Users as co-designers in public services – Why and how users should be involved in public service design.

Jakob Trischler, Assistant Professor, CTF Service Research Center, Karlstad

Experio Lab is inviting to the Experio Seminars. Once a month we’ll invite interesting researchers to talk about service design, service logic and user-driven services in public sector.

Approaches such as ‘co-design’ and ‘co-creation’ have become increasingly popular in public services. The fundamental idea of these approaches is that service users should be actively involved in the service design process because as ‘experts of their experiences’ they can provide important insights into their needs. And some users even have ideas for better service solutions! However, user involvement is also accompanied by many challenges including issues around effective user identification, representative user selection, or facilitating a process that allows users to participate as equal participants. These issues are particularly true for public services dealing with complex problems, sensitive topics, or vulnerable user groups. During this seminar, I will present a number of research studies and findings where public service users were involved as co-designers. My presentation will focus on answering the questions of a) why users should be involved, and b) how users should be involved during public service design projects. An open discussion, including questions and reflections from all participants are welcome!

Recording from May 21st
(Users as co-designers i public services PDF presentation)

Jakob Trischler, Assistant Professor, CTF Service Research Center, Karlstad