subject: Design and service [print this page] Design and service Design and service
Introduction
Design,specificplans,drawings, or instructions that contain all the necessary information for the manufacture of a product, process, or system. Design can also refer to the particular physical embodiment of a product or device. Additionally, the term can mean the process of converting generalized ideas and concepts into a design as defined above.
Background
"Design"asbothanoun and verb is a popular, and often misused, term for a wide range of activities and outcomes. It can be both process and product. The difficulty of defining "design" is compounded by fashion and trends. The more popular it becomes, the more it seems to be applied to new activities and outcomes, not always correctly, in order to convey messages of quality, value, status, inventiveness, exclusivity, skill, and modernity. One may refer to the design of supersonic aircraft, mobile phones, art works, television programmes, new cities, computer software, jewellery, clothing, food, packaging, and signs. The list could take up several pageseven the outputs on the way to these finished products (the sketches and prototypes) can be considered as designs.
Verb design
Usedasaverbdesign is a conscious activity, guided by aims and objectives. Designing refers to planned and organized actions intended to bring about some predetermined outcome, although there may also be accidental or unexpected results. Design activity usually displays expertise, knowledge, creativity, and thoroughness. It has a close relationship with technology, with human needs and aesthetics.
Designactivityhashad a significant impact on society and culture. Its relationship with mass production has brought design into the homes of people around the world in the form of tools, television, furnishings, consumer goods, and toiletries, among other things. The 20th century saw a dramatic increase in the number of people who earn a living from the professional practice of design. Today, designers can be found occupying prestigious posts in many areas of the manufacturing and service industries, particularly where products need to meet the varied preferences and needs of a mass market. Increasingly, designers are employed in information design, where the products are digital and delivered to homes, workplaces, and mobile phones via computer technology. Games, Web resources, and services are challenging consumer artefacts as the main subjects of design today.
Service industry
Service Industry, group of industries involved in providing services, as opposed to primary industries (such as agriculture and mining) and secondary industries (manufacturing and production). Service industries are commonly known as tertiary industries. The term "services" covers a huge range of economic activities, including retailing, banking, insurance, catering, medicine, law, accountancy, cleaning, teaching, television production, the civil service, sport, transport, and many more activities.
Over the past century the service sector has expanded in the developed world. The service sector is now the most important sector in the advanced economies, accounting for about two thirds of the total economy in countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States.
