Human-centred design in the public sector: Case study on designing a traffic congestion payment system for the city of Munich

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Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Perustieteiden korkeakoulu | Master's thesis

Authors

Date

2021-10-18

Department

Major/Subject

Human-Computer Interaction and Design

Mcode

SCI3020

Degree programme

Master's Programme in ICT Innovation

Language

en

Pages

68 + 14

Series

Abstract

This thesis attempts to make a case for using human-centred design for the purpose of innovating within the public sector. First, an in-depth literature survey is conducted to identify the state-of-the-art, current trends and systems in place for using design in the public sector for the purpose of innovation. Capitalizing on the trend of collaboration between public sector organizations and designers, this thesis is done in collaboration with the city of Munich to solve a problem that affects Munich widely today- traffic congestion. The entire human-centred design process from user research, to iterative design and testing, is followed in order to identify user needs and design a product that relieves user pains and also adheres to the constraints of the problem owners. The human-centred methods used in this thesis include interviews, surveys, ideation workshops, landing page experiments, prototyping, and user testing. In order to understand the impact of collaborating with a designer, interviews are conducted with two actors- one from the city of Munich and one from a private sector partner. The main impact is reported to be the ability of human-centred processes to unearth insights in aspects that traditional problem solving had neglected so far. These aspects include a new way of implementing citizen participation and ensuring accountability and transparency about the expenditure of the congestion charge.

Description

Supervisor

D'Andrea, Vincenzo

Thesis advisor

Nieminen, Mika

Keywords

public sector innovation, design thinking, service design, traffic congestion, product design, human-computer interaction

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Citation

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202110249710

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[dipl] Perustieteiden korkeakoulu / SCI