Design for Government: From Field-to-Fork

I was happy to learn about the service design process and co-design for governmental level. Read the detailed project description below.

Design tools used:
interviews, focus group discussions, workshops, design probes, observation, systems, motivations and stakeholder mapping, point-analysis, affinity diagram, personas, storyboards, scenarios and finally testing through a prototype.

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ABOT THE COURSE:

Design For Government is a advanced studio course under Aalto Creative Sustainability master’s programme. It’s all about exploring the potential of design in solving complex challenges of the government and public sector. The course basis strongly in service design methods with emphases on systems approach, empathic design and behavioral insight.

PROJECT FLOW:

Our five person group got a project from the Ministry of forestry and agriculture. The original brief asked us to find out how the EU money for School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme could be used in Finland. While that was something we needed to consider, but more significant baseline was the context from which the scheme originates.

Every fifth Finnish school-aged child is overweight, and without intervention, obese infants will likely continue to be obese during childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The cost of obesity in Finland is around 330 million per year. We felt that we are dealing with a national problem, which is about health and learning, not just about the EU money. The solution to the problem is not to give out fruit and vegetables. In order to achieve a lasting impact, we need to emphasize education.

We underlined our goal with a vision: After primary school, kids have gained own “field-to-fork” experience about fruits, vegetables and berries. This is included in the next renewal of the core curriculum. By field-to-fork we mean how and why the food ends up from the farm through the production to the tables.

See our presentation and the whole Design for Government seminar here: http://dfg-course.aalto.fi