IBM joins World Design Capital Helsinki 2012

The Redesigning 925 project will redesign the working week and the City of Helsinki visualises better use of open data.

IBM is a new World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 partner. The design capital now has a total of 21 corporate partnership agreements with a total value of approximately EUR 5 million. This is one of the largest corporate partnership projects ever carried out in Finland.

In the eyes of the general public, design is often something tangible, but one of the goals of the design capital year is to inspire discussion about the broader significance and new role of design: taking user needs into consideration, the opportunities provided by design in terms of developing services and systems, and its importance to the urban environment, economy and residents. The aim is to make Helsinki a better city and find smarter operating methods and the roots of new growth in areas that traditional design doesn’t usually address.

Data is visual in a smart city

In March 2011, the City of Helsinki was the only Nordic city to be selected for the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge project, which is part of the design capital year programme. The co-operation project is aimed at combining and visualising the public data generated in the city and providing decision-makers and ordinary city residents with a more illustrative picture of city activities.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Combining and visualising data can reveal interesting, hidden connections. For example, the visualisations could illustrate the impact of the weather and traffic volumes on air quality in different regions. The project will make the best possible use of data generated in the city: traffic volumes, telecommunications, tax income, library visits and loans, etc. Data will be collected and made available in the Helsinki Region Infoshare project.

Rapid urbanisation is one of the most significant changes going on in the world. A major milestone was reached in 2008, as half of the world's population lived in cities. Analysis and smarter utilisation of the data available in cities plays a key role in improving living conditions and economic development in rapidly growing cities.     

Redesigning working methods – from virtual conveyor belt to meaningful work

In addition to visualising data, the work design will be examined as part of the design capital year. IBM and Idealist Group are taking on the topic of renewing working methods. The Redesigning 925 (nine to five) project examines the daily life of an information employee at the grassroots level and looks for better ways of doing and organising work. The target is to redesign the working week and to increase the enjoyment, creativity and efficiency of work. A concrete example of reorganising work could be new meeting practices that are more efficient and participant-friendly.

People are doing more work than ever but less and less attention is focused on whether the work is perceived as meaningful and important. Days are spent handling seemingly important matters without a thought for what the end goal is. The factory assembly line has become an invisible, virtual assembly line. In addition to tools, true change and a new way of working will require a grasp of people's ability to handle changes, be creative, make decisions and understand social context.

“Our working week doesn’t function in the best possible manner. Our days consist of a flood of e-mails and poorly run and often unnecessary meetings. We pay the price for this in the evenings and on weekends in the form of overtime. We have moved from factories to mental work so quickly that working life practices haven’t been able to keep up,” says Saku Tuominen, Executive Producer at Idealist Group.

The year-long Redesigning 925 has begun with data collection and will continue with observations of current operating methods. New operating models, such as better meeting procedures, will be tried out in test groups at the turn of the year. The results of the project will be published next year in two seminars and as a book. In addition to Idealist Group and IBM, Fortum, UPM and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health are involved in the project.

“IBM’s roots lie deep in technology development and utilisation, and in finding opportunities and innovations in new areas.  We have a long history of co-operating with the academic community in fields like service design. The design capital projects continue this tradition of redesigning structures in corporate and urban contexts and are a natural part of the journey towards a smart world,” says Tuomo Haukkovaara, General Manager of IBM Finland.