ABSTRACT
This case study, an investigation into the Swedish Customs service, asserts that service designers need to deepen their understanding of the system behind user-service interactions: it does so by introducing the issues of multiple service channels navigation and the concept of 'service ellipses'. Several service analytical frameworks highlight the interactive nature of services. In particular 'interaction design' focuses 'on how human beings relate to other human beings through the mediating influence of products'. One focus of service design, as an emergent discipline, has been on service interactions gaining knowledge and expertise from digital interaction design. The case study presented here adds to the knowledge already developed in the area of service interaction design by exploring the issue of multi-channel integration in a service performance. It reports on an investigation into the Swedish Customs' services related to the area of efficient trade, especially services to support the import of goods.
