CITY OF ESPOO

City development project: A scalable framework and onboarding interventions to help young and international residents participate in shaping the city from day one.

As part of the Designing for Services course at Aalto University, our multidisciplinary team collaborated with the City of Espoo to address the challenge of engaging young and international residents in city development. Research revealed that a sense of belonging is essential before residents feel motivated to participate in civic life.

Using the onboarding experience of international Aalto students as a case study, we mapped their journey from receiving an admission letter to settling in Espoo. Through interviews, fieldwork, and co-design workshops, we identified key barriers: limited accessible information, unfamiliarity with local participation practices, and delayed connection with the city.

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Our final proposal included a set of onboarding interventions such as welcome videos, integrated city communications, and participation opportunities introduced early in the relocation process. We also defined eight actionable design principles to guide Espoo in building inclusive, participatory services, emphasizing timely engagement, language accessibility, and cross-organizational collaboration. This project provides a scalable framework to support other resident groups in forming meaningful connections with the city from the outset.

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Course project, 2022

Designing for Services, Aalto ARTS

Collaboration partner: City of Espoo

Tools used: Miro, Google Workspace, Zoom

Other team members: Natalia Trzmielak, Tuike Rantanen, Nikolas Kristovič, Fengfan Yang

Keywords: Service design, Co-design / co-creation, User journey mapping, User research, Workshop facilitation, Participatory services, Strategic design principles