Work Package 4: Designing AI-Assisted Digital Public Services

The creative design exploration is accompanied by critical expert analysis to evaluate the potential futures underlying specific design provocations from multiple perspectives to the benefits and risks of digitalizing migrant services.

The main approach in work package 4 is research through design, which seeks to produce new insights by envisioning alternative technological artifacts and assessing their qualities together with key stakeholders. This is realized with an inclusive approach that draws from Nordic traditions on participatory design, implemented in collaboration with the interaction partner city of Espoo and other collaborators. We follow the design philosophy of value-sensitive design that accounts for human values in design, aiming to encourage consideration of ethics and values in the design process, including equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

To produce creative design proposals, we apply speculative design thinking where alternative socio-technical futures are collectively imagined and outlined through co- design and critical thinking. The creative design exploration is accompanied by critical expert analysis to evaluate the potential futures underlying specific design provocations from multiple perspectives to the benefits and risks of digitalizing migrant services.

The design work is closely tied to the ongoing and upcoming development projects in the involved municipalities and the ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. While specific cases will be carefully selected based on stakeholder workshops, preliminary design directions discussed with Espoo include a ʻdigital liaisonʼ and utilizing peer support by recent migrants for example as part of hybrid services that involve both smart digital features and social encounters.

We will run participatory co-design workshops with migrant communities, third-sector services and networks, and service counsellors at municipal and national level, aiming at 10 workshops with 5-8 participants in each. We will particularly engage in collaboration with the migrant customer services in the City of Espoo. The participants will be specified at the early stages of the project together with our interaction partners and collaborators. As part of the intensive design exploration, we will continuously engage in expert-based evaluation of the design proposals, hence helping to refine the ideas and select the most promising ones for technical development in work package 5. The evaluation will be based on criteria defined together with work package 2 (trust) and work package 3 (legal aspects) and executed in close collaboration with the collaborators.