Individual service paths for residents being built by a game designer

22.12.2021 13.04

Would you have guessed that, in addition to regular personnel and residents, there is also a game designer involved in the development of the upcoming services of the Western Uusimaa wellbeing services county? Service and game designer Aino Hentilä knows how to walk in clients’ shoes and visualise information to make it easier to understand.

For the past six months, Aino Hentilä has been tackling a major and inspiring challenge: how to condense a massive amount of information into as simple a form as possible? 

For residents, Aino has visualised the individual service path for youth mental health services. 

The text continues after the picture. 

For personnel, she is currently preparing a pocket guide for home care emergencies and training material for the Dignified End of Life handbook.  

Game and service design both require a logical approach 

Hentilä holds a bachelor’s degree in game design. Nowadays, she works as a service designer. 

“The work of a service designer is very similar to that of a game designer: I put myself in a client’s shoes and think about how they would find services. Game and service design both require a logical approach,” Hentilä says. 

The numbers of images and visualisations needed are surprisingly high  

According to Hentilä, she could never have imagined during her studies that she would eventually find herself working on the social and health services of the future. Have there been any other surprises along the way?   

“I was surprised at how many visualisations you need when developing future services. People have been really excited and are developing these services with a very positive attitude,” Hentilä says.  

In service and game design, you have to be able to put yourself in the client’s position every day. How do you manage that? 

“I suppose what you need is imagination. The ability to imagine people in different life situations. You can also look back on your own life for specific situations or think: if I was a client and found myself in this situation, what would I think?” 

Aino will continue her work on the future individual service paths of the Western Uusimaa wellbeing services county next year as well.

Western Uusimaa wellbeing services county

  • Wellbeing Services County