Strengthening e-Participation through Design Thinking. Relevance for Better Digital Public Services

In response to a lack of public participation, public administrations have been looking to e-participation as one strategy to overcome current barriers, such as lack of legitimacy and capacity, issues of representativeness, inclusiveness, equity and power balance, difficulties in effective implementation, and appropriate inclusion of citizens in decision-making processes. To tackle these challenges, literature has recognised the importance of including design thinking methodologies to reinforce public engagement and translate citizens’ suggestions for digital public service implementation. Acknowledging that research in this area is still limited, this paper proposes a rationale for the relevance of design thinking in implementing effective e-participation. Reviewing the relevant literature, the study proposes four different areas in which design thinking can support more effective citizen engagement in e-participation: (i) Meaning creation and sense-making, (ii) Publics formation, (iii) Co-production, and (iv) Experimentation and prototyping.