How do you do Helsinki

User Inspired Design 2016 | Aalto University | Collaborave and Industrial Design
Group 9: Marjo Koivisto, Sara Goschalk, An Ruuhijrvi, Ford Wang
Introducon
This document reports on our project outcomes and
progress for the User Inspired Design course which took
place in fall 2016 at Aalto University. Key methods used
within this course are human centered design as well as
collaborave design.

Throughout the course we were able to enjoy a variety of

lectures dealing with ethnography, user experience, empa-
thy design and co-design to interacon design, usability
and jusce & accessability. Part of the lectures were oen
supporve assignments that were supposed to help us
grow within the elds of human centered design and colla-
borave design.

Following, we want to share our nal work as well as

processes and especially learnings. Six Artefacts provide
the frame for deeper reecon on the project. We will
share special experiences, insights and visual material that
helped us to develop our idea.
Project Frame
The topic of this years course was Social Innova-
on and gave us quite a wide spectrum for deciding
on a project topic.
Six artefacts, that were always due on fridays,
served as a guideline throughout the whole
course. The artefacts are an invitaon for a co-de-
sign workshop, the workshop staging material, a
story introducing the project idea, a chart descri-
bing the project in more detail, an image visuali-
zing the rst dra of the idea and a nal proposal.
Aer the rst weeks, where we were introduced
to ethnographic eldwork and thus also engaged
in a lot of observaon, we decided on the follo-
wing research queson for our team:
How can the people of Helsinki be empowered
during their everyday roune, to creavely
express themselves and their ideas to create a
more social and parcipave urban environ-
ment?
The key problem from which this queson origi-
nates is our realizaon that within urban life oen
people feel like they are living in a bubble. They
are only supercially connected to their city or
other cizens and oen, because of hecc lives,
they are holding back their emoons and inner
desires.
Therefore, we agreed to work towards a soluon
for the people of Helsinki.
Based upon the research queson we kept wonde-
ring about what type of interacon it could be that
would help people to connect and when and where
it could be best applied. From the observaons we
gathered, two key terms shaped our early work:
speechless and empty me.
Speechless originated from the train of thought
that we want to help people connect and express
themselves. We realized that the best connecons
Key Problem
Key Problem
Lack of Self-Expression (Societal
factor)
Feeling lile connecon to the city (Urban
factor)
are done when we are not forced to talk, such as
while engaged into an acvity or hobby. Creang
circumstances for people to engage without spea-
king then seemed like a great thought.
Further, when we observed the railwaystaon in
the centre of Helsinki, we realized that these, as we
call it, empty times throughtout the days are
causing many people unease. We have to wait at a
cold bus stop or spend an hour at the train staon
in between commutes. Why not use these mes to
help people engage with something that would
connect them further to the city and their peer
cizens?
With these thoughts and this project frame in mind
we now got started.
Vision, Mission, Strategy
Help people to connect with
their city and peer cizens
Creang a plaorm for people Targeng the empty me
to share thoughts and meet throughout the me and busy
casually meeng points
The Invitaon
The Invitation Artefact helped us to specify our
project goal and area. Further, we needed to decide
on a name and identity that would properly repre-
sent us and our project plan. This invitation was
adressed to participants (people of Helsinki) for our
co-design workshop.

Workshop
Invitation
How do you do Helsinki
Letting social city life flourish
through participatory art and projects
Dear Helsinki citizens, resi-
dents and visitors,
We invite you to come share and Forget chitchat or small talk. No
explore with us possible ways of how need to go out of your way for this
Helsinki peoples emotional either!
well-being can be improved.
Together with you, we want to
You are an important part of this city explore in what ways you could feel
and your opinion and feelings do more heard and seen in the city!
matter and there should be space How would you express yourself?
and opportunity for you in everyday Please tell us more and let this
life to express exactly that! project come alive.
During the workshop
Beverages and small snacks will be
served to keep our brains swimming
and your participation will be rewar-
ded with a small gift as a token of
gratitude. The workshop will be held
in English & Finnish.
Please note that information gathered
during the workshop might be published
or used later for further research purpo-
ses. All information will be handled
anonymously.
Who are we?
We are a team of master level
students majoring in Collaborative
and Industrial Design. This project is
part of a university course, and we
would like to make it reality, together
with you!
Thank you!
Kutsu ideapajaan
Olemme tiimi Aalto yliopiston muo-
toilun maisteriopiskelijoita, ja teem-
me projektia jossa mietimme mah-
dollisia tapoja edist helsinkilisten
hyvinvointia luovuuden keinoin. Jr-
jestmme ideapajan jossa mietimme
mahdollisia keinoja ja sen aikana
tarjoamme virvokkeita sek pient
purtavaa pitksemme mielen
virken. Ideapaja on hyv mahdolli-
Wednesday
28. September
17:00 -19:00
Arabia
Hmeentie 135A
Helsinki
Contact
Kindly email us for more questions
and to confirm your participation
latest 26.09.2016 to either
marjo.koivisto@aalto.fi or
sara.gottschalk@aalto.fi
Marjo, Sara, Antti, Ford
suus tavata uusia ihmisi, ideoida ja
pit hauskaa! Olet erittin tervetul-
lut ideapajaamme, ja osoitamme
kiitollisuutemme pienell lahjalla.
Ilmoitathan tulostasi viimeistn
26.9.2016 shkpostilla osoittee-
seen marjo.koivisto@aalto.fi. Vas-
taamme mys mielellmme kysy-
myksiinne, tervetuloa typajaan!

Reecon
Due to a ght me plan we were struggeling with
creang this invitaon artefact. It felt that we
needed to have more me to discuss our project
direcon and goals and therefore we ended up
re-doing our rst version of the invitaon.
While we were yet focusing on the speechless
idea in the rst version, we quickly adjusted and
opened up the topic a bit. Designing an invitaon
for a co-design workshop was new to all of us, but
in the end we were content with the outcome.
Also, trying to come up with a name and logo
helped us to focus on what the core of our project
would be. The name How do you do Helsinki was
created for two reasons: rst, we felt that our
core message was to improve the daily well-being
of Helsinki cizens, and second, Helsinki could be
replaced with any other city to scale this project.
At that moment already we tried to look at our
possibilies and wanted to design for as big inu-
ence as possible, in a simple but inspiring way.
While handing out the invitaons in person in and
around Arabia campus (we knew that we would
hold the workshop at Arabia campus and decided
to invite people from around to make sure that
they wouldnt have to arrive from too far), many
Key Learning
Ethnographic
Field Work
Through the observaon task, we
became more aware of our known
surrounding and realized, that when
one is intenonally observing, even if
the environment is familiar, one
suddenly perceives a huge amount of
new impressions. Especially the sound
sense opens up another new sphere.
We also learned, that when we were
given a specic goal, that it becomes
easier to get meaningful informaon
out of the eldwork.
Aer the observing task, I noced that
I started to pay more aenon to the world around me in my
everyday life as well. As before if I was waing for the train,
or commung home, I just scrolled my phone and listened to
music with my headphones, but now, I just sit and listen to
voices, watch people coming and going and look at the
environment in general. Of all the supporng tasks we did,
this was the most valuable for me.
- Marjo
Say Do Make
For the Say-Do-Make morning assignment we spent
quite some me interviewing people and discussing
with another. When then presenng our ndings, we
realized that we had absolutely forgoen to do the DO
part, the observaon of people with presbyopia.
This showed us that we had not understood the method
well enough, but through experiencing our wrongdoing
in the feedback round, the message and concept stuck
even beer aer. And we learned that this method is of
quite some value and brings deep insights into user
behavior.
SAY DO
Interview Observation
We prepared a sample probe for a probe kit for a parcipants use, which was quite an excing task!
Key Learning
emoons were now inuencing our own wellbeing.
It was new to us to approach people and ask for
their help, without being able to give something
back right away. Also, how could we approach them
so that they would listen to us for at least 1 minute?
We learned that it would be important to have a
couple of key sentences ready as well as some
candy to be able to catch peoples aenon.
As our topic was aiming at people from all dierent
types of backgrounds and age groups, we were
luckily able to invite indeed a variety of dierent
MAKE people to our workshop. One person, a city desig-
ner, was invited by email and despite him being
Probes quite busy, he managed to make me for us. This
was very surprising to us, because it had seemed
like a big challenge to ask people to come help us
and give us me without a clear benet. But we
were pleasantly amazed and then quite movated
to thank them by creang a wonderful workshop
expierence.
Further, creang an invitaon with the parcipant
in mind was also a new experience for some of us.
Normally we would address that topic with a desig-
ners view in mind, but here we tried to focus on
the users from the very beginning.
Staging
To be able to effectively create great content through
a Co-design workshop, the used workshop agenda
and material has to be well-prepared, and in the best
case tested as well. Luckily we were able to do so
before holding the real workshop.
 Key Learning

Preparaon Material Testing

Preparing and thinking through a workshop
setup is not the same as actually walking through Organizing a workshop is one maer, but Based on that tesng we developed
the workshop with people who have never seen preparing the tools and material that is our own workshop material within
your project before. used within it is another whole world. two days and were then able to test
We were quite lucky to be able to test it with our classmates. It was
We realized the importance of a great workshop two type of workshop materials during excing to see how quickly mistakes
for the general project outcome. A lot was at one of our aernoon classes. The mate- became visible and what type of
stake especially since we had managed to invite rial that we tested was the Customer material would be needed instead.
quite enthusiasc people to help us collect ideas Journey Canvas and the Atlas game. This
on this topic. gave us valuable insights on what works We received very helpful feedback
When we tested the rst dra of our material well and what may take too much me from our test parcipants as well as
with peer students, we quickly noced how com- to explain the material within a work- the lecturers.
plex our inial material was. It took us quite some shop.
me to explain as well as for them to make sense
of our material. We had prepared card for them
to choose answers to specic quesons that we
asked, but the number of cards was too overwhel-
ming. Seeing other groups material was aer-
wards a great source of inspiraon because we
were able to noce what worked and what didnt,
and how we ourselves felt which being part of
their workshop. Based on these tesng outco-
mes, we adjusted our material once more.

Yet, as we had to admit, it takes quite some me

to create beauful and eecve workshop propes
and for future workshops we will have to calcula-
te much more me to develop them.
The Workshop

Warm-up
Out of 9 people invited, 4 people This warm-up went quite well and
showed up including the city designer. we learned how quite a few of the
Other parcipants were a design parcipants were somehow seeking
student from Aalto, a 70-year old the connecon or re-discovery of
Finnish lady and an IT student. their childhood acvies in the
current daily life.
We started our workshop with an easy
warm-up where the parcipants had to
draw or write up to three things that
they loved to do when they were kids on
their name tags.
Acvity 1

Within the rst Acvity we then wanted to know more about our par-
cipants days. As we had learned in the tesng phase, it is beer to ask
about a specic day then an average day, as no such thing as an avera-
ge day exists.
The parcipants were quite diligent with lling in the informaon. It
was also fascinang to see how the IT student meculously wrote
down every single ny acvity and how our 70-year old didnt know
how to put her emoonal curve, because she felt happy at all mes. Of
course, also depending on age and profession, the daily acves look
quite dierent. We took some valuable insight away from this acvity.
Acvity 2
Aer learning about their days we
wanted to learn more about the
empty times that the parcipants
experienced during their day. What
do they do and what would they
love to do instead?
We had prepared improved cards
for them to use to think about alter-
nave acvies while waing or
wasng me. Also, they were
allowed to dream the unimaginable
and just share their stories and
thoughts.
From this acvity we learned that
our material gave a nice starng
point for them to imagine their
empty mes nicer.
for our project.
Brainstorming
Aer having collected rst ideas about planned it to be quite dierent, but
what our parcipants would want to do ended up wring on post its on our
while waing, we now entered a more own, which was the best opon at the
free conversaon about the topic and me. We had to ask relevant quesons
what would be possible to implement. to get some more ideas out of the par-
The parcipants came up with many cipants. Yet, the outcome was quite rich
relevant examples of what they have and to our surprise, we were able to
seen somewhere else and we were able nish the workshop in me!
to collect plenty of thoughts and ideas
The thank you gis came as a big surpri-
se to the parcipants and made them
Reecng on that special task we had leave with a smile.
 Key Learning

Reecon WORKSHOP
What did we learn from the workshop?

First of all, none of us had organized such a work- One of the things we learned when them give us informaon.
shop before nor invited people for one. It was preparing materials for our workshop For most of us, organizing a work-
hence a great opportunity of learning. Preparing was that it takes a lot of eort to actually shop was something totally new, so
took much more me than expected but it was prepare one in a way that would allow us the experience gave us many things
sll a great outcome. The parcipants were rather to achieve our goals and get precisely to consider besides trying to achieve
happy and we gathered lots of valuable informa- the informaon we need. Also, as co-de- our design goals. Such things include
on. sign workshops are about ulizing the making the parcipants feel comfor-
creavity of the parcipants, the work- table, controlling the dynamics of
For future workshops we do have collected a few shop co-design tools have to be dierent people and appreciang
things that we would want to approach dierently designed in a way that boosts the parci- their own backgrounds and mentali-
or now with a changed mindset. pants creavity and actually makes es, and asking the right quesons
them come up with possible soluons to to keep the creave juices owing.
Looking back we could have prepared the work- our problems instead of only having
shop material such as the collage and the meline
a bit nicer. Also, it would be valuable to think
about the types of parcipants and how we could
possibly split them into two groups, such as
experts and potenal users. Pablo, the city desig-
ner, parcipated rather as a normal user instead
of thinking from his designerly point of view. By
the end of the workshop he shared some more
expert like knowledge.

We spent quite some me in arranging the work-

shop plus catering and prepang gis for parci-
pants. The eort was absolutely worth it. Sll,
some of the material prepared was not used such
as the markers and that shows that a lot of experi-
ence is necessary to design eecve workshops.
Organizing a real Co-design workshop is yet
another level. At the stage that we were in our
project, this workshop was rather to gather rst
impressions and ideas about our parcipants
days. To organize a workshop were they would be
able to come up with truly innovave ideas and
thoughts, the setup would have to be more speci-
c and pre-assignments for them to reect on
should be given before the workshop happens. In
general a longer cooperaon with them would be
benecial.
Right aer the workshop we organized the ideas
and thoughts on post its and started to categorize
them as well as analyze them. Unfortunately, we
were running out of me and didnt spend as much
me with analyzing the ndings as we should have.
We may have missed valuable informaon and that
may have limited us in nding a more innovave
soluon. For the future that would denitely have
to be improved. This lack of analyzaon also caused
us a bit of a set-back because we were oen sll
discussing about the basic idea and rules of our
project.

All in all we learned a lot about how to treat the

parcipants and how to make them feel comfor-
table. Also, it is a great amount of eort and the
diligent preparaon of the material is crucial to
this eort being worth it. In our case and our
project, we may not even have needed to do this
workshop, because our topic did not necessarily
require it, but it was a great learning experience.
The Story
After having collected ideas and thoughts from our
workshop participants and putting these in catego-
ries, we were ready to imagine our project in more
detail. A story was developed to show a possible jour-
ney that a user of our product would experience and
where and how this person would interact with it.
Lisa moved to Helsinki because of work, she got a great opportunity > ^
to work in the company, with high chance to be really successful. Lisa 


feels really lonely.


> K  >          When suddenly
 
&>

K        >  >^ >
 >

> >

d> > >


 K>

Reecon
By making the story arfact, we made our wall
idea more tangible and making it helped us to see
our concept through the eyes of the user, and to
specify it. The illustrated story also made it easier
for us to communicate our concept to others. As
we nalized the story we also came up with our
concepts nal core idea and goals:

Make people feel that theyre not alone with

their thoughts and problems, that their feelings
and opinion really maer and they are heard.
Make people feel connected.
The Chart
Now that we were clear about the type of project, a
wall installation, we continued to collect all crucial
data and show their relation and connection to ano-
ther.
 Targeted EMPTY TIME Targeted EMPTY TIME Targeted EMPTY TIME

HOME CITY INTERACTION WORK CITY INTERACTION LEISURE CITY INTERACTION HOME

BUS Stop Meeng a friend Railway staon

Acvity
Waing for bus In the bus Waing for bus Waing for friend Waing for train In the train

Doing Staring at other people. Looking around. Listening to music. Playing with phone.

Feeling Cold. Bored. Freezing. Annoyed. Restless. Impaent. Tired. Exhausted. Stressed. Hungry. Scared.

I wish the bus was Why is he staring I need to buy This person looks I wish I had a I wish I could do s I wish I could use this I wish I could Everyone seems
Thinking
coming NOW. at me. gloves soon. interesng. shower now. ome exercises now. me instead of wasng it. work right now. to out of place.

Too bad I forgot I wish I could sit I had such a hard day. I am so hungry. This drunk person This rush hour
my headphones. down somewhere. I am so stressed. is scary. is always too busy.

Too short amount of me to Waing space doesnt Too cold/windy to do what I Too loud and crowded Not accepted to talk to One is supposed to
Pain Points do something meaningful. allow me to work or do need to do, in winter. to do something meaning- strangers. be quiet and wait silently.
what I want to do. ful.

Create acvies for short Space to inspire and Create warm waing space. Make it acceptable. Create opportunies to
Opportunity amount of me. surprise people. break the silence.

This chart shows a sample day with possible inter-
acons throughout a day with the city and within
this persons empty me. It is an overview and
special focus was put to the doing, feeling,
thinking and especially onto the pain points and
then opportunies.
Here, an interesng discovery was made: even
though one of our team members had had experi-
ences with this type of map before, we realized
once again the power of wring down paint points
and deriving from that possibly opportunies.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to elaborate this
process and apply it onto the project, but it was
aer all a valuable reminder.
In the journey map we tried to explain two dierent
ways of usage with simple images. The one on the
top shows how individuals can interact with our
wall and share their feelings. The journey map
below shows how we could also collaborate with
organizaons or Helsinki city. In that map Lisa
writes a good idea to the wall, and a Helsinki citys
responsible then contacts us to get to know who
wrote it, and we use social media such as Facebook
to get to that person.

The problem here can be that we might not reach

the person or someone who didnt write it contacts
us, so we sll have to develop the idea.
 Relaxaon Cizens iniate & design

Self-Exploraon
Inspiraon
Expression Social Sponsors empowerment
INDIVIDUAL INTERACTION Wellbeing SERIOUS COLLABORATION
Fun
PERSONAL QUESTION Inuence PUBLIC/CITY QUESTION
How do you do short term Connecng with peers Fruiul Ideas parcipatory
longterm
Helsinki

Observing wall happenings First interaction

During the empty times of the day First Interacon Collaboraon

Public Waiting Spaces | Busy Public Spaces

Primary Users City/ organisaon collaboraon Ongoing collaboraon
Citizens & residents of Helsinki
Noticing wall first time Bus,Tram, Train Stop Park | Library
Secondary Users Railway Station City Hall
First connection Peer cizen collaboraon Self-lead projects
Visitors of Helsinki, passive users
Word of mouth with peer citizens
By chance
Through social media
Through media

Continuous interacton
with peer citizens

Within the product-user interacon chart we are

showing how the user of the product uses it indivi-
dually and how potenal higher cooperaon
could be achieved.

Through the lecturers feedback and seeing the

other groups charts, we understood the purpose
of the chart beer and were able to adjust them
as well as our project direcon.

Feeling disconnected | Lack of self awareness Feeling heard | Feeling connected to feelow cizens
and expression Project Interacon
and city
Reecon
Creang a meaningful and convincing chart that
shows the products relaons and key points was
harder than we expected. Especially the rich
picture and Gig map were appealing to us, but we
struggeled to create one for our project. Also,
through working on the chart and journey we
noced trouble spots and points were we would
have to catch up on some work.

We were quite impressed by the other groups

visual charts but sll didnt know how to trans-
form our content in a more visual, analogy kind of
form.

The feedback that we received during that friday

aernoon workshop session was quite valuable.
We learned to see that including companies in our
concept would be a paradox to our inial core
vision and also interfer with the planned city
cooperaon. Hence, we took the companies out of
the picture and then focused more on cizens and
possible city collaboraon.
The Image
While preparing the image artefact, we had to make big decisi-
ons: how will our product look like? How and why will it be arran-
ge this or that way. Having to make these decisions eventually was
the key for shaping our project in the right direcon.
 THE PRESENT SPACE
How do you do Helsinki
THE PRESENT SPACE at Pasila station allows daily commuters to have a less painful and more
inspiring waiting time. Passers-by are invited to enter THE PRESENT SPACE to become mindful,
express their thoughts and stories and connect with other peer citizens in a natural way.
THE PRESENT SPACE can appear in many different and similar forms and places around Helsinki
city and it never stays the exact same for more than a week. The available activities may vary as
well, but the key elements such as shown in this image and sample space stay consistent.

The talkative bench

Through a physical speech bubble, people are
invited to sit and talk about a specific topic. Here,
a joke should be shared. Other invites such as
"Im open for a conversation" or "share a story
with me" will pop up as well.

Connecting through music

Several headphones are available and invite Feelings of a city Wall
the passers-by to sit and take a break. The
speciality here is, that only one channel can This wall invites passers-by to share their
be selected and if one person changes the thoughts in form of writing or drawing. Others
channel, the other people will also notice can be inspired by just reading the written
the change and may start talking. phrases, feelings and thoughts. They may also
reply to things that have been written.

s
on

ve r s a t i
on
rc
fo
en
op
m
Ia
The floor communicates
The colorful floor indicates that whoever enters this space is open
for conversation or meeting a stranger. Just moving ones body
into the space and interacting with the available objects can
allow stranngers to meet.
Decision making
To be able to come up with a proper concept we
observed Pasila staon to decide which area
would t our project. This was quite valuable and
helped us to imagine our wall in context.
Also, due to the feedback we had goen before
we realized that we needed something more than
just a plain wall. It seemed too easy and that
thought somehow stuck. Yet, we werent sure
how to make it more complex. While working on
the image though it was easier to see what could
work or what couldnt.
To reframe our idea and zoom out a bit, we came
up with the idea of The Present Space, which was
focusing more on the feeling that we wanted to
create. Aer the feedback that same friday we
realized that there was too much going on and
that improving the wall itself would be key,
instead of adding more acvies. Also the idea of
making it more of an installaon or pop-up art
caught our aenon.
We started to work with 3D modeling next to
working on the actual 2D image. We tried and
discussed a lot, which was quite a precious phase
in our project. Even though it may have been the
roughest phase, it provided us with the biggest
impact.
The selecon of locaon is the rst thing we did
and its important to have a proper locaon choice
because a typical locaon can clearly show what
people need there so that in the image our contri-
buons can be more plausible.
We discussed a lot about how to arrange the art
installaons of our project, including the speech
bubble bench, music sharing area, and the wall in
Pasila staon. We were happy at rst that we integ-
rated dierent types of installaons that we brain-
stormed weeks before into one and divided them
into 4 levels, so that people can have more choices
and maybe make progress each me they go to the
staon.
However, aer a team discussion we decided to
narrow down the number of installaons, elimina-
ng the music secon and speech bubble bench, to
make it more focused on the wall concept. In this
way, it is less entertaining and like pop-up art,
which is appealing to people.
TEAM WORK
Team work. And communicaon. Within
our team, nding the right ow was a
challenge. Since we all came from die-
rent backgrounds, but didnt have the
opportunity to learn about each other
before starng the project, we kept
struggeling a bit. Even though it is a
normal process, only half way through
the projct we had major insights into
each others pre-expectaons and backg-
round experiences. It was fascinang to
learn that not only the elds we came
from were dierent but also the way of
working.
Luckily, through lots of quesons and
discussions we eventually solve it!
Digging deeper and deeper and
trying to nd out why our communi-
caon was not working eciently
enough was key. During the IMAGE
Artefact work we needed to make
urgent decisions and suddenly there
were those moments of exchange
and deep insights.
Aer that team work became much
easier and it was more fun to work
on the project and master the last
days and steps.
The Proposal
Our nal prototype was prepared as a 3D model and implemen-
ted in the Pasila surrounding. A rst dra for a second model of
our wall installaon was prepared for a library surrounding.
 1. 2. 3.
Art Wall Feelings Secrets of
and thoughts Helsinki

How do you do
Helsinki
The How do you do Helsinki wall installation is a
platform for people to share their thoughts and some
of their secrets to each other in an anonymous way.
Seeing into other peoples thoughts, concerns, personal
lives and dreams gives passersby a glimpse under the
hood of Helsinki, which will foster the sense of emotio-
nal connection people have with the city in general.
Finalizing
The key form that our nal wall installaon has
received originated from an interesng train of
thought. Before, we were discussing about how to
make the wall and the content more appealing
and we tried to rst think about current ways how
people express themselves during their daily lives.
We thought about public toilets that almost
always carry wrien sayings on the inside of the
toilet cabins. People feel the need to express
themselves or communicate with other toilet
users, so to say. It seemed like a funny thought
and we tried to develop that idea further. The next
thing we then came up with was sharing secrets
and how that is also part of friendship. In fact,
thinking about what makes friendships so special
and how we feel connected throughout our days,
such as sharing a smile with a stranger about
something that doesnt directly concern both of
them, helped us to understand the key situaon
beer.
Regarding the wall we then thought about a
secret room where you could share your inmate
stories and hence foreward the shape of the wall
installaon evolved. In seems hard to retrace
every thought that we had but eventually we
were all quite happy with the nal shape of this
installaon.
When we thought about the dierent public outsi-
de parts of the installaon and the secret inside
part we started to collect all our thoughts from
before and somehow manage to include the key
parts in this new installaon. Thus, we ended up
with three parts that would be ng to the Pasila
surrounding.
Depending on where other type of wall installa-
ons would be set-up, the content would then also
change. For example, connued stories could be a
topic for a library surrounding, which we have impl-
remented as a rst dra, yet always keeping the
secret part for the inside of the installaon.
The content of the wall installaon would also vary
from week to week and a city employee or How do
you do Helsinki employee would be responsible for
documenng the wrien messages as well as
cleaning the walls to make space for new content
on a weekly basis.
For the proposal, we tried to create an appropria-
te form of the wall.
We looked at the wall and thought that the inside
wall can also be ulized as a secret sharing secon,
because it forms a kind of private space for people
to write down their secrets.
Based on that, we cut a corner of the square wall,
making a one-person wide gap for people to walk in
and write secrets. And the outside wall can be the
public area where every passersby can share
thoughts and express themselves.
We are sased with the form of the wall, since it
makes our concept more comprehensive and consi-
derate.
The process of making the prototype in 3D model
and photoshop is a lot of fun, especially when we
are wring secrets, we laughed at each others
secrets. And for the form of the wall, somemes
we think its beer to simplify things rather than
thinking too much.
The How do you do Helsinki installaon in Pasila
staon - the outside walls invite to share current state
of minds and some creave drawing (back side).

The inside part allows for sharing ones deepest

secrets but have enough privacy while sharing.

The benches allows visitors to sit and read or start a

conversaon with a stranger.
People are invited to share their thoughts on the
inside or outside of the installaion, or to just read
through wrien messages and enjoy.
No maer how old or young, everyone is invited to
take part and take a break from hecc life.
Our second proposal (draft) is located in Arabia
Library. In this proposal, we invite people to write a
shared story together on the exterior wall. On the
interior walls people can write down their secrets.
Our walls content changes depending on the
location. Stories fit nicely to the environment.
Outlook
Overall, the project was going through quite a lot of ups and downs, mostly
because of team communicaon issues and dierent expectaons that were
hard to understand in the beginning and even throughout working together.

To some, the contecnt of the course was very new, to others it wasnt which had
created dierent project expectaons. Yet, overall we all learned plenty. Many of
the methods were rather useful and broadened our horizons for how to appro-
ach social innovaon problems in new and dierent ways as to what we had
been used to.

If we decided to connue this project, we could imagine to get in contact with

the City of Helsinki or Helsinki Lab to collaborately work on this idea and possibly
build upon already available concepts that they are about to implement.

The idea of the wall seemed quite simple when we started out the project, but
the idea behind it kept being developed in a thorough way. While preparing cont-
ent for the prototype installaon our idea took greater shape and we had quite
some fun wring down our own secrets or what other peoples secrets could be.
Therefore, we believe that users of the installaon will feel similar.
Thank you
We thank our professors and lecturers for great
insights into the presented design topics as well
as for their construcve feedback throughout
the course.

User Inspired Design 2016

Aalto University | Collaborive and Industrial Design
Group 9: Marjo Koivisto, Sara Goschalk, An Ruuhijrvi, Ford Wang
28.10.2016