Purpose: The purpose of this study is to elucidate social and material factors that contribute to shape the design and use of a digital (i.e. web-based) service platform, which is aimed at facilitating service innovation in a collaborative setting of service providers and customers.

Design/methodology/approach: Empirical data was produced in connection to interventions including one of the authors collaborating with service providers and customers using the platform. Two sessions taking place in workplaces were filmed, photographed, and recorded. Participants in these sessions were also responding to questions from the researcher who took field notes. A practice-theoretical approach was applied in order to capture and analyze practices around the design, implementation, and use of the platform.

Findings: Three prominent themes were discerned in the empirical material: material objects; workplace routines including “distant others”; and sociality. Material objects function as intervening actors and thereby contribute to shape practice. Workplace routines as well as physically absent colleagues and contacts become present through conversations around the platform. Sociality refers to the observation that participants are engaged in interactive practices that contribute to shape how the digital service platform is designed, implemented and used.

Originality/value: The practice-based approach offers a deepened understanding of how sociomaterial context matters for the design and implementation of a digital service platform. On the basis of a sophisticated explication of the notion of context and by employing the notion of absent presence, this study sheds light on factors that often tend to be neglected.