ABSTRACT
The discussion on design for services has so far focused on the tools: what a professional must be able to do to operate as facilitator in a user-centred design process. Most of the contents of Design for Services refers to the role of the designer as an actor able to listen to users and facilitate the discussion about what to do. Twentieth-century designers saw their task as the conception, development and production of simple objects, or rather of objects that grew out of the simplicity of the mechanical ways of thinking then dominant. The change came when it became apparent that during the process of designing and bringing about results a growing number of unpredictable factors and un-designable actors were increasingly coming into play. In the case of service design, the answer is already clear enough: what is in effect being designed is not the end result but an action platform.
