Digital services: lessons learned and the future of the field - an Estonian Design Centre seminar in the framework of the International Innovation Conference

On 9-12 June, the ISPIM 2024 Innovation Conference, "Local Innovation Ecosystems for Global Impact”, was held in Tallinn.

On the second day of the conference, as part of the event, the Estonian Design Centre hosted a seminar, "Unlocking the Future", which focused on service design, e-service innovation, and sustainable digitalisation.

Photo: Dan Mikkin, Hegle Sarapuu-Johanson, Mari-Ell Mets, Veiko Raime, Heiki Naagel

Service design is an essential export item for Estonia, and Estonian entrepreneurs and service designers have considerable experience in building e-systems. For this reason, the Estonian Design Centre was pleased to share the knowledge and experience of selected Estonian digital service design experts with an international audience.
Five presentations provided an in-depth overview of the development and future of digital services. A common thread among the presentations was the emphasis on sustainability, user-centredness, and accessibility, and the idea that forward-looking service design and development requires constant innovation and adaptation to new technologies and user needs.

Sustainable software

In his presentation, Heiki Naagel from Helmes spoke about the importance of sustainable software and its impact on the future. According to him, misconceptions such as the lack of a digital technology footprint or the high cost of green technology need to be constantly challenged.
He drew attention to energy saving, pointing out that with emissions from the field of ICT accounting for up to 5% of the global carbon footprint, and with the potential for ICT to be consuming up to 13% of the world's electricity by 2030, it is clear that the principles of green digital design need to be kept in mind in that field. Therefore, a green transformation of the ICT field is needed, encompassing business, human and global dimensions.
However, such thinking is still in its infancy and awareness of green software development needs to be raised. Unnecessarily large computing and data exchange capacities and excessive data collection and storage need to be significantly optimised.

The future of e-services of the public sector

Hegle Sarapuu-Johanson from Trinidad Wiseman focused on how to build a smart future for all the different members of society. She described the essence of modern e-services, which consist of seamless data exchange between systems with multiple channels and touchpoints. As an example, she talked about Estonia's e-Retsept, which allows patients to control and restrict access to their data in a secure and encrypted manner. At the same time, she emphasised that not all services are necessary and that it is always important to ask whether such a service is even needed for users as an e-service before starting to design the service.
She believes that, in the near future, a vital role will be played by artificial intelligence-based predictive services, which will be able to predict and prevent problematic events such as dropping out of school, genetic diseases, and accidents. However, there are still significant challenges in the service design process before such services can be implemented - this requires adapting to changing technologies and user needs.
What is certain, however, is that predictive analytics and artificial intelligence can improve the user experience, both by providing real-time personalised assistance and by optimising service design and development.

Estonian e-Residency

Product Designer Dan Mikkin introduced Estonia’s e-Residency to international guests. E-Residency allows entrepreneurs around the world to operate 100% digitally and from anywhere. At the heart of e-Residency is e-identity, which values trust, community, opportunities, and simplicity.
Since 2014, 114,000 e-residents have been registered under the e-Residency programme, 30,600 e-residency businesses have been created, and 60,000 e-residency ID cards are in use.

The future of user interface technologies

Veiko Raime from Mobi Lab presented future-oriented user interface technologies and their impact on our everyday lives. He emphasised that while technology is becoming increasingly more complex, using it should become easier and more accessible for everyone, not just technology experts.
According to Raime, a balance must be maintained between digital inclusion and physical presence, and in the future, services will become independent of user interfaces, seamlessly merging between the physical and digital worlds.

In his view, however, messaging will remain the core technology for user engagement, while identity verification needs to become more streamlined. Smart physical environments, such as homes and cars, are becoming increasingly interconnected, enabling a more comfortable and integrated lifestyle. The IoT (Internet of Things) will enable users to disconnect from digital inclusion, and the role of language processing and artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) in creating human-like interactions with machines will increase. In addition, he predicts that mixed reality integration and brain-computer interfaces will enable direct communication with technology through brain signals in the future.

All of this will lead to a new qualitative level of AI-based personal experiences in the future, enabling even more personalised and effective services for people.
He optimistically predicts that technology will allow us to be human again, to disconnect more from our digital lives and to focus on what really matters in our lives.

The future of accessible e-services

Mari-Ell Mets is an IAAP-certified web accessibility specialist from Trinidad Wiseman, who spoke about online accessibility in her presentation. The older people get, the more they need accessible services.
Accessible websites and apps bring in more customers and improve brand image, but also reduce the legal risks associated with the adoption of EU directives. Namely, public sector websites will have to comply with accessibility requirements already from 2019 and private sector websites from 28 June 2025. E-commerce, financial services, electronic communication, passenger transport services, audiovisual media services, and e-books will have to meet accessibility requirements.

Mets emphasised that accessibility is not a one-off activity but a continuous process, and underlined that accessibility is not just for people with disabilities, but benefits everyone.
She also gave a number of practical examples of how to improve e-service accessibility.

____________________

ISPIM - International Society for Professional Innovation Management is a community of professionals from academia, industry, consultancy, and the public sector, united by a passion for innovation management. They explore how to successfully turn ideas into new products, processes, and services, in order to stimulate economic growth and prosperity. Founded in 1983 in Norway, ISPIM is the oldest, largest and most active global innovation network.

ISPIM held its 35th Innovation Conference in Tallinn.