New Working Paper Published On Service Design

Heli Leinonkoski worked as a research fellow at the Finnish Institute in London in spring 2011. Her working paper on Service Design is an outcome of her research visit to the UK.

"Service Design - An Approach to Better Public Services? A Civil Servant's View" by Heli Leinonkoski has been published in the Working Papers series of the Finnish Institute in London, on 5 March 2012. Leinonkoski, Director of Administration and Finance at the Department of Urban Design and Infrastructure, City of Jyväskylä, Finland, worked as a visiting researcher at the Finnish Institute in London in spring 2011. The main objective for her research visit to London was to learn more about Service Design, its principles and the key methods in order to determine why it is currently such a hot topic for the public sector and how it has been applied to different contexts in the UK.

The working paper explores the concept of Service Design and contemplates whether it is an approach to better public services. According to Leinonkoski, the answer is yes. Service Design helps people to piece together a problem and provides the tools for finding the best solution by using methods of communication, visualisation and co-creation. The purpose of the report is to give an idea, mainly for public sector actors, of what the design of public services is all about and of the potential of Service Design to help public services meet people's needs.

The working paper can be downloaded here.

Read more about Heli Leinonkoski's thoughts about the project from this Pardon My Finnish blog post.