Ane Bast's thesis is titled "Designing public services for and with vulnerable users: A case study of a 'dementia village'."
In her work, she has explored service design as a tool for innovation in public services. Service design can be described as a creative and collaborative method where services are developed through testing and adjustment in collaboration with users.
The study is based on the establishment of a “dementia village” in a Norwegian municipality.
"The initiative aims to enable people with dementia to live as normally as possible within safe and supportive surroundings", says Ane Bast.
The concept is inspired by a model from the Netherlands but has been translated and adapted to the Norwegian context. The research followed the planning and implementation of the project over a five-year period.
"People living with dementia may have a limited ability to express their needs, which makes it challenging to involve them directly in service development. The study examines how such involvement can be realised, the role of frontline employees in this process, and the challenges that arise when new solutions must be adapted to existing rules and organisational structures", says Bast
It also shows that design and development work continues after services are launched if new solutions are to become embedded in practice.
"The findings are relevant beyond dementia care, particularly in areas where users are in dependent or asymmetrical relationships with public service systems, such as labour and welfare services, child protection, and integration services, says Ane Bast.
The main findings of the doctoral research:
Strengths of service design:
- Service design enables reflection and shared learning. The processes enabled staff and managers to question established routines and ways of organising their work, and to develop a shared understanding of what good care entails.
- Vulnerable users can be included in service design when processes and methods are adapted to their circumstances and when safe, trusting relationships are established.
- The study highlights the central role of frontline employees as a link between users and the organisation. Frontline employees interpreted needs, represented users’ perspectives and translated experiences into practice.
- Service design can strengthen the link between development and implementation when design work continues throughout the implementation of new solutions.
Limitations of service design:
- Because service design requires reflection and active participation, different cognitive and social capacities can lead to some users having less influence in the processes.
- The representation of users can become skewed. When employees or relatives communicate needs on behalf of users, some perspectives can become more prominent than others.
- Laws, budgets and decision-making structures set frameworks that can limit the room for action in service design processes.
- The study shows that design work is often concentrated in the planning phase. When the methodology is not continued in the implementation, new solutions may lose direction or fail to become embedded in everyday practice.