Designing for wellbeing

To concretise the non-existing solutions, students created so-called service
evidences. These are tangible parts of the service, such as brochures,
websites, tickets etc., which can easily be created and tested before the
actual service exists. Service evidences illustrated students’ ideas, invited
discussion and feedback from the audience, and aimed to allow continuing
debate about the ideas within the city. Service evidences like posters and
brochures could be distributed around Kauniainen to raise awareness of
the topic and the city’s attempts to develop its service offerings with an
open mind.
The differences between the organisational language and designers’
jargon is one of the barriers that emerge when embedding design and
a public organisation meet. This can be witnessed in the communication
of design students who did not yet have the confidence to argue for
their service design propositions. 10 Regardless of the attempts to ease
the communication about the concepts, there was still a lack of common
vocabulary between the design students and the audience when the final
concepts were presented at Kauniainen. It was easier for the audience to
understand the benefits of the concrete and day-to-day proposals such as
Ajo compared to more novel services such as Honestly! or AVAdate. This
experience highlights the fact that both the designers and the audience
should find a common vocabulary in order to be able to discuss the benefits
and challenges of the proposed concepts. A long-term relationship
and collaborative learning can support this process.
Conclusions
The public sector has acknowledged that one-size-fits-all services do not
work in modern society. 11 This has influenced the way that citizens are
10 Bailey (2012).
11 Langergaard, L.L. (2011). Understandings of ‘users’ and ‘innovation’ in a public sector context.
In User-based Innovation in Services. Sundbo, J. & Toivonen, M. (Eds.), Edward Elgar
Publishing Limited, 203-226.
70 · Co-design with the public sector