When it comes to product service system design, or PSSD, it is indispensable to mention Miri, since the introduction of the major in 2005, the acceptance rate has been declining, and it was as low as 4% at the most popular time, and the admission data has only stabilized at about 10% in recent years.
Source: pssd.polimi.it
The stability of the PSSD acceptance rate of product service system design is not because its popularity has cooled down, but because more and more colleges and universities have launched similar majors in the future.
So what is the charm of PSSD, which has been prosperous for 19 years, what is Mi Li's PSSD teaching, and what is the difference between Tongji and other replacement majors, today Kang Shishi will give you a look, and it is also convenient for 25fall students to understand and prepare early.
01 Mili product service system design PSSD, why is it so long
In fact, when it comes to product service system design, it must be inseparable from service design, and the reason why service system design can be popular is also because service design itself has tenacious vitality, which comes from two aspects.
On the one hand, as the "service design" first proposed by the United States in 1982, although it has a history of several decades, it has only been developed in our country for more than ten years, and in 2017 and 2018, only the top design industry in China, such as Ji, Qingmei, and CAFA have opened service design research directions, and in 2023, the undergraduate majors declared by CAFA include service design.
After many years of development, service design is still an art major with weak domestic development and a large gap with the international level, and ranks among the majors supported by the state.
Source: csc.edu.cn
On the other hand, the popularity of PSSD is also related to the teaching content and market demand of the major itself.
Service design is to solve problems and optimize the service system from a global and systematic perspective, but when it is implemented in a specific plan, it is necessary to implement this overall thinking into products, interactions, user experience, space design, etc., and combine it with contact points for output.
In layman's terms, it is to optimize the entire path of user participation, so that the product conforms to the user's habits, so that the user is convenient/comfortable to use, and is more willing to use/buy the product.
For example, the rise of McDonald's is a good case, the same fast food, when other brands choose to roll the burger to make it more delicious, bigger and more affordable, McDonald's launched the "drive-thru", people in a hurry can enter McDonald's to quickly order, eat, get goods, and even on many highways, McDonald's also has a lane to pick up food, which is convenient and efficient to the extreme:
McDonald's driveway pick-up Source: Xiaohongshu
Product service system design is a subdivision track that pays more attention to the combination of product and service system in service design.
For example, the same grocery shopping software, Hema Fresh and Duoduo Grocery service design logic is different, the former likes to use mature product pictures and petty bourgeois atmosphere to attract users to shop, than the discount area to give more space to "seasonal new", with fresh, high-quality and so on to attract users to buy; Buying more groceries is very straightforward, the product is either a limited-time spike or a limited grab, and various discounts/price reductions/purchase restrictions are used to stimulate users to place orders:
Source: Hema Fresh APP (left) Pinduoduo APP (right)
The two are not superior or inferior, this is a set of service system that matches them with the product, even the food delivery is also the door, the service of Hema Fresh is delivered to the user's door, and will ask "whether there is garbage that needs to be taken away", Duoduo can only locate the nearby Meiyijia / convenience store as a pick-up store, the user picks up the goods by himself, the design of this service system, and the product is more closely combined.
In this era when APP writing is getting easier and easier, entrepreneurship is becoming more and more accessible, and traffic has become a commodity that can be purchased at will, how to combine products to get out of their own positioning and educate users whose consumption habits match their own products has become the force of competition for many enterprises.
康石石东家H· ART学员L同学 获米理 PSSD offer
Having a global design thinking has increasingly become the requirement of many companies for designers, and all of the above together constitute the development status of product service system design.
02 Mili's product service system design PSSD, what to learn?
There is a PSSD teaching schedule on the official website of Milly, and combined with other information on the official website, you can clearly understand what PSSD students are learning:
Source: pssd.polimi.it
The curriculum of the first year mainly consists of the following parts, which are:
- Teambuilding
- Business Innovation
- Design Methods
- UX-Design
- Innovation Studio
- Service Design and Innovation
- Visualization and Prototyping
- Product Service System Design Studio
- Design Seminar
The specific logic can be summarized as using business innovation, so that students can learn the basic principles of innovation management and business organization, understand the basic elements of competition, and then master design research tools and methods through design methods, evaluate many current business models with critical thinking, supplemented by UX design, understand the relationship between products, spaces, equipment and individuals from the perspective of user experience, and then learn various visualization tools and technologies to master basic skills.
Then, through the design of various series of products, Studio, and service design case studies, the cognition of product service system design is formed, and the design is carried out with this thinking, and learning in practice.
In the second year, it is mainly elective, internship, and double degree, so that students can cultivate themselves through personal needs:
- Final Synthesis Design Studio
- Product Service System Design for Sustainability
- Elective Courses
- Internship + Final Interview
- Thesis Development
For example, some students may choose to take a PSSD&ME double degree to study engineering management related courses:
Source: pssd.polimi.it
Some students will choose to participate in exchange programs with the National University of Colombia, the University of São Paulo, and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile to enrich their study abroad journey:
Source: pssd.polimi.it
Some students will apply for internships in large factories such as BMW Group, just like Mr. Jiahua, a colleague of Kang Shishi, and have the opportunity to become their full-time employees after graduation:
Teacher Jiahua's work card is constantly being upgraded
As written on the PSSD page, the program fosters designers with the ability to rethink, create, and solve complex problems, and students come here to learn a way of thinking and then contribute to their future design careers:
Source: pssd.polimi.it
Seeing this, some students may feel that the PSSD course is a bit abstract, how can there be no specific design skills such as product design and other skills training, to be honest, for a major with an acceptance rate of only 10%, this part of the ability has long been screened out in the process of student screening.
If students are also interested in Millie's PSSD and want to experience their teaching content and talent requirements, H· ART INVITED PROFESSOR BEATRICE VILLARI FROM POLITECNICO DI MILANO AND HIS PSSD TEAM TO H· ART's PSSD Summer Camp is in-person for everyone
*For reference, the specific instructor is subject to the actual teaching situation
In addition, in addition to applying for product and service system design, other students who are interested in service design, industrial products, and interaction design, who need to submit a portfolio and want to enhance the competitiveness of their resumes, are also suitable for registration.
Click on the image to register
03In addition to Milly's product service system design PSSD, there are also these options
The first to introduce is, of course, the three major PSSD "replacement" majors, which are:
1. Integrated Product Design (IPD)
The integrated product design course is a comprehensive and systematic product design discipline, which can be summarized as "complete", and its course content has a high degree of overlap with PSSD, but in the design process, it will run through the process from scenario realization to the realization of the service framework, and then from the service framework to make a product, and then the product will go from concept to engineering and other processes.
There are more design tools to learn, and the knowledge system is more diverse, but in general, it is still a product design discipline.
Source: Kang Shishi East H· Provided by X student who is currently studying at ART Miri IPD
2. Digital & Interaction Design (DID)
Source: digitalinteractiondesign.polimi.it
DID is the interaction design major in the general sense set up by Mili, including human-computer interaction, product/service system design, not only limited to UI/UX, but also involved in digital art, virtual reality and other fields. For students who want to focus on interaction design and want to work in the direction of the Internet in the future, you can try to choose this major.
3. Design & Engineering (D&E)
Source: design-engineering.polimi.it
The programme is a collaboration between the educational programmes of Design (Faculty of Design) and Mechanical Engineering and Materials Engineering (Faculty of Industrial Process Engineering), and students will learn how to flexibly integrate these three disciplines: design, process and industrial production; design materials; Sculpture and prototyping content.
The course content pays more attention to product structure, materials, technology, etc., and the works are more hardcore and more grounded, so students will be required to have a certain professional background when applying, such as the foundation of engineering and materials.
康石石东家H· ART学员W同学 获 米兰理工大学 Design&Engineering MSc 、英国皇家艺术学院 Design Products MA offer
In addition to Mili, Tongji in China also has a product service system design, focusing on how to shift from selling products to a business model of product performance, from focusing on a single product itself to a value design that connects products, people, and systems (such as markets, communities, etc.).
In the cultivation of product service system design courses, Tongji also has a deep connection with Milley, and many design concepts and methods of the two are relatively close, so students majoring in Tongji can also understand it.
Kang Shi Shi proprietor H· T 23rd student T successfully studied the product service system design of Tongji University
If you have more questions about service, interaction, product design, Mili study abroad, Tongji Baoyan summer camp, or postgraduate entrance examination, doctoral application, background improvement, portfolio creation and study abroad in other countries, please contact Mr. Kang Shishi.