Abstract
This paper presents a speculative framework for service design education, practice, and research in light of emerging technologies. It examines the evolution of service design through stages, from its foundations to a “thinking” era, and proposes a model for “Service Design 2.0” that considers industry-led, human-centred, and information driven approaches. The paper explores future trends in service design practice, emphasizing socio-technical systems thinking and learning systems. Design research is discussed in terms of evolving user-designer interactions, moving toward symbiotic relationships where designing and using become intertwined. Finally, the paper advocates for a balanced design education that integrates arts, engineering, computer science, and humanities, while also introducing Critical Design not merely as a counter-perspective, but as a vital mode of inquiry for questioning the ideological assumptions embedded in socio-technical systems. The study considers both affirmative-technological and critical-humanistic outlooks.
Keywords
Service Design Framework, Tech Trends, Critical Design, Service Design Futures
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/servdes2025.76
Citation
Lee, Y.(2025) From Affirmative-technological to Critical-humanistic Tech Trends: A speculative Framework for Service Design Futures, in Mahamuni, R., Onkar, P. (eds.), ServDes 2025: Empowering Diversity, Nurturing Lasting Impact, 6–10 October, Hyderabad, India. https://doi.org/10.21606/servdes2025.76
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
From Affirmative-technological to Critical-humanistic Tech Trends: A speculative Framework for Service Design Futures
This paper presents a speculative framework for service design education, practice, and research in light of emerging technologies. It examines the evolution of service design through stages, from its foundations to a “thinking” era, and proposes a model for “Service Design 2.0” that considers industry-led, human-centred, and information driven approaches. The paper explores future trends in service design practice, emphasizing socio-technical systems thinking and learning systems. Design research is discussed in terms of evolving user-designer interactions, moving toward symbiotic relationships where designing and using become intertwined. Finally, the paper advocates for a balanced design education that integrates arts, engineering, computer science, and humanities, while also introducing Critical Design not merely as a counter-perspective, but as a vital mode of inquiry for questioning the ideological assumptions embedded in socio-technical systems. The study considers both affirmative-technological and critical-humanistic outlooks.