Blogs

  • Breaking the Vicious Cycle
    In the ongoing Continuity of Care series, this blog throws light on the crucial role of General Practitioners in navigating the complex labyrinth of the Finnish healthcare system. However, the burden of heavy workloads and unfavorable working conditions often drives many GPs to pursue further specialization or depart from the public sector, thereby worsening staff retention issues in a perpetual loop. Understanding the factors contributing to poor working conditions highlights the urgent need for reforms and remedies to retain GPs and ensure conducive work environments.
  • In the driver’s seat of our health – Between patient and customer
    This blog post explores the interdependency between the users and the healthcare system, introducing the juxtaposition of “Customer and patient”. How can continuity of care be adapted to our future society and be extended into other areas of life?
  • HUMAN, SHMUMAN. It’s a perspective
    This is the second blog of group A1 about their work on Policy coherence in Biodiversity in collaboration with the Prime Minister’s Office. It poses questions stemming from their research and provides the basis for the second phase of the design process.
  • Investigating Initial Pathways: Enhancing Continuity
    In this blog post, Beste Polatkal from Group 2A shares research findings on improving the continuity of care in Finland’s healthcare system through a “Whys” analysis. The issues explored are major issues like doctor shortages & heavy workloads and it is discussed how better teamwork might create opportunities for better continuity.
  • Exploring the Vertical Ecosystem
    The working title of our project is “Exploring the Vertical Ecosystem”. Just like an ecosystem, we see the different agencies and research institutes affiliated to The Ministry of Environment as entagled and interconnected, feeding off of and into each other. At this point in our project we have concluded our research phase, taking a keen interest in the human perspective of the system.
  • The Hidden Realities of Civil Servants
    During the past few weeks, we dove into the Ministry of Environment. Our interviews revealed that behind all biodiversity policies are civil servants, whose realities are shaped by human interaction and experiences. At the end of our research we connected the dots, which created a picture of barriers to the biodiversity policy coherence we yearn for.
  • Work in Progress…
    In this blogpost a member from group 2B presents the group’s initial exploration of the given design brief on continuity of care in the Finnish healthcare system. Core issues discovered are shared and the path forwards projected by connecting the brief to key frameworks from systems thinking and design.
  • The Dark Matter Behind It All
    Cross-fertilisation is interaction or interchange, as between cultures, fields of activity, or knowledge, that is mutually beneficial and productive. Together with the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Environment we have started to explore how biodiversity could be transformed into all-of-government ownership. How could this cross-fertilisation look between the ministries as well as within their agencies, institutes, and service providers?
  • The incessant use of question marks
    A large part of this blog consists of questions. As we are taking the first steps in our project, we find ourselves immersed in them: Questions upon questions and answers that raise new questions. In this first part, we try to familiarize ourselves with the topic, meet our partners for the first time, and discuss our priorities as well as our direction in research.
  • Thinking Biodiversity: A Multidisciplinary Journey to Designing Solutions for Finland’s Government Structures
    This blog is about an initiative by a multidisciplinary group of students to address biodiversity issues in Finland in cooperation with the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of the Environment. We recognize the urgency of the biodiversity crisis and the complexity of governance structures. While we also recognize that there are time constraints to finding quick solutions, we are committed to considering proposals to address the challenge. The group’s approach involves conducting research, mapping governance systems, and engaging with relevant stakeholders. We emphasize the importance of understanding the different perspectives on biodiversity that exist to reach a common understanding and address the problem effectively. The team includes people with backgrounds in design, architecture, and sustainable development, reflecting a holistic approach to problem-solving.
  • Biodiversity? Policy? Coherence?
    This blog post is the first post by Group 1B on their project on biodiversity policy coherence at an interdepartmental level at the Ministry of the Environment. It covers background reading, a roundtable with external partners and the development of a research agenda.
  • Beyond Appointments: The Lifelong Commitment to Health
    We are conducting a project about the opportunities for improving Continuity of Care with our partners Kela and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The main focus for our group is the patients’ point of view. We aim to explore ways in which patients’ behaviour could be incentivized to uphold CoC.
  • From disconnected information to networked information
    By incorporating a user-centred perspective, conducting systemic analysis, and fostering co-creation and engagement, we can transform the way we perceive and experience accessible transportation. In this last blog post we introduce our final solution, a comprehensive framework capable of achieving this transformation.
  • Group 1A to DVV, over!
    Team 1A sees that harmonising the public digital services is a solution for the troubles the users are facing. But how it can be done? Our final proposal is described here!
  • Finding the missing puzzle piece within the accessible travel chain
    When putting together the puzzle, we are always trying to find a special piece from tons of them, the perfect one, the one with semi-round shapes to reach in all four directions. When thinking about our proposal for having accessible travel chains, we Urban Drifters felt were putting together a large puzzle.
  • A framework of collaboration designed to last
    This post explores a comprehensive proposal that strives to equip The Ministry of Transport and Communications (LVM) with a resilient framework centered around collaboration. This multilayered structure is purposefully designed to endure and foster a renewed perspective on accessibility among all the organizations involved in Finland’s public transport travel chain.
  • Nudging retirement: a lifelong journey
    This post gives an overview of our final proposal and a reflection on it. The proposal is to nudge people to start preparing for their retirement earlier so they can have more options when getting older. With our proposal, we also want to encourage people to reflect on their life.
  • Tomorrow Together
    In collaboration with the Digital Population and Data Services (DVV) and the Ministry of Finance (VM), we explored the trends surrounding Finland’s diverse and aging population. As a result, we propose Tomorrow Together – a four stages-framework that adopts a life course perspective through predictive governance and multi-party collaboration into policy making.
  • Walking on the first mile
    Welcome to Urban drifters. This blog will highlight parts of our progress when creating an intervention from an insight. It will go through the steps we have discovered during our ideating sessions, and we will try to answer the difficult question of what an accessible travel chain actually is.
  • Flexibility and resilience: lessons from a journey of design intervention
    The public transport system in Finland has issues with working with each other. What is needed is to create a structure for collaboration. Together with the Ministry of Transport & Communications (LVM), Traficom, and the service providers HSL and VR, group 2A looks closer at how to achieve effective collaboration to ensure accessibility in the public transport system.
  • Puzzle pieces to the vantage point
    This blog picks up the problem framing stage around the ‘Dignified old age’ brief and explores further identifying a point of intervention and how to go about it reflectively. How could we solve multiple challenges we faced through strategic interventions that impact the whole system?
  • Reframing retirement: a life-long journey punctuated by a series of milestones
    This post provides an overview of the reflections we are currently carrying out in the context of imagining a design intervention. Here I discuss about how we reframed our approach in order to emphasise the importance of self-reflection and how we used storytelling to convey a large amount of information in an accessible way. I then suggest that a possible part of the solution to this apparent structural problem may lie in a smaller scale intervention.
  • User involvement – and how they can shape the future
    Using narratives is a practice we all constantly do. In this blog we will look into how service designers can facilitate a platform for both stakeholders and users, to create a more efficient and accessible future.
  • Dignified retirement: standardizing services for a seamless transition
    What are the current standards and objectives of digitized services? Do users and providers share the same expectations and goals? Group 1A members, in collaboration with DVV and the Finnish Ministry of Finance, investigate the existing service system to identify a leverage point where the needs of users and service providers can align.
  • Macro-level accessibility doesn’t exclude micro-level barriers in public transport
    This post explores the challenges of achieving universal accessibility in public transport, including the conflict between macro and micro-level implementation and barriers met at the micro-level. It highlights the importance of addressing systemic and individual barriers to create more accessible transport chains. What is required to achieve universal accessibility?
  • Getting Stuck in Retirement: Making Sense of the System
    This blog post gives an insight into our analysis of the organizational environment of retirement. I talk about what it was like to deal with complexity, use systems thinking to question the obvious, and how not to let it overwhelm you.
  • New travel chains: inclusive, digital, integrated and fair
    What are the main issues in the present transport system? Which challenges will the service providers face in the future? How should public travel chains be in the future? In the last three weeks, we collaborated with national and local service providers, user associations and municipalities to answer these questions.
  • Untangling the threads of information in the transport system
    This post will present to you the research process we have carried out over the past four weeks, in which we have sought to better understand the transport system, tracing the interweaving of its network together with stakeholders.
  • Future of retirement—Exploring and applying system thinking
    Where do policy and design meet? How different or similar are their processes? And how can design help policy to suit “human scale”? These are some of the questions that have arisen during the first two weeks’ discussions and reflections on the Design for Government course.
  • Dignified life means having the possibility of choice
    A dignified old age and the retirement event have several connections we had to discover. Our group’s objective over the previous three weeks has been to comprehend the perspective of retired people through field research and identify the critical life events that lead to being dignified and how digitalisation influences it as a tool.
  • Stepping into futures
    This first blog post is an invitation to join our journey on the path of public transport chains and accessibility! You will hear about our research, understandings, activities, and questionings related to the topic.
  • QUESTION: What do you mean by accessible?
    Designing an accessible travel train requires empathy, as well as understanding diverse narratives and perspectives. Service providers’ will play a crucial role in the project’s success. However, there may be a discrepancy in understanding among organizations due to the complex context. Figuring out a dynamic system keeping users’ evolving needs in mind is necessary.
  • Accessible? Why Should You Need to Ask?
    What should be the ‘standard’ in our society? Is it conforming to the ‘standard’ of the majority, or is it the ‘standard’ to conform to all? Together with the Ministry of Transport & Communications (LVM), Fintraffic, Traficom, and the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (VÄYLÄ), group 2A looks closer at accessibility in the public transport system.
  • Design? Probably. Human-centered? Not for now.
    Welcome on board! Through this first blog post, your will learn about our very first steps regarding the “Life events for dignified old age” adventure, such as our understanding of the project brief, the roundtable discussion with our partners, and a few elements about our research strategy.
  • Design and policy: where and when do they meet
    Where do policy and design meet? How different or similar are their processes? And how can design help policy to suit “human scale”? These are some of the questions that have arisen during the first two weeks’ discussions and reflections on the Design for Government course.
  • First diamond attempt: design for a dignified old age
    The first blog of the 2023 DfG course dissects the focus of the mission in the new design brief ‘Life events for a dignified old age’ and presents the roundtable discussions we’ve held to gain a preliminary understanding of the issues and the plan for the next step.
  • Nuuksio collaboratory – how we got there
    In this blog, I’ll describe the thinking process towards our final proposal the Nuuksio Collaboratory. It is a one-year program where visitors of Nuuksio National Park participate in a citizen science project led by Metsähallitus scientists to co-create solutions for the local biodiversity loss.
  • Designing a toolkit of acts of appreciation
    This blog post retraces the last three weeks of the Design for Government project of group 2B with a focus on the making process prior to the toolkit for acts of appreciation. It highlights the complexity of working on organizational culture and reflects on the differences in appreciation cultures between different sectors.
  • Growing nature-savvy visitors
    From co-creation workshops to validation with Metsähallitus to our team’s ‘aha’ moment. Finally, we have arrived at the final proposal of growing nature-savvy visitors in the Finnish national parks by finishing it up with an in-person presentation on May 23.
  • Good presenting is clear thinking made visible
    In the final weeks of the course, our attention turned to defining our design proposal more comprehensively and preparing to present our efforts in the final show. While these initially seemed like two distinct activities, preparing the presentation actually turned out to be a helpful thinking tool that supported us in developing our proposal.
  • Coffee table for biodiversity
    This blog goes through the final steps in the process of team 1C to our final design proposal to Metsähallitus and the Ministry of Environment, and our efforts to combine human-centered design methods and environmental sustainability. It explores the role of design for government, in this case for a state-owned enterprise, in the Anthropocene.
  • Building an actionable case for peer learning
    We will take you along the final stretch of our design process where we synthesise our research into an actionable government proposal. We present our solution as a proposal for The Ministry of Employment and Economic Affairs to form a working group and collaboratively design a peer learning program with the help of our design tool.
  • Creating something tangible for appreciation
    Looking at TE-offices, KELA´s and municipalities civil servants, caseworkers, through the exercises at the DfG-course, storytelling, storyboarding and scenarios. From this work finding that appreciation could be the key of solving well-being issues and figuring out what kind of actions appreciation could be and how this can effect the reform and unemployment rate in Finland.
  • Switching our thinking hats
    The blog shares the transition from the research phase towards exploring the design intervention in efforts for finding means to establish a dialogue from our primary stakeholder (biodiversity) through a project brief by Metsähallitus and the Ministry of the Environment.
  • From topdown flow to peer collaboration
    This blog post explores our process of moving from the 3 main identified problem areas into some possible interventions. It is described how different frameworks allowed us to identify desired scenarios, in which learning happens collaboratively among peers rather than from a top-down approach. Some potential solutions are explored.
  • From problem areas to design intervention
    As a third update from the DfG course project, we will open our process working towards meaningful design intervention. Since the last post, we have moved from defining the problem to ideating the solution for improving the international jobseekers’ experience.
  • Design intervention: biodiversity board
    This blog post describes our process and steps of the last few weeks to get closer to our solution. We got inspiration in developing a design intervention that aims to improve shared understanding amongst Metsähallitus departments and preserve the biodiversity of national parks by applying the policy lab tool.
  • Navigating towards the intervention with scenarios
    By forming our user scenario, we can find inspiration in developing nudges that serve to improve the visitor experience and protect the biodiversity of national parks. This method of working not only connects us to the problem area we look to solve but helps us to get closer to our design intervention.
  • The cosmic horror of Finnish bureaucratic iceberg
    Finnish design project provided by the Ministry of Finance focusing on solving the needs of the public servants (in Kela, TE offices and municipalities) involved in the transition from the 15 TE offices to 309+ municipalities due to the TE services reform 2024, via people-centric and public strategy renewal ideas.
  • Identifying the nuts and bolts of a large scale employment services reform
    These past two weeks we focused on unearthing challenges, triumphs and expectations with on-the-ground employees from different organisations which are a part of the TE2024 reform and identifying challenging areas where we can intervene. So far we have outlined three main problem segments that resurfaced often when discussing different reform activities.
  • Seeing the forest through the trees
    Climate change is taking its toll on biodiversity everywhere but something lurking in the shadows of public media is the visitors’ contribution to biodiversity loss in national parks. Ideologies of systems thinking helped us to understand this spider legged topic further and eventually even led us to our problem area: Value of the guidelines is not realized by the visitors in relation to their impacts to biodiversity.
  • Finding tangible problems in a complex system
    Team 1B is working on Metsähallitus’ and the Ministry of the Environment’s brief about the future of sustainable recreation. How can national parks be preserved in the future, as visitor numbers continue to grow? Through research and design interventions, the project seeks solutions to behaviors that harm the nature in conservation areas.
  • A system based on the needs of international jobseekers
    During the second phase of our project on the TE2024 reform, we mainly focused on analysing our interview data. The most important insight we gained is that international jobseekers have very specific needs during the different steps of their journey. How well these needs are being met translates back to their personal relation with the formal employment services.
  • Navigating through forests in the Uusimaa region while thinking about the broad spectrum of interests among the stakeholders
    This blog post reports how our second quarter of research has been done. We develop our research scope by focusing on the Uusimaa region, especially Nuuksio National Park and its neighboring forests. We looked up organizations that manage various types of regenerative and nature education activities for a wide range of the general public in the region. We evolved our direction of research that concentrates on Nature Education, Regenerative activities, and Sense of community after using different mapping tools. This blog will mainly report stakeholder and causal loop maps to describe our findings and what we understand at this stage.
  • Exploring deeper into the forests of Finland
    How can we resolve the conflict between promoting visits and conserving biodiversity in Finnish National Parks? We are exploring the possibility of bridging different organisations in order to enhance regenerative activities in nature areas. In this blog, I will outline what we have done, what we grasped and what we will do so far.
  • Getting comfortable with not knowing everything or designing for Finnish public services
    This blog post reports on the work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by group 2C dealing with the Ministry of Finance’s brief … Read more
  • Healthy Nature, Healthy People
    How to protect biodiversity in Finnish nature recreational areas from the increasing number of visitors? In this first blog, group 1A deep-dive in understanding the issues and finding insights with a human-centred approach through different stakeholders such as nature itself, Metsähallitus, The Ministry of the Environment, and Visitors.
  • Exploring the path to human-centered employment services
    What does a human-centered employment services reform look like? In this blog Group 2A reflects on their starting points on a journey to understand a government reform with all its stakeholders, and explores how applying a human-centered lens influences how we see both the bigger picture and details.
  • Did someone say… Design for Finnish public governance-in-employment services for 2024-in 14 weeks?
    Finnish design project provided by the Ministry of Finance focusing on solving the needs of the public servants (in Kela, TE offices and municipalities) involved in the transition from the 15 TE offices to 309+ municipalities due to the TE services reform 2024, via people-centric and public strategy renewal ideas.
  • Shh, Nature is Asking for Help
    From understanding the project brief to unpacking sustainability into layers, and to finding in-depth research directions, we used human-centered approach to analyze motivations and challenges faced in the project by Metsähallitus and the Ministry of the Environment.
  • Clearing the skies for collaborative sustainable procurement
    Blog IV – Reducing the carbon footprint of public procurement – Kela Maternity package Group 2A: Xinghua Meng, Kalle Kaisko, Michael Buchta from the Creative … Read more
  • Blog IV – Pilot project for Personal budgeting and Mobility Services
    These blog posts report on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The posts are written by groups dealing with the brief on ‘Pilot project for Personal Budgeting Model’, … Read more
  • Blog IV – Strategy for Expatriate Finns
    These blog posts report on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The posts are written by groups dealing with the Ministry of Interior’s brief on ‘Strategy for … Read more
  • Blog III – Strategy for Expatriate Finns
    These blog posts report on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The posts are written by groups dealing with the Ministry of Interior’s brief on ‘Strategy for … Read more
  • Blog III – Reducing the carbon footprint of public procurement – Kela Maternity package
    These blog posts report on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The posts are written by groups dealing with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment’s … Read more
  • Blog III – Pilot project for Personal budgeting and Mobility Services
    These blog posts report on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The posts are written by groups dealing with the brief on ‘Pilot project for Personal Budgeting Model’, … Read more
  • Deep dividing: researching and analyzing the data and trying to define the aspects we should focus on for emotional support
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by the group dealing with the Ministry of Interior’s brief on ‘Strategy for … Read more
  • The Unheard Voices Among Expatriate Finns
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by the group dealing with the Ministry of Interior’s brief on ‘Strategy for … Read more
  • WANTED: Procurement process that promotes innovation and sustainability
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by the group dealing with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and … Read more
  • Where are we now?
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by the group dealing with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and … Read more
  • Week five and research feedbacks: understanding expats
    These blog posts report on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The posts are written by groups dealing with the Ministry of Interior’s brief on ‘Strategy for … Read more
  • What is the goal of the maternity box in the 2020s?
    These blog posts report on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The posts are written by groups dealing with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment’s … Read more
  • Discovering the Issues: Clients Struggle in the Siloed System
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post are written by the group dealing with the brief on ‘Pilot project for Personal Budgeting … Read more
  • Have we been understanding disabilities all wrong?
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post are written by the group dealing with the brief on ‘Pilot project for Personal Budgeting … Read more
  • Listening to the stakeholders, mapping the system and analysing the gathered information
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post are written by the group dealing with the brief on ‘Pilot project for Personal Budgeting … Read more
  • Beyond borders: understanding the complex emotional needs of Finnish expatriates and the systems in place to support them
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by the group dealing with the Ministry of Interior’s brief on ‘Strategy … Read more
  • More than a baby box …
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by the group dealing with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and … Read more
  • Personal budgeting is complex but it’s ok to not understand the problem completely yet!
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post are written by the group dealing with the brief on ‘Pilot project for Personal Budgeting … Read more
  • Design diary: Kickstarting the journey to create a positive impact for expatriate Finns
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by the group dealing with the Ministry of Interior’s brief on ‘Strategy … Read more
  • Two weeks and dozens of open tabs: understanding the brief
    Backstage of online work This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by the group dealing with the Ministry … Read more
  • Understanding the “Person” in the Personal Budgeting Model
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post are written by the group dealing with the brief on ‘Pilot project for Personal Budgeting … Read more
  • ‘Unpacking’ the Maternity Package
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by the group dealing with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and … Read more
  • The baby boxes, let’s make them even better!
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by the group dealing with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and … Read more
  • Accessible future transportation in the making
      This blog post report on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by the group dealing with the brief on ‘Pilot project … Read more
  • Become a transition hero
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by one of the three groups dealing with the Ministry of … Read more
  • Informing transitions in energy behavior
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by one of the three groups dealing with the Ministry of … Read more
  • Leveraging community capabilities in energy transition
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by one of the three groups dealing with the Ministry of Environment’s … Read more
  • A school pact for climate education
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by one of the two groups dealing with the Ministry of … Read more
  • Raising a carbon-neutral generation
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the Design for Government (DfG) course! The post is written by one of the groups dealing with the project brief ‘Boosting … Read more
  • Teaching and growing climate knowledge
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the Design for Government (DfG) course! The post is written by one of the groups dealing with the … Read more
  • Pinpointing the variables in transition to ‘post-oil heating in homes’
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by one of the three groups dealing with the Ministry of … Read more
  • Information is crucial in a transition away from oil heating
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by one of the three groups dealing with the Ministry of Environment’s … Read more
  • Justice within the ‘just transition to post-oil heating’
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by one of the three groups dealing with the Ministry of Environment’s … Read more
  • Climate Education – Whose values are we teaching?
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the Design for Government (DfG) course! The post is written by one of the groups dealing with the project brief ‘Boosting … Read more
  • Insights and opportunities for climate education
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the Design for Government (DfG) course! The post is written by students addressing the project brief ‘Boosting climate education’ provided by the … Read more
  • Boosting climate education is all about people
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the Design for Government (DfG) course! The post is written by one of the groups dealing with the … Read more
  • Making Consumer Rights Simple and Attractive
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by one of the two groups dealing with the Finnish Competition … Read more
  • Post-its, coffee and wild ideas… Towards the Finale!
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by one of the two groups addressing the Finnish Competition and … Read more
  • Design for Government or Design of Government?
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by one of the two groups dealing with the Ministry of … Read more
  • Changing the mindset in anticipation of AI
    This blog post reports on work-in-progress within the DfG course! The post is written by one of the two groups dealing with the Ministry of … Read more