Designing for value sensitive service in the public sector
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
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Author
Date
2020
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Master's Programme in Collaborative and Industrial Design
Language
en
Pages
95 + 4
Series
Abstract
Human values are reflected in every design artefact, yet values remain implicit in most design processes. In the last few decades, Value Sensitive Design (VSD) has been developed as an approach to technology design that formally addresses values in the design process in order to achieve ethical outcomes. Use cases of VSD mainly focus on product design, however cases of VSD applied to services and to design for public sector are emergent, such as in design of service robots (van Wynsberghe, 2016) and for health care (Yoo, 2018a). The high requirements for social benefit to be produced by design for public sector, and the fundamentally interactive nature of services, make public sector service design an excellent candidate for more extensive application of VSD to achieve ethical, beneficial public service outcomes. The objective of this thesis is therefore to explore the possibilities of combining approaches of VSD and Design for Service in the context of public services. To do so, research into service design for prisoner rehabilitation services, referred to as client development services, was conducted with Rikosseuraamuslaitos (RISE), the Criminal Sanctions Agency of Finland. To conduct this exploration, literature from the fields of design, service science, sociology, and psychology, as well as primary documents from RISE were reviewed. With the help of a translator, RISE client development staff from multiple organizational levels were interviewed using a value-oriented semistructured interview method (n=10), and RISE staff were engaged in ongoing conversation and reflection throughout the project. Mapping processes were used for both data collection and analysis. Reflexive methodology, a qualitative approach emphasizing reflection on interpretation, informed the research and analysis design of the thesis. Research findings indicate that a key challenge to designing public services with values is the complexity of multi-layered value systems at play in both the public sector and in service ecosystems. This thesis therefore applies a Design for Service approach as a framework to address such complexity, in particular the notion of using values to create service ecosystem conditions as opposed to designing specific service paths. In addition, the service science concept of value co-creation, combined with psychology research on values, offers a model of how values operate in service ecosystems to influence benefit co-creation. Theories of human values are compared to understand values as a material of design, and Care Ethics supply a normative ethical framework to the application of VSD, addressing two common criticisms of the VSD approach. These findings are applied to current service development for the new Hämeenlinna women’s prison to uncover (1) personal values are used extensively by RISE staff in planning and delivering rehabilitation services, but their use is almost entirely implicit and informal; (2) organizational values are explicitly stated but their use is limited; (3) values held among staff vary widely and affect their participation in service delivery, both positively and negatively; (4) RISE managers see potential benefit in addressing value conflicts as a way to support alignment of service quality, which they believe will also contribute to RISE’s ongoing organizational mindset shift from punishment to rehabilitation. Based on these findings, this thesis proposes a service ecosystem model for RISE that (1) makes visible the values implicated in the system; (2) addresses conflicting values through mapping; and (3) creates a set of guiding principles that make values actionable in prison services. Implementation is proposed in the experimental context of the new Hämeenlinna women’s prison, through a set of values mapping tools designed for RISE to use in training workshops with prison officers. The aims of this thesis are to provide insight into how Value Sensitive Design methods, applied through a Design for Service approach, can be used to daylight and resolve value conflicts that inhibit benefit creation in service ecosystems, and how attending to values in service design and delivery can support organizational transformation.Description
Supervisor
Uusitalo, SeveriThesis advisor
Solsona Caba, NuriaKeywords
value sensitive design, design for service, public sector design, transformation, care ethics, values mapping
