Interview with service designer Mikko Koivisto — 10 years of constant learning
Service designer Mikko Koivisto has been selected as the winner of the Ornamo Award of 2017. Koivisto, the Lead Service Designer of the Hellon, is considered as a pioneer of service design practice and has been a major influence on the growth of this field in Finland. My previous post discussed two projects Koivisto carried out, and in this post, I sit down with Koivisto to discuss how his journey as one of the first service designers has unfolded in the past 10 years or so. Also, we talk about whether there have been some particular challenges in his career or in some discreet projects.
Seungho Lee (SPL) I very briefly covered your recent project for Helsinki Regional Transport Authority (HSL), and now I would like to go a bit deeper. How did the project come about?
Mikko Koivisto (MK) The city of Helsinki is expanding rapidly with the growth of its urban population. Accordingly, HSL has recently extended its metro towards the west side of greater Helsinki area towards Espoo city. The light rail will be a new and important addition to this development to increase the public transit capacity with flexibility. When it is city center, it is as slow as a tram, but outside the city it can go faster. They had some clear ideas on the hardware and general operational principles. For example, the light rail will be designed based on the recent Arctic Tram of HSL, and when there is street crossing, light rail will always have priority. However, HSL did not have a clear idea of what kinds of needs this hybrid mode of public transportation need to fulfil to be a successful service. HSL came to Hellon strictly asking for customer experience concepts not the tram design.
SPL The project is very interesting in that it is not about making the physical designs to support the experience goals, but requirements and recommendations for the upcoming light rail design should fulfil.
MK Yes, it is encouraging because HSL is now using service design as a way to set the key performance indicators. It had been difficult for our team at times. As a designer, I am so used to make sketches to express an idea. For examples, we first made some drawings of light rail stops, then we realized that we’re not asked to design these stops. We were creating a guideline, or design principle if you will, for other designers to come into the project and consider the user experience goals we identified with the users. To avoid fixation for the designers at the next phases, we ended up using multiple photos from existing transit systems in other countries and detailed description of the experience goals.
SPL You carried out participatory observations in the existing tram and bus lines. Was there a striking observation you want to mention?
MK There were few broad areas we were looking into through the ethnographic observations: the light rail car itself, scenery, operation of the tram including the timetable, the role of light rail operators, and the light rail stops. So, there were lots of surprises, as one usually encounters while carrying out ethnographic observation, which is probably the whole point of doing it anyway. But one thing stood out is perhaps the lack of support for children that are perfectly able to stand and walk without the help of adults. Although the current Arctic tram is well-designed with the parents with pram and wheel chair access, we noticed that children, families with children, their needs have not been noticed that well. One day we observed one mother with two children, and the poles of the tram do not go low enough, and so the children grabbed the mother’s jacket or legs, which can be tiring for both kids and parents. So we thought that one focus area could be for children — which leads to design for all, visually impaired people and so on.
SPL That is so interesting. I have a son who just started not liking sitting on his pram when we are on a tram, and when he wants to go and sit on an “adult seat” I have to tell him to wait till the tram stops and hold his hands to the seat of his liking. It will be much easier for him and for me if there are something to hold on to while he is standing or walking in the tram.
MK Exactly. I am not saying the current tram is a bad one. It is so much better than the previous ones, but things can always become better, and paying close attention to the users, or service design more broadly can make contributions to the positive change.
SPL Indeed. How about the insights from the workshops you carried out?
MK Oh, there were so many important insights we’ve gained, so it would not be possible to mention all of them now. However, we’re trying to help HSL to make an online version of the guideline we’ve produced, so hopefully you’ll be able to check all of them out later in 2018. But if you ask me to point out one thing that stood out, I think one thing perhaps could be about where the door stops.
SPL Where the door stops?
MK Yes, we’ve learnt from the users during the workshop, the trams do not stop exactly on the same spot, making the passengers to quickly walk to the door after the tram stopped but before the door closes. It’s not a problem for us young adults, but if you’re over 70 or 80 years old, this can be a frustrating moment. Now imagine that situation in the winter with icy and snowy platform. So, stopping at the exact spot, hence helping the elders to wait for the tram readily in front of the door was one very important requirement we’ve found.
SPL You’re considered as one of the pioneers of service design in and from Finland, and have been carrying out a great number of projects in the past 10 years. In your view, what has changed?
MK So many. In the beginning, it was difficult to make myself understood when I go around project meetings and tell potential clients that I do service design. Designing the invisible, although other design fields have been doing it for a long time, is not something people readily understood. Now, many clients work with us to achieve a wide range of things through service design. This is very encouraging because service design often goes far beyond the services themselves, but it also means constant learning for us designers, too. I had to challenge myself and step outside the comfort zone for the past ten years.
SPL Can you take an example?
MK I cannot take the most recent examples due to the non-disclosure agreements we’ve made with the clients, but perhaps the Soup ’n’ Soul project can show a little bit of extension service designers need to deal with. Few years ago, Saarioinen, a large player in Finnish food sector asked us to design a service around drinkable soup. But they did not plan to establish a new brand or soup restaurant. Instead, they asked Hellon to find a business partner while also designing the service, perhaps a restaurant or café chain that would serve the soup to their customers. So it ended up being a business design through service design.
SPL That is so interesting, why didn’t they do it themselves?
MK One reason was that they wanted to find a business partner without biases towards Saarioinen as a food manufacturer. Although Saarioinen has been a strong player in the manufacturing of food, their focus has been the staples in large supermarket chains. Also, I think it was a smart decision in that they did not need to assume what kind of service the end result would be. We went out and observed different cafes and restaurants, and also asked the management of the chains on behalf of Saarioinen without telling the name of our client. Robert’s Coffee stood out in many ways. The customers were looking for a quick bite, but also ware interested in healthier options for quick breakfast or a small snack before hitting the gym. Robert’s Coffee was already serving quick bites but nothing warm except tea and coffee.
SPL I thought it was genius that you’ve designed the soup to be prepared with the steam from an espresso machine.
MK Yeah. Most places we’ve observed where people stop by for a quick bite were small cafes. They do not have much space, but so many products to serve the customers. So, adding a whole new machine would be difficult, and it also could cause inefficient work flow. Steaming the soup was not only space efficient, but also gives the feeling of ‘made-to-order’ feeling. Although the soup itself is ready-made, each cup is warmed up by a barista with the toppings each customer asked for.
SPL Do those kinds of project that go beyond the scope of service design occur often?
MK Yes, they do, and in various forms, and the number is increasing. Hellon is asked to redesign legal documents, to develop a method for citizen participation at large, or to envision the future of digitalization in Finnish government. Of course, not all of these necessarily sit in the traditional design capabilities, and that’s why I think the role of design education, or change of it for the same matter, is so important. We are also hiring people with business background, people with systems understanding, and so on, but in the future, we will need more designers whose background combine those necessary skills and beyond.
SPL That is a great point. And with that, I would like to conclude our interview. Thank you so much, and I with you and Hellon great years to come.
MK Thank you!
