The Morphology of Dignity: Service Storytelling and Prototypes for a Service Design Tool

Abstract

This paper presents a project that explores dignity as a principle of service design and storytelling as a framework. The research team conducted qualitative research in the areas of blood donation, breast-milk donation, and food donation to study the factors and patterns of dignity in service experiences. We applied Vladimir Propp's storytelling morphology to organize the research outcomes into seven actants and 16 narrathemes. Based on our research findings, we created three prototypes for a service design tool: (1) an online archive that organizes the key actants and functions in stories that capture the common patterns of service experience; (2) a virtual reality simulator for modelling and testing these stories; and (3) a participatory workshop for collaborative analysis and the codesign of a service based on the narrathemes. Our research suggests that dignity as a design principle can enhance the ethical and emotional impact of the service experience.

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