Quality information on the activities of tens of thousands of youth organizations with the Järjestin data collection service

“The Finnish youth sector field is quite diverse, and people working within it have very different digital skills. Currently, data collection methods for various organizations also differ significantly. Therefore, it is practically impossible to get a complete picture of the impact of these organizations’ activities,” says Niina Autiomäki, the product owner of the Järjestin service from Humak.

She found the collaboration with Weasel Software to be natural and straightforward: despite a tight schedule, significant results were achieved. The project was tackled by a multidisciplinary “full-service team”, consisting of service designers, UX designers, developers, architects, and project managers. Together, they created Järjestin.

Over a hundred organizations in focus

Järjestin offers an intriguing view of the Finnish youth organization landscape, covering various hobbies, societal activities, and areas of interest. Some of the most well-known Finnish youth organizations include the Finnish Scouts, various political youth organizations, and the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare. In total, there are over a hundred different youth organizations in Finland.

“For the first time, there is now an opportunity to measure the impact of organizational activities and, through that, justify funding-related matters,” Autiomäki points out.

The Järjestin data collection service is in the pilot phase in the autumn of 2023 and will be launched in the spring of 2024. At that time, it will collect information about the activities of tens of thousands of Finnish young people involved in youth organizations.

Using modern methods

Due to the diversity of the youth organization field, user-centered development was practically the only way to achieve a successful outcome. Throughout the entire project, the active participants of youth sector organizations, i.e., future users of the Järjestin service, were at the center of the design process. Weasel Software carried out user-centered design using service design and user experience design methods. Users were involved in the service’s design through interviews and usability testing. The website was implemented in Finnish, Swedish, and English.

The end result is a cloud service offered as a SaaS solution. The user interface design was implemented using the Angular user interface library. The data collection system was implemented as a Headless-type web service using Angular, as well as Alfresco CMS and REST APIs. Data collection forms were implemented using the open-source SurveyJS JavaScript-based form builder tool. The web platform service is hosted on the public Amazon Web Services cloud service.

“From now on, all the data collected from organizations will also be available for their own use and benefit, such as in funding applications and demonstrating impact. This is valuable information that will influence how the organizations themselves steer their activities. The collected data is also openly accessible to all citizens on the youth statistics website, nuorisotilastot.fi,” Autiomäki summarizes.