VERKA - Design for Government
Design lead in governmental service design team projectfor Ministry of Transport and Communications
The project brief urged us to address and enable bottom-up mobility as a service (MaaS) in the municipality of Hämeenlinna. The background of the brief included upcoming legislative shift in transportation, the looming automization of transportation and other trends in mobility and in Finnish societal structure.
Our research process included experiencing the mobility in Hämeenlinna through various embodied methods. Together our group travelled over 3000km to, in and back from Hämeenlinna. We interviewed all together 74 people, including mobility users, cityplanners, ministry officials. We organized a workshop for project stakeholders and decision makers. We also conducted a online survey for the inhabitants of more rural areas of Hämeenlinna. We discovered that the more rural areas really relied on using private cars, and the ways to use public transportation actually included many safety risks.
“Without a private car, life would be horrible”
We boldly visioned a Hämeenlinna without private cars, and asked how that could come about, for our data-based personas such as Pasi Pyörä, a cycling enthusiast, and Pirkko Perheinen - a working mom from a rural area. We analyzed the systemic environment of what leads to transportation choice with the STEEP analysis.
The biggest, a more systemic issue, that we could leverage, was that the municipality was collecting user feedback of public transportation routes, and their response rate was very low. One out of a thousand citizen in Hämeenlinna gave feedback, and of course people who were not using public transit, didn’t. This lead to a situation where bus routes could be designed around the feedback of one person, and rest, 999 citizens out of a thousand, were not heard. We gathered examples of different ways public transportation is organized and innovated in Finnish municipalities, and asked what could facilitate this kind of action.
“I am so used to having to rely on my own car, that I am not able to imagine better bus connections.”
In order to really respond to user needs, prepare for the upcoming legislative changes and opportunities, we created on a concept, that would gather more information about the general mobility patterns in Hämeenlinna. VERKA is a mobility pattern mapping tool which gathers the most common mobility needs of citizen in one place, directly from citizen (an extension of myData). This information could be used in designing better bus routes, designing new services (both private, bottom-up and public) and informing people of upcoming changing public and private services that fit their individual mobility needs, or for example in deciding where to place city bike stations.
To communicate the value of the proposal to the municipality, we focused on the environmental impact and potential of reducing traffic accidents, which can create significant savings. We presented the service through the customer journey of Maija. My specific responsibilities in the project included being in charge of all visuals - presentations, reports, graphics, personas and layouts. You can find the project report here.
“You nailed it!’ ‘The starting point for these proposals is very good: people don’t need to own a car. Tools for sharing information already exist, for example, on social media, but we don’t have a service that would bring together all of the mobility needs and service providers. This project provides some interesting proposals in that area.’”
Teaching assistant for the Design for Government -course
I was also employed by the Design for Government-course for the 2016 class. Being part of the course staff gave me a stronger understanding of the methods and approaches used during the course: Empathic design, systems thinking, and behavioral insight. The 10 week course my responsibilities included visuals: presentation, posters, calendar, website, photography and communications: students, event organizers and managing contracts with different client ministries. I coordinated the Design for Government Suomi100 final show in Valkoinen Sali. During the course I participated in making the Design for Government video for the Design Museum’s Enter and Encounter - exhibition, by creating graphics for the video. The exhibition was visited by 75000 people and it was showcasing the state of design and designers - new ways they are influencing the future in and of Finland. You can find more information about the Design for Government course in the blog.