Inside the Machine — exploring care systems in the Swedish public sector
by Ece Günesen, Hanxiong Zhang, Xingyu Liu
Introduction
‘Inside the Machine’ is a collection of our explorations into the Swedish public sector, resulting in design proposals developed during a 10-week collaborative project between Umeå Institute of Design and Försäkringskassan. This project focused on the future interaction between citizens and their government through a participatory lens.
We shifted our focus specifically on the people who have experienced both long-term and short term illness. Within this context, we’ve explored larger issues that might come up while talking about the relationship between an individual and a state such as; transparency, trust, digital and bureacratic literacy as well as the emotional qualities of such interactions.
Research
As we started reaching out to people and talking about their experiences, we found out that the welfare system is a bit like a machine, frustrating and stressful to navigate.
Our methodology consisted of netnography, both planned and guerilla interviews and co-creative workshops as well as an interactive survey tool we’ve created that could be sent out in the wild to generate new future prompts.
Under an initial assumption, we wondered if people who found the system confusing were primarily older adults or new inhabitants in Sweden adjusting to a new environment. However, as we spoke with more individuals, we discovered that even well-educated, able-bodied, Swedish-born, and privileged people described their experiences as ‘complex.’ We felt the need to expand upon our concerns of 'digital literacy.'
This led us to consider the concept of ‘bureaucratic literacy’ — a skill that appears to be underdeveloped among citizens of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences.
Insights
Our investigations into the Swedish context revealed that people are often dependent on various circles of care. These circles of care may consist of our family, friends, word-of-mouth experiences, healthcare providers as well as the institutions we interact with.
We focused on how far a governmental institution — such as Försäkringskassan — is situated from the citizens and how that distance affects the qualities of their interactions.
Our research efforts revolved around 4 key themes, and together they boil down to the following insights:
We have identified ‘Transparency’ as the overarching theme that encompasses ‘Access’, ‘Trust’, and ‘Feeling Human’. Transparent communication ensures that we feel respected, treated with integrity, informed about available care structures, and feel welcomed to use them, provided we are aware of their existence.
Thus, we chose transparency as our main lens to address the system’s strengths and constraints through our design research and intervention. We saw transparency as a strong facilitator of public discourse and direct democracy. The challenge lay in balancing transparency with privacy.
Co-creating concepts
Considering the mobility limitations of our target group (people who are sick), we wanted to approach co-creation in a way that is less restricted by time and space. Inspired by The Futures Bazaar, we created a web-based tool that allows the combination of random prompts to help stimulate radical thinking that can pave the way to new civic futures based on our problem space.
We have used this tool to facilitate in-person workshops as well as share it within our networks to see how many interesting futures of government can be imagined and shared by the citizens. One future generated by our participants particularly struck us as very intriguing:
This prompt inspired us to use a ‘metro map’ as a metaphor.
A metro map allows passengers to locate their starting and ending points and explore all alternative routes, it can illustrate how individuals interact with their government. To travel from point A to point B, you simply look at the map and choose the best route for yourself, aware of any necessary interchanges. The infrastructure is state-built, but you have the freedom to navigate it as you wish. You’re always informed about delays through announcements and know where to go to seek help. The entire system — with all its intricacies and concerns for accessibility — is visualized clearly and transparently on a map. So then, our question was:
What if interacting with the government was more like navigating the metro system?
Final Concept
In finalizing our concept, we moved with an intention to position Försäkringskassan as a connector, providing people with a clear overview while accompanying them on their life journey — a North Star to look up to and consult when in doubt.
The journey view offers to show the user alternative paths as well as show the progress on their case. It was important for us to design this view in a way that emphasizes the agency the citizen has and what potential actions they may take to influence the outcomes.
A designated ‘consent center’ emerged as a natural extension of our vision because crafting each individual’s custom path is only feasible through secure means of data sharing between the citizen and the government. We believe it’s crucial to make this aspect visible and reassure citizens that they have the agency to decide what and when to consent.
The interfaces serve as a gateway to one’s government, where citizens gain deeper insights into their government the more they engage with it. Leveraging the digital platform, we designed it as a tool for learning about the decision-making processes, understanding how and why their data is processed, and recognizing the significance of their data.
With emerging legislation worldwide concerning the sharing and storage of citizens’ health data, we believe it’s crucial to foster resilience and literacy among populations through transparent services.
Reflections
Throughout the project, we have been reflecting on our process on three different layers, or scales of experience.
On an interface level, we recognize that the power of visualization is a significant privilege, often limited in its accessibility to those who are visually impaired. In our collaboration with Försäkringskassan, we partnered with UX and accessibility experts from the public sector. We received lectures on the guidelines and best practices that a modern state needs to follow to ensure equal access to governmental services for citizens of all abilities.
We challenged ourselves to learn and adhere to WCAG guidelines, test our color schemes and contrasts, and create a small demo for the ‘metro map’ visualization of case decision trees adapted for screen reader accessibility. This included custom guiding alternative text written and applied by us.
On a service level, we reflect on how the ’presence’ of an institution may effect our experiences with government as service. Government bodies are often secretive and bureaucratic , hence ‘the Machine’, but bringing them down to our eye level and making them a part of our everyday lives might make it easier for citizens to relate to and trust the services provided by the state.
And at last on a system level, we understand that there exists a vast missing link between theory and implementation — or between policy design or interface design.
Strategic design, as a professional practice, should be integrated into the design departments of the public sector to effectively craft interventions that translate into practical solutions at the user level. However, when policy makers and designers operate in silos, there’s a risk that design efforts may be constrained in their reach or impact.
Collaboration and integration between these groups are essential to maximizing the effectiveness of design interventions in addressing real-world challenges.
