Ms. Hansol Paeng, one of the founding members of SDN Korea Chapter, and a team leader at the Human Understanding Design Center (HUDC) of Seoul Medical Center under Seoul Metropolitan Government, had a mini-seminar with Hellon, a leading service design consultancy with studios in Helsinki and London, also one of the members of the SDN network. During the session, Paeng and Hellon shared experiences from their projects.

The session was arranged by Seungho Lee, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Design at Aalto University, who created the course, Design for Government, and work with Finnish ministries. From Hellon, the participants included design director Juha Kronqvist, senior service designer Andreas Pattichis, and client service director Pauline Ranta. Paeng shared various cases of medical service design from HUDC in Seoul, while Hellon shared service design cases applied to a Finnish pharmacy chain, strategic design project for a new healthcare centre, and service design projects concerning the public transportation in Helsinki. For over an hour, two organizations exchanged various thoughts and insights as service designers represent two different cities and nations. Despite the socio-cultural and political differences between the two nations, the passion to provide great services and experiences through design was a strong common denominator.

As it was difficult to stop sharing such interesting insights, we continued our discussion at a restaurant on the waterfront with healthy and organic Finnish food and the beautiful ocean view of Helsinki. It was a highly memorable time, which we hope to lead to a meaningful relationship in the future.

Look forward developing collaborations between Seoul and Helsinki in near future! See you again!

Related links:

HUDC (서울의료원 시민공감서비스디자인센터) 

Hellon

Design for Government