How Service Design can contribute in the Lifecycle of Online Communities: the Development of the Chinese Service Design Community
Abstract
Due to technological advances and epidemics, online communities are rapidly growing. Online community development is concerned with the diversity of members, the complexity of networks, and their participation in activities. Many scholars have discussed this topic from the perspective of management, information science, sociology, and psychology; however, little attention has been paid to service design and how co-design can be employed. This study examines the Chinese Service Design Community (CSDC), a community that exists online in China, and employs participatory action research as a methodology. This paper describes how service design and co-design activities contribute to community development by combining the online communities' lifecycle presented by Iriberri and Leroy with the development of CSDC. In addition, it discusses the different tools used in co-design and the important role that co-design activities perform in the ‘Maturity’ stage to avoid entering the ‘Death’ stage (Iriberri & Leroy, 2009).
Keywords
Lifecycle of Online Communities; Co-design; Service Design; Community Development
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3384/ecp203035
Citation
Zhang, C., Selloni, D.,and Auricchio, V.(2023) How Service Design can contribute in the Lifecycle of Online Communities: the Development of the Chinese Service Design Community, in Carla Cipolla, Claudia Mont’Alvão, Larissa Farias, Manuela Quaresma (eds.), ServDes 2023: Entanglements & Flows Conference, Service Encounters and Meanings, 11-14th July 2023, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. https://doi.org/10.3384/ecp203035
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
How Service Design can contribute in the Lifecycle of Online Communities: the Development of the Chinese Service Design Community
Due to technological advances and epidemics, online communities are rapidly growing. Online community development is concerned with the diversity of members, the complexity of networks, and their participation in activities. Many scholars have discussed this topic from the perspective of management, information science, sociology, and psychology; however, little attention has been paid to service design and how co-design can be employed. This study examines the Chinese Service Design Community (CSDC), a community that exists online in China, and employs participatory action research as a methodology. This paper describes how service design and co-design activities contribute to community development by combining the online communities' lifecycle presented by Iriberri and Leroy with the development of CSDC. In addition, it discusses the different tools used in co-design and the important role that co-design activities perform in the ‘Maturity’ stage to avoid entering the ‘Death’ stage (Iriberri & Leroy, 2009).