Exploring mapping tools for service design through the Voitto project

1. IntroductionThis chapter is situated in practical service design. It discusses learning through action by employing established service design tools and processes, including learning through co-creation (Sanders & Stappers, 2008). Due to the iterative working approaches that involve co-design, testing and evaluation, service design enables continuous and peer-to-peer learning (Kuure & Miettinen, 2013). Mapping both a physical and action-driven process, is explored in this chapter as a useful tool for learning through action in service design processes. Mapping is a powerful visualisation tool as it produces artefacts, the physical maps, which transfer semiotic data for stimulating new insights and progressing learning in customer journeys.Voitto is a Finnish word meaning victory, and a shortened word representing the Finnish phrase voimavaroja, toimintakykyä ja osallisuutta Lappiin, meaning increasing resources, viability and social participation in Lapland. This word was chosen as the title for the project discussed in this chapter. The practical use of mapping in the public sector where new tools are continuously sought to improve public services and address societal challenges (Kuure & Lindström, 2012). Voitto is an EU funded three year project that was initiated in 2017. The project seeks to explore new services for men who experience social isolation over a long period of time. The Education and Development Services from the University of Lapland leads the project, supported by an expert counselling team that includes the Regional Council of Lapland, the Eduro Foundation, Lapland Te Services, University of Lapland, Northern Finland’s Centre for Social Services, Ranua Municipality and Lapland Ely Centre. The Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland contributes expert service design and artistic knowledge to the project. The project includes participants and project stakeholders from three municipalities in Finnish Lapland, which are Ranua, Inari and Ylitornio.The aims of Voitto is the social and economic empowerment of men who have become socially isolated and unemployed over years in these municipal areas. The target group (later in this article also referred to as participants or customers) are the most vulnerable and marginalised men that are ageing, (long-term) unemployed, often disabled and recipients of social welfare. Improving the work capacity of unemployed men, their quality of life and reintegrating them into their communities is at the core of the project. Social workers, guided by the expert counselling team, identified the participants.The project aimed to guide, counsel and train personnel in the application of the selected service design methods, including ethnographic observations and mapping. This entailed the development and modelling of participatory tools for the processing of current life scenarios by the target group, whilst simultaneously developing and formulating participatory tools for guidance and counselling for utilisation by the municipal workers who also fulfilled the role of counsellors. Service designers from the University of Lapland fulfilled the roles of process mediators. Table 1 illustrates how each municipality has participated in the working process and at what period.The goal of the project was to find meaningful forms of participation despite the difficult social situations these men face. Development work was carried out by municipal workers who were able to reform existing municipal services for new and improved customer experiences. The project aimed to improve the participation rate of the target group through new experiences that strengthened self-worth and status of the participants as contributing and confident community members.