We simply cannot be sure that we understand the details of their lives, when we don’t observe and ask.Įthnographic Research: Learning to See What is? Despite the best intentions, when leaders of agencies that serve the indigent or the elderly base solutions on their own views of the needs and wants of those clients, the quality of the solutions suffers. We find the ethnographic focus of design thinking to be especially powerful in the social services sector. This dramatic reframing of the opportunity emerged from the user-centered design approach that Hatch & Bloom brought to the process.ĭesign Tool : Ethnography in Social Services The result was the design of a wholly new meal service that offered higher quality, more flexibility, and increased choice. As the project progressed, however, this view shifted. In their view, they already offered high-quality food and service, so the Hatch & Bloom team’s role would be to ask elderly clients about their menu preferences.
Innovation director Lotte Lyngsted Jepsen led the effort over the next 6 months.Īs Lotte recalled it, both Holstebro officials and the leaders of the Hospitable Food Service (Holstebro’s meal preparation and delivery organization) saw the project as straightforward at its outset: the current menu just needed some updating. The firm Hatch & Bloom signed on to be part of the effort to improve meal service for seniors. In response to this growing social problem, the Municipality of Holstebro applied for an innovative program, offered through the Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority, that provides funding to municipalities and facilitates partnerships between those municipalities and Danish design firms. The problem only looks to intensify as the number of senior citizens grows and future generations of seniors expect greater choice and better service. The result is both health problems and a low quality of life for the elderly and a greater economic burden on the government. In fact, it is estimated that 60% of Denmark’s seniors in assisted living facilities or residential care units have poor nutrition, and 20% are actually malnourished. Many of the seniors have nutritional challenges and a poor quality of life because they simply do not eat enough. Danish municipalities deliver subsidized meals to people who suffer from a reduced ability to function, due to illness, age, or other conditions. One of these is serving the more than 125,000 senior citizens who rely on government-sponsored meals. The Danes, like citizens in most developed countries, recognize that the aging of their population presents many challenges. Thus the way was cleared for a new type of meal service in Denmark, a meal service with more quality, more flexibility and more freedom of choice.
Six month later the idea for The Good Kitchen was created. In autumn 2007 the Danish innovation and design agency Hatch & Bloom was assigned to design a new meal service for The Municipality of Holstebro.