The design pilot sponsors collaboration between Norwegian companies & strategic design agencies with the goal of promoting design-driven innovation methods in the concept phase. This project aimed to strengthen Hafslund’s reputation as an environmentally friendly energy alternative.
Hafslund is Norway’s biggest energy provider serving both private and business customers, primarily in and around Oslo. As we know, electricity is a valuable resource, and with the future of the planet in mind as well as their customers, Hafslund is focused on facilitating and contributing to energy saving, efficiently serving more customers with fewer resources, saving customers money, and being gentler on the environment. The company has already implemented several measures to help reduce power consumption.
The Norwegian Design Council’s Design Pilot initiative sponsors collaboration between Norwegian companies and strategic design agencies, with the goal to promote the use of design-driven innovation methods in the concept phase. This particular project aimed to strengthen Hafslund’s reputation as an environmentally friendly alternative for customers.
Designit’s role was to facilitate a design process that heavily involved real users, as well as different stakeholders at Hafslund. More than a dozen potential and existing customers were involved during initial user research, as well as user testing of the final concepts. All 600 Hafslund employees were invited to submit their ideas, and 15 employees from different departments participated in idea-generation workshops.
The project resulted in five service concepts that encouraged lower energy use, resonated with customers, and matched Hafslund’s business objectives. Additionally, much work was done to make it easier for Hafslund to replicate the success in future projects: detailed process reports for design-driven innovation projects, and 11 guidelines for developing smart energy-saving services that best meet the needs and wants of the consumer.
“We are very pleased with the collaboration. Designit has done a great job with planning, keeping a continuous process and providing good follow-up during the project. It is clear that Designit masters this type of project very well. They have given us valuable insight into how we can create better services and products in the future through the methods of service design. Designit has also given us a useful tool set, such as the Customer Journey, which we will continue to use in our work.” Fredrik Halmøy Wisløff, Business Developer at Hafslund Strøm.