The Humber Room
Service Design
OVERVIEW
We visited and analyzed an existing service space to understand its inner workings and discover areas of the service that can be improved upon. Visiting this space allowed me to grasp the bigger picture of the service delivery for everyone involved (including staff, customers and external parties).
BACKGROUND
The Humber Room is Humber College’s campus restaurant, designed as a learning space for students involved in event management, hospitality and culinary arts. It acts as a simulation lab for students in these fields to gain practical experience in restaurant and event operations.
THE SITE VISIT
Starting off this journey was the opportunity for us to visit the service space. We met with the Associate Dean of the restaurant’s cluster of programs, who gave us some of his time to talk about what the Humber Room is all about as well as giving us a tour of the usable space.
Outside of this visit, members of our group took part in a lunch visit at the restaurant to experience the service from a customer standpoint. These visits allowed us to identify aspects of the service that can potentially be changed or improved:
︎︎︎ Booking & Reservation systems
︎︎︎ Customer Feedback
︎︎︎ Drinks & Bar (my area of focus)
︎︎︎ Menus
︎︎︎ Student Experience
UNDERSTANDING THE SERVICE
A stakeholder map was created to plot out the occupation of roles in the service ecosystem. Since this space is unique, and not just a regular restaurant, we included the internal structure that involves providing a curriculum to students that use this space to learn their trade.
In creating a stakeholder map, we were able to identify the value exchange between roles in this service space. The birds eye view helps us understand how operations behind the scenes lead to providing the customer the service experience they are looking for.
PERSONAS
JOURNEY MAPS
CO-CREATION WORKSHOP
Shifting focus towards the drinks & bar related aspects of the service, I ran a co-creation workshop with some of my colleagues (big thanks to them for their participation and time) where we explored ideas surrounding the bar’s role in the service ecosystem.
This workshop looked to:
︎︎︎ Help us ideate for memorable engagement with drinks + bar
︎︎︎ Come up with ways to increase exposure in this section of the service
PROTOTYPE IMPLEMENTATION
Following the workshop, I compiled the results into solutions that will help in increasing what the bar has to offer to front of house students and restaurant guests. Since this restaurant is unique due to student-run service, there is potential for drink offerings to make a memorable impact on visiting guests.
In creating a stronger bond between the activity at the bar and guests, other drink-related offerings of the restaurant are also put on display in various ways. Giving the bar some variance in service delivery also helps the different service types the programs offer to students learning in this space.
In creating a stronger bond between the activity at the bar and guests, other drink-related offerings of the restaurant are also put on display in various ways. Giving the bar some variance in service delivery also helps the different service types the programs offer to students learning in this space.
SERVICE BLUEPRINT (INCLUDING SOLUTIONS)
TAKEAWAYS
This was a lovely opportunity for us to dive into the world of service design. Not only is there coming up with neat solutions to a problem, which is something we often find ourselves doing, but it was a lot of fun for us to go out into a service space and discover what can be done differently or better. I feel that I grew a lot as a designer and a problem solver during the course of this project, as I had to shift the way I approached problem solving to a wider perspective. Studying every active member, tool and space within a fast-paced service was an eye-opening experience.