Props as Service Prototyping Tools: An Interpersonal Service Application🇺🇸 🇬🇧

Service prototyping is considered a complex and necessary activity in Service Design, and Props are frequently mentioned in the existing literature on Service Design and Service Prototyping. This may be due to the frequent comparison between service design and theater, and the application of theatrical techniques and practices to the development of service prototypes. However, there is little definition of how the props are applied within these practices. In addition, interpersonal services are those that have intense interactivity between people. Thus, they require stage representation s when prototyping to understand how this complex factor, that human behavior is, might occur. Props are theatrical elements used to increase understanding, collaboration and imagination that also can assist the prototyping of this type of service . Therefore, this research aims to develop guidelines for designers to apply props as tools to assist designers and stakeholders enhance comprehension, collaboration, and creativity during prototyping of interpersonal services through staged representations. For this, it uses the Design Science Research (DSR) method, which is divided into the fo llowing steps: understanding, ideation, development, evaluation, and reflection. The step of understanding the problem contemplates a literature review (narrative and systematic), as well as a comparison table of staged tools and techniques for service pro totyping. The guidelines will be developed for a real project of interpersonal service design. Thus, the ideation will be carried out through co -creation sessions with the designer of the service design project. For the development of the guidelines, collaborative tools and techniques will be used. Then, the evaluation will be carried out in the s...