Join us for a full-day workshop at the NordiCHI 2026 conference in Vaasa, Finland. We will explore the role of intermediaries — actors that support residents in navigating and accessing digital public services. Drawing on research-based cases from Finland and Portugal, we will discuss how intermediaries support digital inclusion for underserved communities, including migrants and elderly populations, and what it means to design digital services with and for them. We encourage researchers, designers, public sector workers, and NGO representatives to participate and contribute their expertise and experiences in designing equitable digital public services.
Workshop goals
- Develop a shared understanding of the role of intermediaries in public service delivery, drawing on concrete cases from Finland and Portugal.
- Outline a research agenda for how researchers, designers, and developers can better collaborate to design with and for intermediaries.
Call for Participation
This full-day workshop brings together researchers and practitioners to examine the role of intermediaries in public service digitalisation. Through two case studies — the AI-based system Note’d from Finland and the community IT help desk Balcão do Bairro from Portugal, participants will engage in a speculative discussion and backcasting to consider which relationships, forms of support, or structural conditions shaped participation and exclusion, making relational autonomy tangible.
We invite participants to submit:
- A brief biographical note.
- A short text describing their work, understanding, or interest in intermediaries. This can be in the form of a paragraph, a sketch, or a diagram.
- Optionally, we also welcome proposals for related discussions within design and HCI.
Accepted applications will be shared with participants prior to the workshop to help prepare and get inspired for discussing how to engage with intermediaries in public services.
Important Dates
- Submissions due: TBC
- Notification of acceptance: TBC
- Workshop: October 3rd, 2026, Vaasa, Finland
NB! The submission form is still being prepared and this page is being updated. For any questions, please contact nils.ehrenberg (at) uwasa.fi
Organisers
Nils Ehrenberg, University of Vaasa, Finland
Camila Hergatacorzian, Aalto University, Finland
Hugo Nicolau, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Amir Pakpour, Tampere University, Finland
Ana Cristina Pires, ISCTE / Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Ruta Šerpytytė, Tampere University, Finland
Lucy Truong, Aalto University, Finland
Uttishta Varanasi, Aalto University, Finland
Johanna Ylipulli, University of Vaasa, Finland
This workshop is funded by the Trust-M Project through the Strategic Research Council of Finland (Grant number: 353509) and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (10.54499/LA/P/0083/2020 and UID/50009/2025).