Desk & User research
Service design
Interior design
Adinberri
Gipuzkoa Provincial Council
ISEA
Legazpi City Council
6 weeks
5 strategy designers
The project derives from the 2020-2023 Strategic Plan of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, which raises challenges such as the declining birth rate and the ageing population, the generation gap in society, coexistence in all spheres of society, etc. Taking as a representative model of the region society, the town of Legazpi was chosen for the development of the project.
The challenge of the project is given by the town council of Legazpi: Promote intergenerational connection for the transmission of knowledge and community development, promoting, in general, cooperation and the ageing of value. One of the requirements of the project was to create a new service that makes use of the Bellota building, a former residential building for workers in the area. In addition to the service, we had to present a proposal for its business model, branding and the analysis of the economic viability of the service.
Bellota old residential building
To face this ambiguous challenge, we followed the DBZ-MU methodology, a people-centred innovation methodology based on the principles of design thinking and iterative processes to reach the solution that best responds to the needs of users and customer requirements.
The first step of the process involved a research phase consisting of desk research and field research activities. Then, we did a synthesis activity to cluster all the information gathered and get qualitative insights for creating design hypotheses.
After clustering insights, we began to ideate different solutions that could meet them. After checking the ideas with users, we chose the idea that best meets our criteria and the user's opinion. Then we focused on developing further the idea by using tools like user profiles, system maps and user flows.
After, we defined the service completely, created a brand identity for it, and developed an economic viability plan. Finally, to make the service tangible for the client, we recreated some service touchpoints.
To begin with, we analysed the context in which the challenge is set. We familiarised ourselves with the town of Legazpi, the current state of society in Gipuzkoa and the generational gap, what intergenerationality is and its benefits for young people, the elderly and the community as a whole, and we identified intergenerational programmes and good practices in the Basque Country.
We continued to analyse the different generations that can be found in the town of Legazpi, as well as to understand the connections and dependencies that one generation has with respect to the others. We did this through interviews with the citizens of the village, guerrilla sessions and questionnaires. All the information we collected was used to project an archetype for each generation.
Interview session with the inhabitants of Legazpi in the town's social building
To conclude the research phase, we collected all the insights detected from both desk and field research in a Miro dashboard, and using affinity diagrams, we grouped the insights into themes:
Taking into account our positioning, we brainstormed ideas for new services that would promote the community model and intergenerationality. We came up with 4 main ideas:
After evaluating them in the team with a Know-How-Wow matrix session, we decided to contrast the ideas with the people of Legazpi itself.
Dot voting guerrilla done trough the streets of Legazpi.
Considering that the idea of intergenerational housing was the one that best complemented our positioning, the characteristics of the building in which we had to make the proposal tangible, and the feedback from the inhabitants of Legazpi, we decided to develop the idea and transform it into a feasible service.
Co-creation session in Miro with some of Legazpi's inhabitants.
First, we defined the target audience for the service. There will be two types of customer: residents and social members. Residents are the ones that will live in the building; social members could be any inhabitants of Legazpi willing to use a social space. Among the residents, we identified two potential service users:
Then, we identified all the actors who would be directly and indirectly affected by the service. To see how the service could be managed and which actors would be involved, we created a system map. Residents and social members would interact by creating a public space inside the building. The building will have common services such as flats, common areas, cleaning and canteen service.
Also, There will be a council worker in charge of managing service issues, such as activity planning and residents' concerns. For this purpose, a representative group will be set up and will meet with the facilitator. If it's needed, additional help would be provided by local non-profit associations.
The next step was to design the user experience throughout the service. We created a customer journey map of the experience, and then added the necessary back-end tasks to the service. Finally, we proposed a business proposal using a business model canvas.
Service blueprint of residents
Service blueprint of social-space members
The intergenerational housing model consists of building community flats for individuals, in which they live and collaborate together actively, fostering a sense of belonging to a community. In the context of an ageing population, this service aims to promote active ageing, fostering social cohesion and reducing the generation gap.
The intergenerational housing model has two main services. On the one hand, mini flats consisted of a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, combined with communal areas such as living rooms and laundry facilities to encourage relationships between residents.
On the other hand, a "Txoko" named area is open to the people of Legazpi for a monthly membership fee. This area can be accessed by residents of the homes as well as other people who become members. In this way, we provide a meeting place for the whole town, where there are spaces that aim to promote the exchange of knowledge and intergenerational connections.
In order to foster the exchange of knowledge between generations and build a relational community model, a community council will be created. This council will be in contact with the town hall's facilitator, who will be in charge of planning monthly activity plans. Most of the activities will be conducted by the residents themselves. In this way, we encourage residents to share their hobbies and knowledge with their peers.
Ready to collaborate and further my career.
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