At the beginning of 2022, we conducted a study for the Estonian Maritime Museum. The aim of the project was to provide an overview of the experience of children and families visiting the Seaplane Harbour Museum branch and to understand what the children’s needs and expectations are in relation to the permanent exhibition. During the research, we conducted observations along with short interviews, visited the museum with the children by prior agreement, conducted in-depth interviews and asked the children to capture the museum visit with a camera and to talk about it later with the help of photos.
We included 19 children from 11 families in the study using the methods of shadowing, photo voice and in-depth interviews. The result helps the museum to understand their visitor experience from the children’s perspective and to understand how children would like to see the permanent exhibition. We found that it is possible to make the children’s visit both more educational and more enjoyable by bringing the information even closer to the children and taking into account the central role of parents in shaping the children’s visit.
The next stage of the project was passed on to the creativity accelerator VIVITA with a workshop held after the presentation, where we discussed together with the Lennusadama team how to direct the visit of children and families and to convey the exposition even better to children. VIVITA then conducted a design sprint with the children. As a result, they designed 4 new objects to the new permanent exhibition to be opened in 2023.
In cooperation with Vivita and the Estonian public sector Innovation team, we held a webinar for wider audience to raise awareness among civil servants, politicians, opinion leaders, desingers etc. As a result, this visual sheet of instructions was born – feel free to download it and share it!
Author: Siiri Taimla-Rannala, Joonmeedia
From December 2021 to February 2022, we helped to collect feedback for the students majoring at humanities at the University of Tartu.
The aim was to understand what ate the alumni and students’ expectations and assessments of the MA program curricula. We wanted to know what motivated them to choose a specific study program or why, for example, they did not continue their studies in the MA program in the same field after finishing their BA studies? We also looked into how the MA programs alumni evaluated the knowledge, skills and competences acquired during their studies – what is the value of the curriculum for them? The results of the study will be used to develop curricula to meet even more the expectations and needs of future students.
The focus of the study was on the three curricula of Tartu University in the field of humanities and arts: semiotics and cultural theory, ethnology, folkloristics and applied anthropology (EFRA) and Estonian and Finno-Ugric linguistics. As a method, we used group interviews – we talked with current undergraduate and graduate alumni as well as current students.
In general we concluded that it is increasingly important for the students that what they have learned has a practical output and it can be applied in their daily lives. The majority highlighted that they would like to use more practice and learned skills and competencies, and at the same time get more information from the university about how to better implement the acquired knowledge on the labour market and outside the academy – what are the future prospects of the MA degree? Also a need for wanting more meaningful feedback on their work came out. It turned out to be important that the opportunity to combine studies and work is very important for the MA program.
In the first weeks of January 2022, we conducted a fast research at the request of the Estonian Government Office to map and understand the experiences of Estonian families and young people in the pandemic situation, as well as attitudes and fears regarding the vaccine against COVID-19.
In addition to questions related to the vaccine, we opened up the topics of information consumption, medicine and the experience of the corona pandemic with the help of questionnaires, which helped to understand the broader background of attitudes towards corona vaccines. The research gathered input to help create methods to support people in making an informed decision.
Young people and families of different backgrounds and ethnic origins from different regions of Estonia were included in order to get a more complete picture of the effects of the pandemic and vaccination attitudes. A total of 11 parents and 12 young people (aged 15-17) participated in the study. Among the participants were anti-vaccine, pro-vaccine, skeptics, as well as people who have suffered from the corona virus.
The results clearly show that people’s attitudes are primarily influenced by their own experiences and those of their friends, and that the influence of the media on such topics is marginal for young people. Seeing from acquaintances that the effectiveness of vaccines is not guaranteed, skepticism about vaccination also automatically rises. The effects of the restrictions of Covid-19, especially the change in studies and being away from friends, were considered much more frightening than the disease itself.
In the fall and winter of 2021, RAK / CAAE were commissioned by the Estonian Rescue Board. The purpose of the project was to find out whether and what kind of digital environment would be needed so that different parties could conveniently keep an eye on the maintenance activities of fire safety installations.
During the research, we conducted 21 interviews and 5 field observations along with walk-along interviews. We included building owners, people responsible for fire safety in the building, maintenance service providers as well as fire safety specialists and fire safety experts in the study. We discussed how the maintenance of fire safety installations is currently organized as well as expectations for the digital environment.
As a result of the study, we took the process of organizing the maintenance of fire safety installations into bits and pieces and pointed out the bottlenecks of each stage, which in turn affect the expectations of the digital environment. Among other things, a whole list of desired functionalities that could be in such an environment was also prepared. The finished report is in the hands of the Rescue Board, so if you are interested in reading it, you can contact them directly.
In summer 2021, we conducted a research project about the uses of the Pollinator Highway for Tallinn Strategic Management Office.
The aim of this project was to better understand how people perceive the different spatial sections on the Pollinator Highway, how they move about on the Pollinator Highway and what they would like to do there in the future. Altogether, 113 (!) people somehow contributed in the research. We did field observations, different kinds of interviews, mapping and drawing exercises and asked people who live and/or move in the area to take photos and videos for us.As a result, we created 6 personas whose needs and wants should be taken into considerations when further developing the different spatial sections. Among other things, it became clear that nobody feels completely comfortable using the Pollinator Highway. Cyclists cannot ride too fast because there are always other people on the road. Older people worry that they might get hit by a scooter. Parents keep a sharp eye on their toddlers because they are afraid that the kids get in the way of others.
At the same time, people think that the Pollinator Highway is an exciting undertaking and they cannot wait for what it will become. There were many more interesting observations – you can read about them on the Pollinator Highway’s website: https://www.putukavail.ee/?lang=en.
At the end of 2020, we conducted an analysis of children’s accessibility for the Estonian Health Museum. The purpose of the research was to map the physical and psychological obstacles that children face in the museum. Additionally, we learned about the motivations of kids and their parents to visit museums and the barriers that they might encounter when planning a visit.
The target group of the research was children between age 3-7 and their families. Four different methods were used:
As an outcome of the research, we saw that the main obstacles that kids experience in the museum are related to the difficulties of understanding the meanings of the exhibits. As a recommendation, we suggested involving more other mediums additionally to texts.Another takeaway was that for kids and their families, visiting a museum is seen as a social experience and one of the main expectations when coming to a museum is to playfully learn together. Hence we suggested creating more exhibits that are appropriate for people from different age groups and comfortable for families to engage with as a group. Also, we recommended creating more social games.
In autumn 2020, we conducted research for Enterprise Estonia and the e-Residency project team. The aim of this project was to gain a better understanding of Estonian e-residents who have a connection to Germany.
We conducted 20 semi-structured in-depth interviews with German citizens living in Germany, German citizens living abroad, and foreigners residing in Germany who all were e-residents.
We discussed the expectations, needs, fears and problems regarding the programme and the larger cultural differences. Based on the interviews, we created four persons that help to better illustrate the needs and wants of the e-residents. As a result of this project, the e-Residency project team got some reassurance that they are on the right track as well as new ideas for next steps.
We made a pilot study for Luminor Bank in May 2020. The aim of this research project was to get initial insights regarding how the COVID-19 crisis has influenced people’s behaviour and use of different services and how might the crisis influence the future of bank services.
We conducted 8 semi-structured in-depth interviews with both the owners of small businesses and private customers to get a better overview of how the COVID-19 crisis has affected their everyday life, if it has in any way changed how they use bank services and how they view the role of the bank in the future now when their habits have changed. The results of this pilot study will be used as an input for developing new services.
From February to March 2020, we conducted a target group research for the Teach for Estonia (Noored Kooli) program .
The aim of the project was to map the worldview, expectations, attitudes, behavior, values and ideas of the target group, also their expectations to the brand. We interviewed potential participants of the program and those who eventually gave up the possibility to participate. To get a more complete picture of peoples’ experience and motivations and to see the long-term impact of the program on a personal level and in the wider educational landscape, we conducted a group interview with the alumni of the program.
As a project outcome we created personas, which will help to understand the personal motivations and expectations for the Teach for Estonia program and brand, also more broadly for the teachers profession. Through the personas we also covered the factors that influence people’s choices at different stages of their lives.
The results of the research show that the role of the teacher is considered to be very important in society, but at the same time it is a difficult and underpaid profession. The participants pointed out that the program has had a positive effect on the image of the teaching profession and the development of Estonian educationfield. Although the program is intensive and is not fit for everyone, it is certainly important in bringing new teachers to school and supporting them in the process. The results of the study help the design agency Velvet to develop the program’s brand and communication strategy.
The project was supported by National Foundation of Civil Society.
We conducted 24 user interviews for the UX team at Swedbank in the spring 2020. The aim of the project was to better understand which data is seen as personal data and in which cases are people willing to share their personal data with a bank. These interviews are an important input both in changing the format of asking for a consent and in rethinking the role that the bank plays in a person’s life.
The interviews were based on the user research model which was developed at the head office of Swedbank. One part of this model was involving people based on the Big Five personality traits. The same research model was used both in Estonia and in Sweden in order to compare and contrast the users. The interviews also helped to uncover cultural differences. It turned out that Estonians and Swedes are not as different as it may seem when it comes to personal data.
From December 2019 to February 2020, we conducted a research commissioned by the Government Office and the Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia to map the challenges and experiences of children’s accessibility. Research findings provided firstly input to the work of Estonian government’s task force for accessibility, but more broadly they also benefit for various aspects of society: planning public transport network or road infrastructure, providing goods and services, operating schools etc.
About 60 children aged 7-14 from Tallinn, Märjamaa, Viljandi and Kohtla-Järve participated in the research. Among them were children with both Estonian and Russian home language. The main focus was on physical barriers, but children were also eager to share their experiences about social, psychological, behavioral barriers as well.
In addition to group interviews, we used walk-along-interviews, which means that the anthropologist walks with the child on his/her daily journey between home, school and after-school activities. Inspired by classical anthropological participatory observation, in a walk-along-interview children themselves could be guides and introducers of their daily life and activities. Among other things, the method makes it possible to provide answers to questions that a person cannot answer verbally, because he or she may not be even aware of it. This is especially visible when studying children’s experiences, as children are not yet used to analyzing and discussing their everyday activities in a more abstract way. We recorded the walk-along-interviews with photo and video equipment, gathering this way information about the physical obstacles and the behavioral aspects of the target group, which formed the backbone of the research.
In November 2019 CAAE conducted in-depth interviews for the Kalamaja Community Museum. We conducted several interviews with real estate developers, urban planners, urban activists and inhabitants of Kalaranna area in Northern Tallinn. The aim of the project was to map the opposing views of the parties involved in the development of Kalaranna. The results of the project can be seen in the temporary exhibition “Defenders of Kalaranna” in community museum.
In October 2019 in collaboration with the Department of ethnology of the University of Tartu we conducted a project with the aim to gain input for better arrangement of the internship system. We focused on internships within the following MA curriculums in the Institute of Cultural Research: Ethnology, folkloristics and applied anthropology; Cultural management; Folkloristics and applied heritage studies.
To get feedback and ideas on how to better the system, we brought together programme coordinators, representatives of the organisations who offer internship opportunities (museums, startups etc.) and students. A focus group interview was conducted in Tallinn and a day-long workshop in Tartu. We discussed the different parties expectations, fears and ideas, looking for solutions for improving the system.
From December 2019 till January 2020 we conducted a qualitative research for the Party of European Socialists. The aim of the project was to reach a better understanding of the worldview of progressive voters and their expectations and attitude towards the EU.
We conducted 18 semi-structured in-depth interviews to understand better people’s worldviews and expectations to political leaders. The results were presented in the form of 6 personas that help to apprehend the complexity and variety of rather progressive people and their worlds. The personas give input to how different people argue their political preferences, how they make decisions on who to vote for and what might be the most important topics and problems for them that determine their preferences.
During October 7–9, 2019 Estonian National Museum hosted a conference titled “Museums 2030 – Sharing recipes for a better future” – the annual event of the Network of European Museum organisations NEMO. We engaged the students of folkloristics and applied heritage from the University of Tartu in studying the conference participants’ feedback to the museum’s two permanent expositions – “Encounters” and “Echo of the Urals”. We also explored participants’ personal experiences of Tartu and Estonia as tourist destinations.
In this study we combined a variety of methods – short interviews, participant observations during the excursions and walk-along interviews with participants during their independent explorations of expositions. The use of different methods allowed us to discover a large range of details that have its effect on the entire visitor experience. The findings of the study help the museum to understand better, how visitors relate to the expositions and what they place significance on within the space in general. Also, which exhibits and themes catch the attention of visitors more, and what is it about them that is acknowledged and appreciated.
In August 2019 we conducted a user testing session for Motor Agency who was then about to open Proto Invention Factory in Tallinn. The purpose of the project was to give input before the official opening to the developers, designers and engineers on how to improve the VR games according to the experiences of potential users and avoid bigger mistakes and dissatisfaction.
We invited 8 people to try out 5 different VR games. They were all regular users (age 7–66) without any at all or extensive prior experience with VR games. The outcome of the project was a set of recommendations on 1) how to make the games physically more comfortable for users (chairs, buttons, levers and other technical gadgets and objects); 2) what to consider to change inside the game so that users would get as positive emotions from the games as possible; 3) what kind of instructions do people need for understanding what they had to do in the game. In addition, we provided the Motor Agency team with communication suggestions on how to address different target groups better.
To document the process and the experiences we used a video camera and a voice recorder. We found video to be essential for noticing, demonstrating and illustrating users’ struggles and problems as well as positive feelings with the all the five games.
In January and February 2019 we researched the eagerness, willingness but also the opportunities for low-educated adults to continue their educational path and attain a vocational secondary education. Our goal was to understand the needs, possibilities, as well as attitudes of this social group.
We conducted 12 in-depth interviews with adults either lacking or currently pursuing secondary education in various regions in Estonia. Also, two focus groups were held with the administrators of academic institutions.
The interviews helped to open up a multitude of obstacles and problems from a variety of perspectives and highlighted the challenges faced by adults considering the continuation of their educational path. Among them are insufficient Estonian or English language proficiency, low self-esteem, low IT-skills, challenges with balancing the studies with family or work life, etc. A significant concern for most interviewees is the fear of decreased economic well-being during the studies, and small scholarships.
Our analysis of the interviews and focus groups served as an insight for the research commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Science and conducted by Praxis, the Centre for Policy Studies.
In May–June 2019, we provided insight for analysis carried out by Praxis, the Centre for Policy Studies. We conducted 15 interviews with people who had been enrolled in the mobility support programme of The Unemployment Insurance Fund of Estonia. Within a four month period, this programme compensated transportation costs for people who took up a job farther than 30 km from home.
The interviews focusing on the issues of working further away from home, were carried out in various regions in Estonia. The aim was to understand the users’ perspective on how this supportive measure helped to find work and commute to work, and how the programme could be improved in the future.
DEEP VIEW (DEcEnt and Productive VIrtual Work) is an international research project covering five countries (Estonia, Spain, Portugal, Austria and Denmark) that aims at favouring a deeper understanding on how social dialogue and collective bargaining at national, sectoral and company level are addressing the challenges of work transformation due to new ICTs with the view of promoting decent and productive virtual work.
Praxis, the Centre for Policy Studies, the Estonian partner in the consortia, requested our assistance with carrying out the case-studies based on interviews in three Estonian companies. The focus was on three sectors: financial activities, ICT and home care activities.
The interviews indicated that in Estonia, trade unions and collective bargaining have had essentially no role in promoting or regulating forms of virtual work. While the research questions assumed that a formal negotiation process had taken place between the representatives of employers and employees, in the Estonian finance and IT companies involved in the study, virtual working conditions had evolved over a period of time and as part of the principle of flexible working conditions. Although very general guidelines exist, the daily practices of virtual work are worked out within individual departments.
Photo credits: Renee Altrov, https://toolbox.estonia.ee/
During February and March 2019, the Center for Applied Anthropology of Estonia co-operated with communication agency Akkadian and conducted research on the e-Residency programme of Estonia.
The aim of this research was to attain a better understanding of a group of potential Estonian e-residents referred to as “remote entrepreneurs” – those who live and work between different countries and have established or are planning to establish a business which could potentially be registered in Estonia via e-Residency.
We engaged participants from among the current e-residents as well as non e-residents – altogether 28 people from 21 different countries (from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas). In-depth video interviews with participants broadened the understanding of who are e-Residents of Estonia, what do they value, what motivates entrepreneurs to become e-Residents, what are their expectations and what kind of connections do potential or current e-Residents have or expect to have with Estonia. Based on the analysis of the interviews we created five user personas.
Research findings serve as an insight into the strategic planning on how to improve the quality of the e-Residency programme, how to reach out to entrepreneurs who could potentially find e-Residency useful and would create successful businesses via the e-Residency programme.
In winter 2019 we conducted an ethnographic study of a virtual community #Kogumispäevik. This Facebook group was initiated by Swedbank in order to improve financial capabilities of this group’s members.
We analysed members’ posts between August 2018 – February 2019 in order to determine the main challenges and conflicting principles people experience as obstacles in making better financial decisions. We also indicated how the behaviour and standards of saving as well as managing households conform with the cultural norms in Estonia. From the analysis we drew main user profiles, made suggestions on the role of Swedbank as the moderator of the group, and gave recommendations into the future development and PR activities, as well as behavioural nudges, that would help people develop financial literacy and succeed in their goals of better financial decision-making in everyday life.
Enterprise Estonia’s “Work in Estonia” programme’s goals are to introduce Estonia as an attractive working and living destination for overseas talent. Communication agency Akkadian involved anthropologists in a pilot project aiming to improve the programme’s design and services.
We conducted interviews with foreign specialists who were about to or had recently left Estonia after being employed here. The analysis of these interviews shed light on the experiences of working and living in Estonia, as well as the reasons why people reach a decision to leave.
It became apparent that even if the foreign specialist is a highly valued employee and is satisfied with both good working conditions and salary, the family may decide to leave if his/here partner or children have difficulties with adjusting – either not being able to find employment or friends at school. If the family members are unable to create their own social network, they fail to connect with the society and the country. The interviews also shed light on cultural differences that foreigners experience in interpersonal communication.
The findings of this project serve to improve the services and communications of “Work in Estonia” programme.
Photo Credits:Renee Altrov, https://toolbox.estonia.ee/
In the spring of 2019 we carried out 8 user interviews for Swedbank Estonia’s UX team. The purpose of the interviews was to gain a better sense of customers’ expectations and preferences for the future banking solutions. The interviews helped to validate the chosen future strategies and set priorities for the following development projects.
In this project we carried out a specific format of UX interviews that was developed at Swedbank’s headquarters and was replicated in various countries. The interviews thus also helped to highlight the cultural differences to be taken into account in service design within Swedbank’s various markets of operation.
In January and February 2019 we researched the eagerness, willingness but also the opportunities for low-educated adults to continue their educational path and attain a vocational secondary education. Our goal was to understand the needs, possibilities, as well as attitudes of this social group.
We conducted 12 in-depth interviews with adults either lacking or currently pursuing secondary education in various regions in Estonia. Also, two focus groups were held with the administrators of academic institutions.
The interviews helped to open up a multitude of obstacles and problems from a variety of perspectives and highlighted the challenges faced by adults considering the continuation of their educational path. Among them are insufficient Estonian or English language proficiency, low self-esteem, low IT-skills, challenges with balancing the studies with family or work life, etc. A significant concern for most interviewees is the fear of decreased economic well-being during the studies, and small scholarships.
Our analysis of the interviews and focus groups served as an insight for the research commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Science and conducted by Praxis, the Centre for Policy Studies.