Student Service Design Challenge '25
Team 7th Sense
My Role
App design, User Research, Service Design Blueprint, Ideation, Business Model Canvas
Team
Sharvari, Sharvaree, Jasmeet, Divya, Aslesha, Pranjal (Me), Arpita
Deliverables
Service Design Blueprint, Soution Prototypes, Solution Video
Timeline
5 months (Jan 2025- June 2025)
//Recognition
🏆 1st Runner Up – Estonia Government Brief, SSDC 2025
Our solution stood out for its:
Deep contextual grounding in Mumbai’s labour ecosystem
Worker-first design and hybrid accessibility
Alignment with Estonia’s digital-first, inclusive governance vision
// TL;DR
The Student Service Design Challenge 2025, organized in collaboration with the Estonian Government (and other organisations), posed a global brief:
“How might we create personalized digital-first public services for all?”
Estonia, widely known for its e-governance success, wanted students worldwide to imagine inclusive digital public services that could address marginalized communities and create more transparent, citizen-first systems.
Our team — 7th Sense — chose to work on this challenge through the lens of India’s vast informal workforce, specifically daily wage naka workers in Mumbai, one of the city’s most invisible yet essential communities.
// About Student Service Design Challenge
The Student Service Design Challenge (SSDC) is a global award that empowers the next generation of designers to create people-centred, future-oriented services that support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Open to students worldwide, it encourages fresh, unbiased, and inclusive approaches to rethinking outdated systems and non-inclusive business models.
The challenge aims to inspire disruptive yet sustainable service innovations that deliver the right solutions to the right people — in accessible, affordable, and impactful ways — contributing to global wellbeing and long-term equity.
// Process followed - Timeline
// Understanding the Context: Informal Labour in India
Over 90% of India’s workforce (450 million people) is employed in the informal sector.
In Mumbai, labour nakas (street-side junctions where workers gather daily) serve as hiring points for construction and casual jobs.
Despite their economic contribution, workers face deep systemic issues:
Exploitative middlemen taking 20–40% cuts from wages
Wage delays and underpayment
Lack of awareness about rights and welfare schemes (e.g., e-Shram, PM-SYM)
No formal work records, leaving disputes unresolved
Migrant isolation and stigma
Zero access to healthcare, pension, or social protection
We mapped these realities through field research, worker interviews, and experience mapping, distilling the vulnerabilities into actionable insights.
From empathy and discovery phases, six recurring problem areas emerged:
Exploitative middlemen draining wages
Occupation-based stigma and lack of dignity
Low awareness of rights & welfare
Limited access to healthcare, pensions, contracts
Migrant isolation & lack of support networks
No representation or bargaining power
Through personas like Ramesh Yadav — a migrant mason navigating daily uncertainty — we reframed the challenge into:
// The Solution: DigiNaka
DigiNaka is a hybrid digital + physical service ecosystem that transforms the informal labour naka into a trusted, transparent, and inclusive employment hub.
It empowers workers by providing:
Verified job opportunities without middlemen
Direct, timely wage payments with digital records
Access to welfare schemes (e.g., insurance, pensions, housing)
A portable worker identity & history to build long-term credibility
It also benefits contractors through:
Verified labour pools for reliable hiring
Easy digital contracts & auto-pay
Ratings & incentives for transparent practices
// Service Blueprint Highlights
The blueprint details DigiNaka’s ecosystem across six phases of the worker journey:
Migration & Settlement – Posters + kiosks create entry points; biometric onboarding issues a DigiNaka ID.
Job Searching & Networking – Hybrid model (app, SMS, kiosks) ensures inclusivity for digitally illiterate workers.
Employment & Experience – Verified contracts, attendance logging, and digital work histories build trust.
Wage Collection Post Job – Auto-pay, wage slips, and grievance redressal reduce wage theft.
Skill Progression & Training – Workers enroll in upskilling; contractors receive worker recommendations.
Future Planning & Benefits – Workers access pensions, health schemes, insurance, and food subsidies — all tracked via DigiNaka ID.
This end-to-end digital governance model brings visibility, dignity, and protection to invisible labour.
// Value Proposition
For Workers: Fair wages, verified work history, welfare access, financial literacy, dignity
For Contractors: Trustworthy labour pool, simplified hiring, incentive-driven compliance
For Government: Real-time labour data, improved welfare delivery, formalization of informal workforce
// Impact & Global Relevance
Starting with Mumbai’s naka workers, DigiNaka is designed to scale to any informal workforce globally — from gig workers in India to day labourers in Africa or Latin America.
Like Estonia’s people-first governance, DigiNaka demonstrates how simple, multilingual, inclusive technology can bridge informal populations with public systems.
It is not just an app — it is a blueprint for digital inclusion worldwide.
// Key learnings
Designing for inclusivity requires hybrid systems
I learned that when serving marginalized communities like daily wage workers, purely digital solutions are not enough. Combining low-tech physical touchpoints (kiosks, posters, toll-free numbers) with digital infrastructure creates real accessibility.
Complex problems need ecosystem thinking
This project strengthened my ability to think beyond the “app” and design an end-to-end service blueprint, connecting workers, contractors, and government systems into one value chain.
Scalability and global relevance
By aligning with Estonia’s digital-first governance vision, I understood how a locally-rooted solution can inspire globally-relevant models for informal labour and other underserved populations.
fin.
Next project
