In the citizen's shoes

Putting yourself in the citizen's experiences and situation helps build empathy and create a deeper understanding of the situation that organizations need to improve, which in turn builds a better foundation for developing good solutions.

Exercise

This exercise involves putting yourself in the citizen's experiences and situation by acting out the persona through group work. The group work addresses tasks that are typical for a design process, including work with insights, idea generation, and testing. With scripts as a starting point, it's up to each individual to shape and "act out" their role.

Personas

You can base this exercise on the typical user groups or on your own personas.

Possible products

• Scripts: Each participant gets their own script for a persona. This contains a short description of the persona (you are...), typical statements (you often say...), hobby horses (you are concerned about...) and needs (you need...), enough to understand what kind of character one should play out, but open enough to shape it as desired.
• Design tasks: A set of tasks typical for a design process that involve mapping the current situation, developing ideas, testing them, and improving in rounds, which the group works on while playing out their characters.
• Merch: Name tags, figures, or artifacts that represent the character you are.