Embracing Improvisation to Improve City of Reykjavik Forms

Arna Ýr Sævarsdóttir

Before joining the City of Reykjavik as head of service and transformation, Arna Ýr Sævarsdóttir oversaw service delivery for a national airline and trained as a contemporary dancer. At a glance, that path may seem circuitous. For Arna, it was a straight shot to a career in public service.

“All three areas revolve around creating a positive experience and efficiency for the user,” she said. “When you are dancing you are creating an experience for the audience, telling a story, you want the audience to be touched in some way. The same goes for service — it is a creation of experience. You are touching and participating in people’s lives through services, just like art and dance does.”

Another common thread: improvisation. During the discovery phase of a project to digitize Reykjavik’s school support services, Arna’s team encountered a blizzard of clunky forms and confusing paperwork. So they pivoted, focusing on a redesign that aimed to “create a form that an 8-year-old could read and understand.” The prototype, developed with input from parents, school officials and social workers, deployed as the team continued to work on the larger effort, which included digital design and a procedural overhaul. That process now serves as a guideline for similar projects across the city.

“What I find interesting, and what gives me a sense of purpose with my work, is the fact that I know that the work that I do affects people’s lives in a positive manner,” Arna said. “We are striving to make things easier for people. We are creating an environment where citizens feel that their city supports them when they need the support, and that support is just there—they do not need to jump through hoops to get it.”

FormFest Session Abstract & Details

International Work on Human Centered Form Design

Breakout Session | December 4, 2024 | 12:50-1:50 PMET

Learn about human centered form improvements from the City of Reykjavik and the German DigitalService’s form simplification project.

From paper to progress: Reykjavík’s transformation of student support forms

Arna Saevarsdottir

This session will showcase Reykjavik’s journey from a cumbersome paper-based system to a streamlined digital solution, dramatically improving response times and care quality for students in need. We’ll discuss how we combined digital innovation with human-centered design to create “A Better City for Children.” Attendees will learn: strategies for digitizing complex government forms and processes, techniques for gathering stakeholder input (including creative data collection methods), and how to implement and iterate on digital solutions in public education.