Design of a digital service platform for the public sector, using systems thinking and gamification to activate inclusiveness

The master thesis is part of “ODIN: Verktøy for samarbeid” a project initiated in NAV Grorud, in collaboration with Oslo Voksenopplæring (adult education service), Oslo Kommune (municipality) and other public actors inside and outside Oslo area. Project manager, mentor and heart of this project is Eva Hugenschmidt, service designer at NAV Grorud. I had the luck to meet Eva during my internship at Bydel Grorud (district) and be part of this project ever since.

My role and contribution to the project are found primarily within the service and system design thinking, methodology development, gamification, visualization and prototyping.

Abstract

People are unable to efficiently, use, contact or keep up with the public services, due to low digital skills, amount of information channels and the complexity of the system. These factors need to be taken into consideration when conceiving digitalization strategies, so that everyone regardless of cultural or skill set limitations, can be able to participate equally within our social system.

This project followed a system oriented approach and service design and gamification methodologies, with the aim to develop an inclusive digital platform for activation and thus help the collaboration between people and the public system. In its early prototype stage, the use of the platform showed positive effects in employees’ and clients’ activation and workflow. A design approach like this, can strengthen platformization strategies and deal with complexity in a holistic way.

Aims and objectives

This thesis is concerned with digital inclusion and closing the gap for people with basic and limited digital skills, but also touches the aspect of gratification and activation when using digital platforms. Additionally, because this thesis is part of a bigger project in the public sector, it includes the objectives of the government’s digitalization strategies, which are:

• The public sector is to be accessible online to the extent possible
• Web-based services are to be the general rule for the public sector’s communication with citizens and businesses
• A digital public sector is to result in improved services
• Digitization of the public sector is to free up resources for areas in need of more resources

It is important to pinpoint that, Inclusive design here is used as a theoretical backbone for promoting quality through the project development and user research, in other words, a framework of design values to ensure the inclusion of the stakeholders and the application of user sensitive practices. Therefore, having inclusive design as this project’s backbone, not only ensures the active involvement of end users and their perspectives, but dispatches any concerns about treating inclusive design as an additional modification, somewhere towards the end of the design method or patronizing it as just an extra add-on of the process.

Research question

Our purpose is to bridge the gap between people and the public services by creating a pleasant and interactive platform for communication, conversation and self-improvement, whilst offering an overview of the whole system. A tool, that can be used by both the people and the public system to communicate, review, build trust and plan the future together.

“How can Service design, by the use of System oriented approach and Gamification to contribute to a more inclusive user communication with Norwegian Labour and Welfare Service and Adult Education through a digital platform”