Cornelia Böhm
Mattias Arvola and Jonas Lundberg
This research-through-design study explores how computer simulations of drone delivery traffic can be used in service design. It investigates how computer simulations compared to a desktop walkthrough can inform the design, and how simulations can be used to facilitate a citizen perspective in service design. A workshop where participants evaluated a simulation of the drone delivery service was compared to a workshop where the participants took part in a desktop walkthrough. The results showed that the participants discussed many of the same aspects, but there was a difference in the perspectives taken. The participants using the simulation took more of a community perspective and discussed dystopian risks, and they also used the simulation to compare distance and speed. The participants in the desktop walkthrough took more of a customer perspective and a technology perspective. It is concluded that the simulation helped participants gain common ground of dynamic aspects of intense drone traffic and that the aerial view lifted the perspective from the service encounters and service users to that of the surrounding society.
Keywords: service design; prototype; simulation; desktop walkthrough; drones