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The Third Place
User Inspired Design research with elderly women in Finland.
Read or download the Third Place Project report here 
The Kolmas Paikka Projekti - the Third Place Project - was part of
the User Inspired Design module at the University of Art and Design
Helsinki during the Autumn term 2009.
The Master level project spanned nine weeks. The five student
groups involved were given the open ended topic of ‘Piazza' to explore
and derive a research focus from. An important part of User Inspired
Design process is to first ask, What should be designed? as apposed to
starting with a predefined design brief. The early stages of the
module were intended to accustom the students with the resultant
feeling of uncertainty.
Our group explored the Helsinki
Metropolitan area and conducted
a literature review on public urban
space. We soon focussed on the
issue of integrating the elderly into
public life.
A user study group of 6 elderly
women from Tapiola, Espoo
was arranged. We worked very
closely with these 6 women on the
remainder of the project. Through
this process we were able to gather
a large amount of qualitative data
and a feeling of empathy for the
users that would later influence our
concept work.
Methods used for our data gathering
included observation, interview,
focus groups and, perhaps most
significantly design probe kits that
allowed the user to respond to our
questions freely, creatively and in
the privacy of their own homes.
Our insights on the women,
collected thanks to this strong
relationship, gave us invaluable
inspiration for design concepts that
could benefit their local area.
As a form of co-creation we
returned to Tapiola several times
after the research phase to seek
feedback on our concepts. This
iteration was key to creating a
meaningful solution that was
justified by our research.
To present our ideas to the user
group and UIAH Design Research
Lab we created a rich array
of user profiles, scenarios and
visualisations.
The project was selected for an exhibition
on Design in Finland in the Finnish Pavillion
at the Shanghai World Expo 2010.
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