André Santos, a Portuguese Service Designer Living in Finland
Hi all, for those who land for the first time into our Medium profile, Lusofonia is one of the projects that the Portugal Chapter of the Service Design Network Portugal is putting together to make 2020 the year of the community.
Lusofonia is an open door for the Portuguese-Speaking Service Designers living overseas to connect with the Service Design community in Portugal and share their ideas, projects, lessons learned on how it is to work with a different culture and, also, and more importantly, an opportunity to learn from and with peers.
One Article at a Time
Lusofonia is a project that opens a door to the Portuguese-speaking Service Designers living overseas to the Portugal Service Design community. But also opens a door to us, as we get the chance of getting to know them. Indeed, as we challenged them to share their stories with you, one article at a time and, this one, it is the first.
Today we are excited to introduce you to André Santos, and his journey towards Service Design.
Who is André?
Hello everyone!
I am André, a Portuguese like many others around the world, living in a different country. After leaving my hometown, the beautiful city of Porto, and after several experiences abroad, I am now residing in Helsinki, Finland, a city, they say, was born from the sea.
One of Finland’s main characteristics is the government’s investment in the education system, which is considered to be one of the best, if not the best in the world. Whether from primary education to higher education, there is a focus on students and their learning experiences. This way of seeing and experiencing education led me to apply for a Master’s Degree in Collaborative and Industrial Design at Aalto University. Fortunately, I was accepted and, in the summer of 2017, I left my professional life in Norway to embrace a new adventure as a full-time student in Finland.
Right now, I’m in the process of finalizing my thesis — hopefully, it will be done by the end of the summer. The main objective of my research is to study and analyze the role of governmental entities, local authorities, private actors, and the articulation of these same entities in the development of strategies for the prevention and the increase of resilience to disasters such as forest fires. This phenomenon is very present in the life of the Portuguese.
On a professional level, I have been working for two years at Aalto Design Factory (ADF) as a teacher assistant in the Product Development Project (PDP). PDP follows a problem-based learning (PBL) methodology where the students learn interdisciplinary global teams that work on challenges given and sponsored by industry partners, who are searching for innovative cooperation with the academic world.
How Was Your Journey to Service Design?
My fascination with the relationship between objects and people piqued my interest in design. This draw took me to the University of Aveiro, in Portugal, where I undertook the Bachelor’s program in Design. I came to understand the importance of design as a global and intersectional discipline. This holistic approach influenced me to seek new experiences in different cultures and unfamiliar environments.
My first experience abroad was as an exchange student at TU Delft, in the Netherlands. However, I did not stop there. My natural desire to explore and experience other contexts led me to work and live in Denmark, China, and Norway. Here I worked on projects from medical and healthcare equipment to off-grid energy solutions for remote communities. I also had the opportunity to put in practice all the learnings and knowledge I collected throughout my journey as a professional. However, there was something else missing. I had a keen interest in understanding not just the need for the products I was developing, but how they integrated into the daily lives of the potential users. In other words, I wanted to understand the bigger picture, how the different elements and levels are connected from the suppliers to manufacturing, distribution, choosing a product to buy, purchasing it, and then using such a product. This holistic perspective sees design as an interconnected whole that is part of the larger entity. Each change one makes to one part affects the whole. Going beyond problem-solving to incorporate all aspects of the ecosystem in which a product used is what drew me to service design.
Another aspect that influenced me to change my path to service design was its collaborative nature — taking the stakeholders as design partners to define the needs of a product or service in synchronous collaboration.
In the end, it is not possible to design a service without engaging and co-creating with people.
What is Service Design for You?
From my experience as a designer, design, as a process, is easy, but delivery is hard. In the context of service design, designing and delivering a service means that you have to break the silos in an organization. If one solves problems the organization is facing instead of trying to fill the portfolio, one can provide much more value and Service Design can play a much more strategic role within organizations. But the transition from designs to organization and strategy requires new skills from designers — the ability to zoom out and connect people within organizations.
For a designer shifting from industrial design to service design, designing beautiful artifacts is the natural part. But design can have a far more significant impact if one focuses on aligning with the organization that has to deliver the service. It means that the biggest challenge is to bridge the gap between the design of a service and the reality of providing that service.
Service Design is about the what, not the how.
It’s about the people, whether they are employers, employees, customers, or even beneficiaries (in the case of NGOs). It’s about organizations and their goals. It’s about the opportunities one finds, that result in ideas that one creates and develops. It’s about the context and the environment where those services happen. It’s about the system where the services integrate. It’s about the relationships within the ecosystem. But most of all, it’s about the (sustainable) impact on society, and ultimately, the planet.
What Projects in the Service Design Field Have Had the Most Impact on You?
As I am still new in this area, I have not yet had the opportunity to work on a project that was not outside the academic space. For this reason, I will mention two distinct projects:
Yhteispot (‘yhtei’ means ‘communal’ in Finnish) was one of the first projects that I developed within the scope of Service Design, at the beginning of the Master’s degree at Aalto University. The original brief covered a 40 km path along the shore of Espoo — a city that borders western Helsinki — with the name of Rantaraitti. The initial idea of the Espoo city council was to create a new network of equipment for barbecues and campfires along the shore. Although there was no suitable equipment for grilling along the shore, there were several traces of occurrences.
During the research phase, the most problematic aspect was finding people setting fires and grilling along the shore. The freezing weather (-15º Celsius) hampered our efforts to find users exploring the natural places on the coast. I believe that this factor had a significant impact on our project. Perhaps it would be easier to find patterns of behavior related to the activity of grilling and setting fires if we had developed this project in the Spring or Summer. In the end, despite the obstacles, we managed to create a service concept in which citizens, collectively, reimagine and reinvent Rantaraitti as the heart of the community, strengthening the connection between residents, visitors, and the place they share.
For me, as an industrial designer, it was precious to explore my skills and knowledge in a different area within the sphere of design. The opportunity to work at the municipal level helped me to understand that, for public services to become more active and improve the user experience, it is essential to invest in public sector innovation, involving the stakeholders in the development and decision-making process. Only in this way can we capitalize on the assets, inspiration, and potential of the local community, creating quality public spaces that contribute to people’s health, happiness, and well-being.
The second project, Nepali, was around the theme of reconstructing communities after the 2015 Nepal earthquake, which killed almost 9,000 people and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. The project’s objective was to research the current situation of a rural settlement north of Kathmandu regarding community cohesion, and how that could improve for better disaster resilience. During the two-week field research, we identified different aspects of social cohesion present in the community. Subsequently, we analyzed how these factors could be worked and improved for a more resilient social cohesion. To this end, we developed future scenarios to address issues of social cohesion from different perspectives. In addition to the future scenarios, the final outputs of the project included two photography exhibitions (one in Nepal and one in Finland) and a book, “Bound — Photography born in Nepal”, with an independent publication.
This project was a journey full of discussions, ideas, travels, new relationships, and learnings! All were relevant to change my understanding of sustainable development, and ultimately, to change me as a person.
Service Design in Finland
In Finland, there is a strong commitment to research and education in Service Design, in addition to a long tradition in design, in which Service Design is a logical consequence. The culture in Finland creates an enabling environment for the Service Design approach. Finnish society and work culture are generally not hierarchical, which contributes to leveraging the multidisciplinary field of Service Design. The so-called “talkoo” spirit — Finnish expression for a gathering of friends and neighbors organized to carry out a task — also allows Finns to participate in Service Design and similar workshops without incentives, which is not the case in other cultures.
On a professional level, there is a high demand for service design in Finland, because companies are looking for opportunities to improve the way they relate to consumers and their employees. Besides, Finns have high expectations, as they are demanding for quality and experience in purchasing services. In Finland, unlike many other countries, the public sector has been the biggest promoter and driver of Service Design in Finland.
The Service Design service offer is quite diverse. From local design agencies like Hellon, Nordkapp, Pentagon Design and Scope (more focused on social impact), to more international ones like Idean and Fjord. All of them develop projects focused on the consumer and employee experience in different organizations, whether they are public or private. Other companies are working on digital and technological innovations such as Futurice, Gofore, Reaktor, Frantic, among others. Still, in the private sector, large companies have also invested heavily in Service Design to change and impact the company’s culture: DNA and Elisa, in the communication sector; KONE and ABB, in manufacturing and production; OP and Nordea, in the banking sector; Finnair, in transportation; and Posti, in logistics. Alongside the strong presence of Service Design in the private sector, there is also a strong focus on Service Design in the public sector, namely, at the governmental level and even at the local and municipal level in cities such as Helsinki and Espoo.
The Service Design community is relatively small (considering the population). It is mostly composed of Finns, with a large percentage of professionals from various fields (from psychology, philosophy, management, etc.) and multiple nationalities, including some of the Portuguese-speaking nations. This diversification gives a new perspective to design itself and to the way Service Design is seen by different organizations.
Living in Finland: A Piece of Advice
Since I’ve been hopping from one place to another in most of my professional life, I’m not sure if I am the right person to give advice. However, I suggest that before any decision made, it is necessary to understand that the Finnish context is very particular and quite different from the Portuguese one. The contrasts between Portugal and Finland are evident not only in culture, but also in the way people socialize, the gastronomy and traditions, the language, the weather conditions, and the cost of living.
- Finland is a very peaceful and quiet country. For Finns, moments of silence are natural and nothing to feel awkward about. They always keep a safe distance from each other, and usually, there is no small talk on public transportation. For foreigners, this can be strange at first, but most people get used to it. Once you get to know a Finn, you will soon find that they are friendly, loyal, and reliable. I like their honesty and straightforwardness. Finns say what they mean and are good at giving feedback, even if they are quite modest.
- Communication with locals is accessible. Even though Finland is officially bilingual (Finnish and Swedish), English is widely spoken, especially in the bigger cities, so you will be able to use public services, go to restaurants, and travel around without any real language issues. Nevertheless, it’s always handy to learn the local language.
- Regarding the living cost, Finland is quite an expensive country. The expansive welfare state model needs to finance, and that means that taxes on most things are high. On the other hand, the salaries are high, so that makes up for it.
- In winter, the nights are long and dark; in summer, the days are long and bright. At first, darkness can have depressive effects, so it is essential to be especially active at that time of the year.
In general, Finland is a very peaceful country, with features such as the thousand lakes, the 2 million saunas, or even the reindeers in the middle of the road. It is necessary to understand the local context and have a high capacity for adaptation in terms of interpersonal relationships, the proximity (or not) to people, the climate, the non-hierarchy, and the Finnish way of life.
Interesting topics to share
I am currently interested in topics related to sustainable development, life-centered design, systems thinking, and social impact. I am particularly interested in studying and analyzing projects that address sustainability challenges through systemic thinking and the use of transdisciplinary teams that allow members to contribute with their knowledge and experience, and where efforts are collective.
As a recent professional in the field of service design, I would like to hear from other designers about their experience in the use of multiple tools and methods and understand the best techniques and tools for specific tasks or activities within the design process. Also, I would like to know more about the impact and applicability of a sustainability approach to service design.
My experience in different countries, contributed to the development of a more experimental attitude in my design process — thinking by doing. I like to experiment and prototype any project. So, I will be happy to help and contribute to a more experimental attitude, which will probably result in better opportunities for success in the design process.
Thank you so much, André for sharing your journey with us. We are pretty sure that the Portuguese-speaking community will avidly read this fantastic article!
If you want to connect with André you can find him on LinkedIn, The Portugal Chapter, Service Design Network.
