design for Longevity, which is focused on making services, systems, and cities age well alongside the people who use them. In addition to the academic credentials, he brings consulting experience from design firms IDEO and Continuum. Sheng Hung’s spirit is as generous as his emailed are filled with well-curated emoji.
Bryan: Where did you first get comfortable working in a multidisciplinary setting?
Sheng-Hung: When I worked in industry. I never worked with the same people on different projects more than once. Every project was new… a kind of recurring startup situation as the projects were so different: How do you design a baby diaper? Redesign an organizational culture? Plan a curriculum design? Or create a future kitchen hood? It was pretty broad and very different.
I have to say I didn’t feel comfortable and confident. It felt more like I was in a safe environment where I could make mistakes. That really gave me a chance to think out loud. It’s still uncomfortable because of all the uncertainty that comes with doing new things, but I could feel secure that nobody would blame me. I could make mistakes, and the more mistakes, the better.
The first class I taught here at Taubman was UT 210 Listening: Design Ethnography Methods, and a student asked me: what does urban technology mean? I said that we’re on the same page exploring this together. I do feel like it’s really aligned with the current way we think about design. It’s not just discipline-driven challenges, it’s multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. These are complex, systematic challenges, not single issues, and they can not be divided by traditional design discipline.
For example, we are doing a project with General Motors (GM) in this course. The expectation from a company like GM is that they’re trying to design a new EV car or something, but the true question is whether they need to focus on cars or more services. As city designers, we’re not just talking about the individual level — we also think about broader aspects like how the EV charging station can be rethought in relation to social infrastructure (communities). This topic is pretty new for students, for GM, and for myself so we’re exploring it together. I appreciate urban technology as a safe and creative environment to try something novel, something different, and bold
Bryan: Your PhD is in service design, which is still pretty rare in the US. Where did you first encounter service design?
Sheng-Hung: I was trained as an industrial designer and electrical engineer, so everything was super tangible: specs, processes, standards. The first time I became aware of services was when I started my master’s and PhD journey. I started to think that intangible things are really important in our daily lives. To continue with the GM example from before, how do you use an EV in different places? How can you recharge it? Do we have apps? Do we need to redesign apps’ interfaces for various personas? In service design these are called “touchpoints,” and they are where a service is anchored. The ultimate goal is to create better user experiences [that link all these touchpoints]. It sounds very subtle, but it’s that subtleness that accumulates into the overall user experience.
In Europe, service design is well-established and a relatively mature “service industry” with a degree in higher education. They offer master’s and PhD programs, and specific service design journals. In the US or in Asia, I would say it’s still pretty new and people easily get misled: oh, you have sticky notes and Sharpies, so you’re a service designer! But I think these are just tools and a very surface-level understanding. You still need to know how to make things, to know the fundamental design process, and not just talk or think about it, because just talking or producing a service blueprint or drawing a service ecosystem diagram simply changes nothing. You still need the ability to execute ideas and proposals.
Bryan: You implied that service design gets more important when digital and physical meet. Why?
Sheng-Hung: Nowadays, when we say ‘design,’ people think, “let me create an app.” In reality, this risks creating extra apps that don’t really solve the core problem or see the whole picture. As designers, we don’t just create stuff; we also curate experiences. We have to curate all these experiences together. Service design is a great medium to connect the dots. For example, when students want to design the hospital discharge experience, they think about apps, but the truth is our first service interaction in a hospital is with a nurse, with a caregiver in a physical environment.
Bryan: Let’s talk about Longevity, which is another thing you’re passionate about. What do we need to know?
Sheng-Hung: When I say longevity, it’s definitely a new term. I can’t even accurately translate it into Mandarin! When we say “aging,” people think about negatives like mobility issues, fragility, and sickness. When we say “longevity,” it opens up possibilities to thinking about a multi-generational culture, policies, multicultural workforce, and society. It also includes populations across various ages: middle-aged, teenagers, children, and even babies. Longevity isn’t just about creating sustainable products or services. It’s also about designing meaningful, personal, and respectful products, service, and experiences. Longevity also cares about meaning, purpose, and motivation. Because if people are living longer, we also need to talk about the quality of life. Why do you want to live longer?
Bryan: You are everywhere and always have iconic eye glasses so I have to ask, where do you get your glasses?
Sheng-Hung: Every time I travel, I want to visit a local eyeglass shop. The big neon yellowish eyeglasses I wore yesterday are actually from Belgium. There’s a brand called Theo. The color is incredible. I love it!
Bryan: What is your favorite city and why?
Sheng-Hung: I don’t think I have a favorite city. But I would say: my favorite city is the city I want to co-build, co-create, and co-develop with city planners, service designers, system architects, and local communities based on their needs and their vision for the future. At least for me, I’m looking for a place where I can find my community and a place with culture. That’s really, really important to me.
These weeks: Our final UT Studio Talk. Admitted student campus days. A new UT Peer Mentor Program. Spring is here, but so is final project stress and midwest thunderstorms. Commencement on the horizon.