Reframing the Paradox: Evidence-based Design and Design for the Public Sector

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Problematizing Evidence-Based Design: A Case Study of Designing for Services in the Finnish Government

Helena Sustar and Luke Feast

Aalto University, Finland

helena.sustar@aalto.fi

Keywords: evidence-based design; service design; design for public sector; epistemology

Abstract

The increasing complexity of design problems and degree of innovation required of design solutions today has led many authors to claim that decision making in design should be based on strong scientific evidence. However, current models of evidence-based practice are too simplistic for design since they tend to focus only on evidence strength. We investigate the role of evidence in service design through analysing a case study of creating a service design solution to improve immigration services in the Finnish public sector. By using a conceptual framework that emphasises the impact of different kinds of evidence on knowledge as justified true belief, we illustrate some of the different roles that evidence can play within the design process. The insights from the study indicate that relevant evidence is more useful than strong evidence during the early phases of the design process. 

This paper is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence.

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Cite this paper: Sustar, H. & Feast, L. (2016). Problematizing Evidence-Based Design: A Case Study of Designing for Services in the Finnish Government. Proceedings of DRS 2016, Design Research Society 50th Anniversary Conference. Brighton, UK, 27–30 June 2016.

This paper will be presented at DRS2016, find it in the conference programme


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