Municipalities make decisions that affect many different groups. Yet there are also stakeholders who don't have a direct seat at the table and are therefore harder to represent.

For this project we focused on Generation Alpha. This generation is strongly affected by decisions made today, but has little influence of its own on the decision-making process.

The municipality of Amersfoort therefore asked us to design a tool that helps bring the needs and values of Generation Alpha into decision-making.

We started with desk research into existing methods for involving different stakeholders in decision-making. We also researched the Generation Alpha target group and mapped out the municipality's existing decision-making process.

Based on this research we developed a persona representing Generation Alpha. This gave us a concrete perspective to keep in mind throughout the design process.

One key insight was that policymakers can't speak with every stakeholder directly. There was therefore a need for a way to consciously explore other perspectives during the decision-making process.

To arrive at a solution together with the municipality, we organised a co-design session with municipal staff and a sustainability specialist. Using various creative exercises, we explored how to combine perspective-taking, empathy and interaction.

This is how Inclusio came about: an interactive board game for inclusive decision-making.

Players are given a persona and look at an existing issue from that person's perspective. Using scenario and question cards, they discuss what this stakeholder would find important and what consequences a decision could have for this group.

That turns making a decision into a moment to not only look at your own perspective, but to consciously take other interests into account too.

We tested the prototype during a session at the Municipality of Amersfoort with 12 participants, including aldermen, the deputy mayor and communication specialists. We observed how they used the game and gathered feedback on things like usability, duration and how well the concept worked.

Based on this we improved things like the time limit, personas, scenarios, game instructions and the structure of the board.

The end result is an interactive board game that lets policymakers factor different perspectives into their decision-making.

Inclusio makes it possible to discuss existing municipal issues from the perspective of a specific stakeholder. The concept was developed for Generation Alpha, but could be expanded in the future to other groups that are less directly represented.

This project showed me how to translate a complex societal issue into an approachable, tangible design form.

I found the combination of research, co-design and interactive design especially interesting. By actually testing the concept with municipal staff, we could improve the game in a targeted way and better align it with real practice.