45. Sisu

Vicky Teinaki -

Hei from Helsinki! I'm here to attend the International Design in Government conference. I got here a bit early, and as I'm a basic tourist, I did my usual thing—a hop on hop off bus tour. Like either a nerd or someone determined to get their money's worth from anything, I also did my usual initial full loop on the bus to get my bearings with a second loop later in the day to properly absorb all of the information. I also took advantage of the related Helsinki sightseeing cruise.

I learned a lot, like how Finland has not one but two official languages (Finnish and Swedish) and that its Parisian-style boulevards are due to that old thing, empire (the Russian one in this case). I also got to see actual icebreakers for real (pictured) as Finland not only uses them to break up the water in winter but is the leading place in the world to make them. I will forever think about this when I am part of an 'icebreaker' activity! However, one thing that I only caught on my second time around on the bus was the phrase sisu. There is seemingly no direct translation into English, but approximates to doggedness or grit and is part of the Finnish national character. The icebreakers might fit into this for one thing.

I'm not sure if I can described this month as a form of personal sisu in relation to caring about design, or just plain old saying yes to a few too many things and running myself ragged. I have spent much of this month running (OK train and bussing) around the UK—Liverpool, London, Edinburgh, a business park in Newcastle, and even here to Finland—mostly for the purposes of furthering my understanding of design. (I did also have to go to Glasgow but that was for work). Certainly I felt perhaps it was too much at the end—I usually start to make mistakes when overstretched, and sure enough I had a scare at Helsinki airport when I mislaid my passports, though thankfully I did find them—so perhaps either this is not an example of sisu, or in fact I just do not have it. Hmm.

This month in digital government and design

Stuff from me:

  • Design System Day 2 happened in Liverpool. I have a writeup
  • Service Design in Government happened in Edinburgh. I not only attended this but co-presented a workshop with Caroline Jarrett on accessible forms, which seemed to go down well. I have a writeup - as well as a related one about Platformland
  • Papercamp returned to London and (you guessed it!) I also have a quick writeup from weeknotes. Phew.

Research:

Content and information architecture:

Accessibility and front-end design:

Interaction design:

Other types of design:

Other digital and government stuff:

Miscellany

Until next time,

Vicky