Bufdir winner of Danish Design Award

Our client Bufdir (The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs) together with EGGS, have the honour to receive the Danish Design Award in the category Outstanding Service.

The jury’s verdict

Bufdir differentiated mediation services won the award with the following motivation from the jury:

“A new design tool to help people through difficult conversations and to avoid unnecessary conflicts. It’s an excellent example of design that can make a difference in a less obvious field, and an example of bravery from a public institution in using design principles for such an emotionally charged issue. The pilot project documents an increase in the number of conversations with the children, and that 40% of the parents in complicated conflicts come to an understanding. It is more than a digital tool based on algorithms, as it also facilitates human contacts throughout the service, for example, via a psychologist.”

It’s an excellent example of design that can make a difference in a less obvious field, and an example of bravery from a public institution in using design principles for such an emotionally charged issue.

Danish Design Award's jury

You can read the complete verdict here.

Less distress for children during divorce

Every year, 25,000 children in Norway experience their parents divorcing. Although many breakups are amicable, a lot end up in conflict, something which puts enormous strain on the children. Therefore, mediation is vital in reducing that strain, because even though couples fall apart, parenthood continues.

Every year many children have their lives turned upside-down due to their parent’s separating. Together with the Norwegian government, the team in EGGS Design redesigned their mediation service to put the needs of the children first.

Bufdir pursued opportunities for innovation and improvement in mediation services. There were geographical and professional differences among Norwegian mediation services and family counselling tasks had increased in complexity as a result of more diverse user groups. Therefore, the goal has been to create an improved mediation service – one that’s more user-centred and dependable.

Our friends in the industry, Making Waves, are currently developing one of many of the service components, the digital tool.

About the Danish Design Award

The Danish Design Award celebrates the best design solutions and highlights the ways in which design can make a difference for our society.Danish Design Award is the major annual Danish design event, and is presented byDesign denmark and Danish Design Centre. Read more about the award here.