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Redesigning unemployment

Degree Project 2026

Reflecting for hope The project investigates how design can bridge the gap between the individual and the unemployment system, as well as between the individual and their personal support network with the goal of creating hope and momentum. The tool functions as a boundary object — something that allows different social worlds to communicate and collaborate through a shared structure. It is designed to function across contexts ranging from private conversations with friends and family to professional meetings with job coaches, employment services, and support organisations. By creating a shared visual language around unemployment, the project seeks to democratize conversations that are often shaped by power imbalances and institutional structures. By changing the way we talk about unemployment we give the person behind it to make their voice heard. Feeling heard and feeling seen is what fosters long-term hope in a hopeless situation.

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Project Information

Being unemployed often means living in a state of uncertainty. A lack of overview, control, social belonging, and future orientation can leave individuals feeling isolated and unmotivated.

At the same time, there is a lack of accessible and supportive tools for people navigating unemployment. Many are placed in situations of powerlessness where long-term and sustainable support from the system is difficult to access. Labour market dynamics are shaped by structural conditions that largely remain outside the control of the individual. However, employability is also influenced by relational and emotional factors, such as self-confidence, support systems, and communication.

This project explores where responsibility lies between the individual and the system — and how design might help bridge that gap.

The aim of the project is therefore to develop a tool that fosters hope, momentum, and ownership over one’s situation, while creating a stronger sense of control and direction.

Through interviews and workshops, it became evident that hope is often created in human interaction. Productive conversations where people feel listened to, validated, and understood. The final outcome is therefore a communication tool designed to support reflective and constructive conversations between job seekers and the systems and people surrounding them.

The tool is not intended to solve unemployment itself, but rather to create better conditions for communication, reflection, collaboration, and shared understanding.

Methods

The project follows the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions’ (SKR) service design methodology in order to further make this prodject realistically implementable.

Through workshops, interviews, and collaborative prototyping sessions, it became clear that hope and momentum in the lives of unemployed individuals are largely created through human interaction and the feeling of being seen and heard. The project therefore focused on prototyping different forms of conversational structures and physical trigger materials to explore how conversations could become more productive, reflective, and motivating.

Through iterative form exploration and with democratic design principles in mind, these conversations gradually took physical form in the final conversation tool.

Result

“After this, you know more about me — and I know more about you — than my caseworker does.”

This is a quote from an unemployed person after a workshop where we prototyped conversations about their situation. I think that summarizes both the problem and the solution.

A mutual way of structuring conversations about unemployment became the result, to talk about it is key not only for emotional support, but also for strengthening the individual’s belief in their own ability to find work. At the same time, these conversations help professionals gain a deeper understanding of a person’s situation, needs, and possibilities.

The final outcome is a portable physical conversation tool intended to be used both individually and together with others — such as family members, friends, job coaches, employment services, or organisations like Rusta och Matcha and Arbetsförmedlingen.

The purpose of the tool is to visualize problems, goals, and possible solutions in order to create structure, emotional safety, and future-oriented thinking on an individual level. Through continuous use and documentation, the tool also has the potential to reveal larger structural problems within the unemployment support system itself. In theory, recurring patterns and shared experiences could contribute to sustainable system change built from lived experiences rather than assumed needs.

The physical tool is connected to a digital system where users can document conversations, reflections, and progress over time. The purpose of the digital component is to create continuity, visualize progress, and break larger goals into smaller and more manageable steps