Promises of Prototyping

Selander Riikka

Laurea University of Applied SciencesKeskikatu 3a

04200 Kerava, Finlandriikka.e.selander@laurea.fi

+358 40 674 7907

Huvila-Nicklén PirjoMeals and cleanliness in Service Manager

Torikatu 6-8, 05800 Hyvinkää, Finlandpirjo.huvila@hyvinkaa.fi

+358 400 460 568

Salgado Mariana

Laurea University of Applied SciencesKeskikatu 3a

04200 Kerava, Finlandmariana.salgado@laurea.fi

+358 40 585 7727

ABSTRACTParticipatory prototyping of services was used in the development of home care services towards preventing displacement and loneliness of elderly persons. Together with the elderly users of the home care service and the personnel of the home care crew we designed and implemented Palvelutupa (Service Cottage). Elders took part in communal actions once a week. These actions varied from recreational activities to lectures on daily issues such as nutrition or footwear advices. In addition to the social activities, a health check took place there. Participants took part in the development of the concept for this service and also in the participatory prototyping that was run in the city premises during 8 days along 2 months.

The main elements of this service are transportation to the meeting place, taking part in structured activities, getting health care information and check, eating and spending free-time in a small group. Furthermore, participants had the change to influence in the future development of a service that could be implemented for a large amount of elders in the area. The combination of social activities with health related offerings is what makes this service distinctive. In addition, this case has the special characteristic that the person1 that has the initiative towards the creation of this service was within the organization, instead of being a designer working as a external consultant for the city. We believed in the sustainability of the endeavor because the designer instigating this initiative is part of the crew that could make this service real once the decision is made.

Though elder participants were informed about the

temporary time spam for the prototype still the fact that the prototype seams like a real service and the shared wish (within participants and designers) to continue with it formed a promise of continuity. At the moment when we are waiting the decision from authorities to make this service real for a larger group, elders involved in the project call us in the search of company and comfort for their daily challenges. They call us claiming for the continuity of the service.

As designers we succeed in creating an empathic relationship with our end-users through these participatory prototypes, however we did not plan strategically the involvement of decision makers in the design process. People in the role of deciding the future of the project should be involved in the design process. There is a need for awareness and empathy not only for designing new services but also for fastening the speed of transfer the prototype into the implementation phase.

Author KeywordsParticipatory prototyping, service design, home care, elders, seniors, public sector.

INTRODUCTIONThis work reflects on material gathered for a master thesis in Laurea University of Applied Sciences done in collaboration with the city of Hyvinkää. Students have designed a service named Palvelutupa together with different stakeholders. The cost accounting done after the prototypes showed that the result does not increased costs for the city. This service fits patients that take part in home care services. In addition, Palvelutupa could be part of preventive actions for elderly persons for whom the necessity of home care is already under consideration.

European Union’s theme for the year 2012 is ‘It is always the right Age’. The purpose of the Theme Year is to support elderly persons to notice that they have a right to take part into activities of both the society and their

1 Manager of meals and cleanliness of the city of Hyvinkää, Finland.

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current surroundings. Finland’s Council of State has been preparing the new ‘Health 2015’ program. The aim is to guarantee for elderly persons possibilities for independent and high-quality living at their own home. However, several studies (1, 3, 6) indicate that elderly persons living on their own feel lonely. This problem will be increasing in Finland in the future too, because the estimated section of person’s older than 65 will be approximately one third of the population by the year 2060 (5).

The main research question in this study was how service design and its methods could be adapted into the development process of the communal service. At the same time, the aim was to find out whether Palvelutupacould support the everyday life and prevent displacement and loneliness. In this specific workshop we want to discuss issues concerning the ethical awareness of the consequences of including elders with memory disfunction problems in taking part of the design of new services and particularly using participatory prototype.

In the current model of home care all the services that elderly peoples need are delivered to their homes which means in the worst case that the old person do not have nearly at all contacts to outer world. Therefore, the current model provides a solution to the first needs of the patients (receiving health care and food) but do not responds to the social needs such as getting to know new people and having peers to talk and share their life. During these participatory sessions elders came to a home for the elders once a week and they got social activities, health related information and check-ups and they participate the design of a service.

DESIGNING A SERVICEThis service was a co-design process that involved elders and home care and health care crew. First we did semi-structure theme interviews in elders' homes using cards in order to better understand their everyday life and elicit conversation. Second, we have a workshop with the home care crew using doll’s house furniture, action cards and different types of pottering materials. During this workshop we explore possibilities of activities and formats for the participatory prototype. Third, we analyze the results and the interviews and workshops using affinity diagrams. At last, we designed this participatory prototype that lasted for two months. Each of the meetings days was planned with care to details and taking in consideration that this special group of elders have memory problems.

The project covers many phases of the design process: analysis of users needs and wishes, concept design of a new service, implementation of a participatory prototypes, cost accountings and the observation and analysis of all these phases. The following diagram visualizes the process.

PARTICIPATORY PROTOTYPINGPalvelutupa prototype was in operation every Wednesday for two months. Two persons were in charge of organizing it and taking care of details of its implementation. For example, they called the elders the day before to remind them that a taxi would be waiting to transport them to Palvelutupa at a certain time.

Every day has a certain theme and the activities planned related to it. These themes came from the wishes of what elderly people had articulated in the interviews and from the workshop with the home care crew. The day began at ten o’clock in the morning and finished at two in the afternoon.

The participants asked for having the possibility to listen music, to sing psalms, to do gymnastic exercises, to have some treat as a beauty care session and the most important: have time to drink coffee with others. All these was realized in addition to other activities that were planned together with the home care crew such as the use of crafting in combination with the topic of the lecture. For example, the elders did a magnetic reminder for their fridge that help each of them to realize a certain nutrition advice that they wanted to work-out. For making these activities possible we collaborate with the local schools, church and other service providers. As an example students from the local school of hairdressing came to offer their services to the participants.

After the morning guided activities they took lunch together. The nurse from the home care came to Palvelutupa in the afternoon and discussed with the customers asking how they felt, measured the blood pressure and blood sugar and distributed the medicines. Instead of going to everyone’s home separately the nurse could take care of several customers at the same time. This came out to be very important to the elderly people because the nurse had more time to spend and to listen to them.

DISCUSSION ON METHODS It can be outlined that participatory prototyping method is suitable to service development in the public sector. It supported empathy between the researchers and the participants. The participatory prototyping helped the

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designers, the care home crew and the health nurses to better understand elderly persons’ needs and wishes. The participatory prototype allow for spending time together and open the discussion to personal and intimate topics. The dialogue with the participants embrace emotional and practical aspects of elders everyday life.

During the prototype sessions, it could be observed that the participants both cheered up and activated. Based on this study and the persons that took part, it can be stated that the combination of social and health related activities were important factors increasing well-being. The feeling of being lonely had a significant downturn during the prototype.

The methods used are original practices within the organization. These workshops including visualizations elements are a new way to focus the discussion with home care nurses and elders. Furthermore, to include the end-users, in this case the elders in the design of their future everyday living is not a practice for strategic planning of future services. Strategic planners in large organizations such as cities do seldom consult end-users for coming up with new service solutions. These practices need to be spread and further develop in order to motivate more democratic services that are inclusive. This is an example of a service design that is the result of an initiative of city employees together with the end-users, therefore with a clear botton-up approach. We believe that this approach could bring more democratic services solutions.

CONCLUSIONSIn this case, innovation is not sustained by examples of in introducing ICT to the elders but on proposing a new service to stimulate their social life. This stimulation, as we have observed, can have an impact into their health condition. If the problems of these elderly persons are isolation and loneliness, a service in which they can meet others is the right answer. These complex problems can have simple solutions once there is a research on organizational resources, wishes and needs. Furthermore, peer networks have long been the answer to many people with different diseases and addictions. Palvelutupa motivates the formation of a peer network of elders in the same area. Due to the mobility limitation elders face these type of local networks are beneficial. In the case of elders with health issues related to memory disfunction the support of peer networks is of vital importance.

As designers we believe in the importance of growing an empathic relation with our partners during the design and development of the service. However, the relations are fed over time and prototyping has a short life spam. After the prototyping face is over the design outcome, in this case the Palvelutupa service, might be run by other actors. Therefore the empathic relation is discontinued. In the cases of working with elders with memory problems it could be beneficial to aim for the continuity of the relation having the same team involved with them for a

long period of time. Temporality is a vital issue when designing for empathy.

When we talked about involving different stakeholders inservice design it is important to pose again the question on who to include in this process. This approach aligns with the work of Cantu (1) that presents the concept of community centered design. This project embraces the whole community involved in the service and it is not only based on the selection of one group of users. We have included home care specialists, nurses, other external partners such as the local service providers and elders but we failed to invite decision makers. When the service relates to a community, all the participants in the community need to be consider as part of the design process.

We suggest that decision makers should be part of the design of services, in order to understand (both intellectually and emotionally) the fundamental needs and wishes of the end-users, in this case the elders. In the public sector, specially in large organizations decision making processes are slow and elders need a quick responses. We believe that if decision makers will be part of this process the decisions will come quicker. However, the way and the moment in which these persons are included in the design process is something that needs further discussion.

We endure our frustration because the decision of making this service available to the participants of the prototype takes time. We agree with Suchmann (4) on “acknowledging and accepting the limited power of any actors or artifacts to control technology production/use” and verified that this is also true in the context of controlling the implementation of a service. Futhermore, we also recognize the fake promises that our prototype arose into participants.

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http://www.stat.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_vaesto.html#perheet

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