Transformations of Services

Abstract

The service economy has been subject to a huge number of changes over the course of the last century. These can be grouped into a series of stages, from Service Economy 1.0 to Service Economy 3.0, with digitalisation increasingly prominent in the later steps of this process. Major elements in this evolution are discussed here through the lenses of personal experience (both from everyday life and from research), and questions raised about how far they can be described as human-centred. Finally, the contours of an emerging Service Economy 4.0 are examined, and it is argued that to be human-centred services will be need to give much more centrality of environmental challenges. The term “human-centred” is widely used in the context of design of digital (and other) systems, implying that the design process has sought to give priority to the requirements and capabilities of human beings using these systems. Rather than focus on what is technically elegant or impressive or simply cheap and economi- cally efficient, the aim is to create things that are usable, functional, ergonomic, safe and other features that value the users of these goods, services or systems.