AALTO ARTS LIVING LAB: 2014

Debrief 15.01.14

General questions

What is the (underlying) Goal for LL (in Kalasatama)?Roope: big picture. Agile development of company services in the area. Democratisation of innovation process (people themselves are planning as well), key access to the publics to the planning process. Defining SmartCity concept along with LL work.
Frame (structure) for the ideas

What is the problem they want to solve?Roope: set up amount the activities running in the LL and SC projects. Set up portfolio of the projects. Collection of activities (possibilities)
Speed up innovation/development in the area.
Energy service
Transport service
Well-being center for Kalasatama residents
What is a successful example from abroad (a project that works in practice) that they could take as one to follow?Roope: we don’t have a focused team, therefore our focus is as broad as “everyday life of the people”. maybe this is why we lack the specific examples.
FoodLab can be an interesting case.Marjatta: Could “food” be one of the focus points of LL. Common kitchens, for exampleRoope: We start from people’s home, than streets and area. And in fact there is already a communal/common kitchen that you may rent. Arabianranta has common spaces now
Please, define ideal solution.
Are we expected to help in urban planning?Roope: Nope, urban planning is not a focus we expect from you, yet service suggestions and plans are the desired outcome. Concept more on the general hub/umbrella/space/place level, where smaller/sharp services can happen and be developed (e.g. Design Factory alike concepts).
Marjatta: We have 2 tasks: brand/identity and name. Should “LL” be a part of the name?

What are communities? What is our target community? Who should we benefit the most?Roope: We plan on 2 interfaces of the project depending on the side of the stakeholders: 1. people, 2. companies/developers.
Preferably the brand is same, yet it can be two different names.
Best approach is broad and “Helsinki LivingLab” is actually good enough, though might sound boring at first. “Bakeries” and “Factories” are used in other teams’ names already, so we have to go for another one.

Ideas that have been in the thinking: “Test users, VIP users, Beta users, Friends of Helsinki, Helsinki Developer, Future Co-Designers, VIP-kehittäjä, Stadin Kehittäjä, Tulevaisuuden Koekäyttäjä…”

Sara C.: If public knew about the creation of the LL, it would be the first stakeholder to join and develop the concept. So, perhaps this should be communicated first. Nina: Naming might have the collaboration involved in naming generativity all the time like: “LL x partner”. Everyone: Damn, Yeah!
Maria: It could be good to make openness for startups more visible, since now only big logos are seen.
Roope: More “Smart” and “Technical” stakeholders are going to be involved, especially in Kalasatama.

LL - service / should it be for their inner relations, for people employed and collaborators or founders? or it should be done for citizens to get engaged (or/and establish communication citizen-LL-founders)?
are users meant to be objects for testing or actors that generate content?
How the participants will be selected to livinglabs? - what are the communities you are dealing with and why?Roope: Gonna be hired during the spring from the city or university environment. Knowledge in the development field will become crucial for many projects. The core team of 3-7 people for about at least 3 first year to work on entire project. Professional skills (design development and “smart”) of these people should match the company stakeholder set.
Who are the existing/committed stakeholders/companies at kalasatama? - what are the key agents? - Are we going to work with them directly? - what are the budget shares of this project? - what are the exact expectations of the sponsors? in the process of working with the community, how are they connected and why do they participate in the project?Roope: Nearest cases are smart-homes, smart-living in Kalasatama. Other user-workshops are going to happen with health care center (in march), with elderly, other and other groups. In June we go for intelligent transport case. Plus some work with electricity that has no work with users immediately. Mobile service with healthcare is going the be tested too.
There will be focus group activities and testings on actual devices. We have done it in various ways before and there is no typical approach we take. For example smart housing is going to be located in one of the empty houses, where about 130 people will be invite to join workshop-ish activity. Note: The level of innovation is not going to be even among the new houses and it also depends on user perspective, how deep will development go.

We use Facebook group to pull people into the project, though this is not the very good way. We do not care much about demographics, but involve people interested in the topic of smart-house planning. For exercise activities we use center for youth located nearby (spoken presentation, show of the ready products). Smart house is about 0.5-2 days. Other activities are few hours. Some projects can have the weeks of span.

Some paper-mail spamming is an option.

Is there some more literature that could support us?Maria: imagination is more important than reference.
What kind of team there have been in the previous living labs and what kind of roles people had?Roope: IdeaLiikko in Herttoniemi.

Kalasatama

What do they already have? What won’t be changed and what is open to suggestions?
Statistics about Kalasatama? Demographics, zoning etc.Roope: We will try to find out, at the moment that are guesses and assumptions. Official answer that HKI demographics are wide and mixed. Slightly more international residents than in other new areas, some people coming from Kallio. Sara: Why would non-resident person visit the area? Roope: Naturally it is mostly for the residents, but neighbouring areas lack in services and the new Kalasatama will have a wider variety of them. For example basic cinema. The tourist flow will be driven by the new bridges. Iso(smth)silta: Kalasatama - Korkeasaari. Other ones: Kalasatama - center and Katajanokka - Korkeasaari. (about 2017-2020). Kalasatama becomes “the Zoo” subway stop.
Cycling will be first transportation mean designed in Kalasatama.
Maria: Will there be some particularly “attractive” architecture in the area?Roope: Hard to say. Not especially. Maria: You have mentioned new jobs to come. How many of them are actually “new” working places.Roope: Many.Marjatta: Art?Roope: Will be centralized. Maria: What about housing prices in the area?Roope: More than in Arabia, less than Kallio/center, even to Jätkäsaari? Variety will be large: public housing, expensive places, cheap ones etc.
What are the boundaries of the project? Should we focus on one of the future contexts in the area (residential, university area, commercial...) OR as a whole environment in relation to the other districts?Roope: We hope the brand to spread from the residential area into the physical space with branded objects (cups).
what could be the best place to start for creating user scenarios of future kalasatama (to define need for our living lab). Or should we just invent our idea of lab and trust our instincts? Can we think that waiting for a bus is boring and wasted time and we want to create LivingLab around that?
What are the likely problems/challenges we are going to face at kalasatama?Roope: Name is a challenge (Either very creative or “HLL”). smart, easy, fun. every day life. modern design thinking. No need to be meaningful. Neologism is possible. Finnish is possible, but easy to pronounce. (Example: Barcelona 5.0)
Guidelines for visual identity: Helsinki city. Helsinki emblem can be used (well, maybe not). It can look like Kalasatama logo. Maria: something with a more digital feeling. Smart. Compact. Variable identity is possible. Not a campaign, but something that will stay.

About the identity/approach of Helsinki LL:

Service design interfaces (design perspective). How does codesign looks like? How do the services fit in the picture? Not expected to think about business models. Out of the box (i.e. gamification). How to atract the users? Maria: more about communication (brand, visual identity).

How is currently Forum Virium promoting/communicating LL activities to the citizens? ( targeted users and not, before and after)See above
Can the process, possible stakeholders... be shared with the public in a way that HLL becomes an open platform? (promote autonomous creation of LL) — Living Lab needs to be clearly defined for all and most importantly be conveyed in a simple and understandable way. ex. Infography.Should be as open as possible.
Are we designing a platform in which the LL service could operate on? ex. hub to service points See above.
Can HLL organize workshops in order to co-ideate LLs with the public from the first steps? Bottom-up? Include the population in the beginning of the process. Basically consultation?
How will the service gonna function? If Living lab is a service, Who can use/hire the service and on what merits?Roope: Energy companies, Transport companies, SOK and few more startups are already in. Sasha: What do you promise to developer companies in exchange for the budget? Roope: It depends on the concept of the service and stages of the project (initially approach is wide). Marjatta: Someone mentioned it as a nesting space for new startups.
Is it only "Helsinki Living Lab" or we need to invent a payoff? (in the brief I read: "test users..."?????)

From what I could gather from class and some of my own ideas:

Statistics about Kalasatama? Demographics, zoning etc.
Are we expected to help in city planning?
What are communities? What is our target community?
What are the boundaries of the project?

Those are good ones! I would develope/add them little bit

Who should we benefit the most?
How the participants will be selected to livinglabs?
Who are the existing/committed stakeholders/companies at kalasatama? Are we goingto work with them directly?
what could be the best place to start for creating user scenarios of future kalasatama (to define need for our living lab). Or should we just invent our idea of lab and trust our instincts? Can we think that waiting for a bus is boring and wasted time and we want to create livinglab around that?
What are the likely problems/challenges we are going to face at kalasatama?
Are there some more literature that could support usRoope: some Product Development literature on methods can be very usefuls.
Brook has written quite a bit about how Open Innovation happens.
what kind of there have been in the previous living labs and what kind of roles people had?

About stakeholders/companies: can we develop a LL with alternative support ( private founds/ create a start-up/no-profit, kickstarter...)

About Kalasatama:

Should we focus on one of the future contexts in the area (residential, university area, commercial...) OR as a whole environment in relation to the other districts?

About the identity/approach of Helsinki LL:

How is currently Forum Virium promoting/communicating LL activities to the citizens? ( targeted users and not, before and after)
Can the process, possible stakeholders... be shared with the public in a way that HLL becomes an open platform? (promote autonomous creation of LL)
Can HLL organize workshops in order to co-ideate LLs with the public from the first steps?
Is it only "Helsinki Living Lab" or we need to invent a payoff? (in the brief I read: "test users..."?????)

THE DESIGN TASK

This Living Lab Service needs design on service identity, production mechanics, service levels and interaction, as detailed below. Actual deliverables of the Aalto project are detailed elsewhere on the material.

DESIGN IS NEEDED ON:

1.    Branding/ service identity
·      Visual identity and name. Starting point is “Helsinki Living Lab” – not only Kalasatama - it will expand later to other areas
Ideas that have been in the thinking: “Test users, VIP users, Beta users, Friends of Helsinki, Helsinki Developer, Future Co-Designers, VIP-kehittäjä, Stadin Kehittäjä, Tulevaisuuden Koekäyttäjä…”
·      There is lot of existing visual material. These should not be used, except for Helsinki City official logo and application of official visual identity, if that suits the concept. Kalasatama and/or “Smart” may or may not be part of the visuals.

2.    Service design concept
·      Design of the main service levels
·      How the services look to residents / people working in area?
o   VIP users/ “normal users”/ everyone living or working in area (different people probably want to do co-ideation and different people probably want to do product testing)
·      How the services look like to companies/universities/other developers of new things?
·      Service touchpoints and interaction design: this means e.g. digital, mobile, print (forms, letters, questionnaires) at testing venues, physical service point, NFC/window tag for testing venues, “customer cards”
·      Playful methods to engage users: e.g. “Home”, community, badges, scores, user levels, VIP-users, gamified to a reasonable extent (think of something like loyalty cards for airlines, but more fun and on steroids

Note: It needs to be easy, fun, engaging, attractive for everyone – including the elderly living in the Kalasatama elderly houses and people working in the Kalasatama shops and university students in the area.

Also, one group will continue detailing on visual design guidelines, refining logo, digital templates, refined prototypes of the artifacts.