turning off the electricity supply if a gas leak is detected). There may be
multiple digital interfaces. There may even be co-ordination between multiple
digital and physical services, for example, a heating system may use data from
a 3rd party weather service, and the user might have the option of taking out a
service and repair contract.
This is called an ecosystem.
If you’re designing a service, you’ll need to take a more complete view of all
the parts of your service, and the relationships between them. For example,
you may need to think about handling software and component upgrades
across your devices. Ovens may require new controller boards, and washing
machines may demand firmware upgrades (see figure 4.23). You’ll need to
design processes for handling these issues with consumers.
Figure 4.23: The Samsung WW9000 connected washing machine supports
over the air firmware updates. (Image: Samsung).
There may well be customer support, marketing, sales, and perhaps
professional installation and maintenance too.
"You see companies that have poached Apple designers, and they come up
with sexy interfaces or something interesting, but it doesn't necessarily move
the needle for their business or their product. That's because all the designer
did was work on an interface piece, but to have a really well-designed
product in the way Steve would say, this 'holistic' thing, is everything. It's not
just the interface piece. It's designing the right business model into it.
Designing the right marketing and the copy, and the way to distribute it. All of