Digitalist
People on the streets of city

City Design

Building our future together

City design is fundamentally about shaping the future of our urban environments in a way that sustainably meets the needs of its citizens and personnel and takes into account processes. It involves incorporating everyone's ideas and crafting a human-centric design of digital solutions to create functional, enriching spaces that reflect our community's needs.

Embracing changeUrban governance

Adopting a people-first approach

The mentality of 'we've always done it this way' hinders progress. We aim to create a city that prioritizes people over processes. We challenge entrenched practices and bureaucratic structures and introduce new approaches that enhance inclusivity, sustainability, and resilience in urban development and improve our citizens' quality of life.

Promoting co-creation

We are a unified force: Working together with city officials, residents, and local businesses, with a collaborative approach to urban development, we ensure that our initiatives are well-suited to meet the diverse needs of our community, making city services more effective and inclusive

Managing urban transformation effectively

Cities are inherently complex. We promote stakeholder alignment and understand the interconnected nature of urban systems. This strategic approach allows us to implement comprehensive changes that address our cities' multifaceted issues.

Helsinki urban landscape

Making city design work for everyone

City design enables the exploration of creative and innovative solutions to address the challenges faced by urban environments. By embracing city design principles, it becomes possible to foster a human-centered perspective, ensuring a thorough understanding of user needs and preferences but also involve cross-administrative stakeholders throughout the design process.

By encouraging participatory approaches, supporting new mindsets, and overcoming barriers to change, cities can work towards creating more adaptive, inclusive, and future-ready urban spaces. City design extends beyond current challenges—it's about futureproofing the cities.

We're big on getting everyone involved. By encouraging people to participate, embracing new ways of thinking, and breaking down the barriers to change, we're making strides toward cities ready for anything the future might throw at them. City design isn't just about solving today's issues—it's about setting up our cities to thrive long into the future.

Co-creation and city design puts us in a position to engage in discussions and interactions, breaking down barriers related to professions. Phenomena rarely found in cities are not typically solvable by a single profession or part of an organization; instead, they require the integration of various stakeholders. This necessitates the collective articulation of the question or challenge we are embarking on to solve.

Johanna Sinkkonen, Participation Manager, City of Helsinki
Three women engaged in a discussion

Highlights and achievements

+20yr

Experience of working with cities

Only a few consultancies can reflect on a work history as long as ours. Working with numerous cities and stakeholders for over two decades helped us build a deep understanding of our public sector clients' work environments and challenges.

+1k

Workshop participants annually

A large part of our work relies on co-creation and facilitation. By working with internal stakeholders and citizens alike, our experts accumulate insights that allow cities to confidently plan for the future.

OMG!

That’s what they said

Our clients give us the best feedback when they work with us again. Rumour has it that we're easy to get along with, and our way of working resonates with clients.

This is how we do it

City Design projects vary in topics, complexity, and budgets and may span weeks, months, or even years. We actively engage various stakeholders in our city design projects to promote a shared understanding and foster dialogue. We place a particular emphasis on considering the employee experience of city staff, as it is crucial for the success and impact of our projects. By incorporating diverse perspectives and prioritizing effectiveness, we create city design solutions that make a tangible difference in the urban environment.

Stakeholder involvement

Development & Impact

  • CX consulting in city context
  • Research & insights in city context
  • Transformation consulting & Organisational design
  • Concepting new services (physical/digital)
  • Design of leadership models and processes

Facilitation & Co-creation

  • Workshops and co-creation
  • Empowering cross-administrative co-operation
  • Co-design for multidimensional problem solving
  • Design sprints & hackathons
  • Modern Platforms
  • Research & Insights

Mentoring & Training

  • Mentoring programs for designers and non-designers
  • Mentoring of internal development work

City design podcast by Digitalist

City design podcast by Päivi and Saara from Digitalist

City design podcast by Digitalist

Päivi and Saara talk with illustrious guests about city design and bring out its importance through different perspectives. Our podcast series considers why cities should be developed using design methods and highlight various examples from the field of city design (Finnish only).
Go and listen

Some of our clients

People in Helsinki

Helsinki City  I   HYTE

Digitalist collaborated with the City of Helsinki to redesign the health and welfare management structure, engaging stakeholders and improving coordination to enhance health promotion efforts across the city.
People in Tampere

City of Tampere

Digitalist partnered with Tampere to redesign employment and integration services through stakeholder workshops and service design, enhancing customer experience and preparing for the 2025 TE services reform.
People in Helsinki

Helsinki City  I  Hel.fi

Digitalist partnered with the City of Helsinki to develop a customer research program for the hel.fi renewal, engaging over 4,000 residents, improving services through continuous testing, and fostering agile development.

Reach
out
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Reach
out!

Raisa Suihkonen
CX Insight Director