Aalto University's Finnish Design Push: Empowering SMEs and Design students

School of Arts, Design and Architecture received a significant, four-year funding from Technology Industries of Finland Centennial Foundation, Von Julin Foundation, and Metex Foundation in 2024 to develop new educational practices that support the worklife transition of design students and further the employment of design in Finnish technology companies.

Small and medium-sized companies play a key role in the employment and in sustainable growth in Finland. Therefore, Aalto University is aiming to strengthen collaboration with Finnish SMEs, in the search of new perspectives and opportunities for industry collaboration.

Mikko Jalas, the Head of Design Department explains the school’s goals, “We want to make a societal impact. Our main strategic objective is being an active partner in the society, engaging with companies and increasing our visibility." Jalas highlights the importance of equipping students for professional careers, emphasizing that early client collaboration offers invaluable learning experiences.

Fostering new connections and mutual learning 

Establishing new connections and exploring new formats for collaboration between academia and industry sits at the core of the initiative. The Design Push initiative kicked off in September 2024 with Digital Service Design Project course in collaboration with five Finnish technology companies which were recruited in collaboration with the regional offices of the Technology Industries of Finland, TIF.

Teemu Polo and Anu Lääveri from the TIF played a significant role in connecting the university with suitable partner companies. Additional design courses, along with various student support measures like internships and mentoring, will be introduced in the future.

Associate Professor Oscar Person, the founder of the initiative, says that understanding the role societal and industry collaborations can play for learning and how to potentially profit from such learnings in curriculum development form important areas for research in thinking about the scope of design education. The aim is to explore new models for collaboration between companies and universities, ensuring mutually beneficial partnerships that enhance the educational experience.

The idea of Design Push is to provide a learning platform for both students and companies. The initiative helps companies gain insight into the potential solutions design can offer and identify areas for improvement, while also providing a chance to experience working with designers.

The collaborative projects with SMEs provide students with valuable experience in tackling real-world challenges, helping them understand the career opportunities available and the importance of building industry connections early on.

For the university, the funding provides a learning opportunity to refine its approach to collaboration with companies. Person explains it further, how the value of the collaboration should not only be sought in what is developed through the projects but also in the mutual learning that students, faculty and companies engage with throughout the process.

Great results from collaboration

The first set of project for the collaboration were organized in collaboration with Heeros, Lojer, Reflector, Innofactor, Granlund and Aalto ITS. As described by the course leaders Núria Solsona and Antti Salovaara, students take a customer-centered view and apply service and interaction design in exploring development challenges for the companies, collaborating with them to analyze service experiences and to identify and prototype improvement opportunities.

The students created user journeys, developed prototypes and justified design solutions. The course also included co-design methods and skill enhancement in programming for service design.

Lojer, a Finnish manufacturer of medical furniture, and the market leader of physiotherapy equipment in the Nordic countries, participated in the project with the goal to improve and simplify both the order process and communication with customers. They also aimed to improve the overall customer experience in a way that can be measured and valued.

Tapio Turta, Service Director of Lojer, was satisfied with the results. “This is a brilliant way to get new ideas and strengthen your own ideas. Students were really dedicated to their projects. I learnt that we could collaborate so much more with students when developing services."

Interested in joining? 

The Finnish Design Push initiative is looking for a new group of small and medium sized technology companies that are interested in learning more about design for a new set of projects in 2025. If you are interested in enhancing your company’s offering through the development of a digital service or tool, please contact us below!