City of Espoo-enabled experiments help businesses test and develop new ideas
Citynomadi Oy offers and develops map services that make it easier to find your way in urban and natural environments and indoors. Their Way Finder service guides customers at the Tapiola metro station. The service has been developed in cooperation with the City of Espoo’s Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development. The cooperation originated from a tender for new sustainable transport solutions to be tested in an EU-funded project.
The wayfinding service was introduced at the Tapiola metro station in May 2021. Way Finder guides passengers after arriving at the metro station and helps them find their way to destinations such as connecting traffic platforms, cultural services in the area or a swimming hall. The service provides clear instructions on the route and indicates the distance and estimated travel time. The service is free of charge.
The experiment has received much good feedback from actors and shopping centre businesses in the Tapiola area. The user interface has been developed further based on the user experience and feedback gained during the experiment. Citynomadi Oy has also implemented several other projects since 2021 using the Way Finder feature tested at Tapiola. Merja Taipaleenmäki, founder and CEO of Citynomadi Oy, says that city-enabled experiments are an excellent way to test and develop new services in an authentic urban environment.
According to Taipaleenmäki, cities are good partners because they reach a wide range of residents, companies and other actors and bring visibility to the service and help with networking. Also, if a city chooses to introduce a service, the service gains credibility. Taipaleenmäki hopes that cities will continue to experiment with new services. Even the experiments that do not continue drive product development further and help us in developing new, more sustainable solutions.
What could the green transition mean for the development work in your company?
Building a carbon-neutral society requires bold thinking and new approaches. Espoo has the ability to take up this challenge. Join us in developing future solutions in Kera, Otaniemi and Kiviruukki! The Implementation Pathway for Environments that Accelerate Sustainable Growth KETO project boosts cooperation between businesses, schools and research organisations, and creates concrete development environments that promote the green transition and digitalisation. The project is run by the City of Espoo, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Aalto University and Omnia, together with several business partners. Project is funded by European Union’s REACT-EU ERDF and is part of the European Union’s response to the covid-19 pandemic.
