Touchpoints in Design:

In user experience design the “machine” is going to be replaced by interaction systems made up of multiple touchpoints. This is a new challenge for designers. An interaction system is a both a technical and a social infrastructure as well, made by multiple and crossed interfaces, services, applications and contexts, which are the connective tissue of the user experience. (source)

As it’s used today, touchpoint seems to be an umbrella term that can refer to any of several different facets of customer experience that are treated individually in the literature. (source)

• Service Evidence (Tangibles) – The physical elements of a service. Shostack introduced this idea and Parasuraman included it in the 1988 SERVQUAL scale.
• Service Encounter – The human interactions that take place between a customer and a service provider. Bitner explored the development of this concept in 1990.
• Servicescape – The environmental aspects of a service. Bitner’s 1992 paper refers to a FedEx dropbox as a “lean environment or servicescape.”