This was presented at mySociety's TICTeC Show & Tell event, which was held virtually on 20th April 2021. More details on the event can be found here: https://tictec.mysociety.org/showandtells/2021

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© 2021 ideas42 1
BEHAVIORAL DESIGN FOR
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Abigail Sellman, ideas42 & Adrian Kearns, OpenUp
April 20, 2021

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BACKGROUND
• In South Africa, community
engagement in local policy-making is
crucial for effective governance
• Legislation requires that municipalities
ensure community participation
• 65.5% of individuals had never spoken
to a local councilor
• 21.5% of individuals never went to a community
meeting but “would if they had the chance”
Source: Afrobarometer Round 7 2016/18
, but…

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BACKGROUND, CONTD
• OpenUp developed a digital tool for community members with
information on how to engage in local policy-making.
• COVID 19 – its impact reinforced the need for civic tech to
ensure public participation.
• We needed to establish buy-in from the local municipality.
• We anticipated resistance, it has always been a challenge
• The municipality has to be “comfortable”

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BACKGROUND, CONTD
• We needed to take the tool from informing to empowering and
allowing for a citizen to actively engage in local government.
• We needed to know more about the environment
• We needed to know why citizens were not participating

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ECONOMICS
PSYCHOLOGY
DESIGN
ideas42 used insights from
behavioral science – research
explaining why people do what
they do – to diagnose barriers
and design solutions to improve
the digital participation tool.
APPLYING A BEHAVIORAL DESIGN METHODOLOGY

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Community members do not consider
themselves as the type of person
who formally participates in local-
policymaking.
IDENTITY
BEHAVIORAL BARRIER #1
IDENTITY

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Why does this barrier exist?
Participation channels are predominantly
in English, providing an implicit social signal
of who can/should participate.
BEHAVIORAL BARRIER #1
IDENTITY

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Community members face
hassles to participation.
HASSLES
BEHAVIORAL BARRIER #2
HASSLES

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Why does this barrier exist?
Hassle factors like navigating multiple
platforms, finding directions to the
municipal office, and taking many other
small actions can have a disproportionate
affect on outcomes.
BEHAVIORAL BARRIER #2
HASSLES

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FROM BEHAVIORAL DIAGNOSIS TO DESIGN
IDENTITY HASSLES

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LESSONS FROM EMPLOYING BEHAVIORAL DESIGN
Municipalities appreciated the
behaviorally-designed features
Behavioral design principles can
be applied more generally
• Local officials were highly engaged when
learning about the new features and
are eager to see how impacts.
• OpenUp plans to measure the tool’s
usage and impacts on participation.
• The insight to remove hassles can be
applied widely to improve the
development of civic-technology.
• Behavioral insights can help us
understand the interrelationship
between citizen and officials’ behavior.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS
Drawing on a deep
understanding of human
behavior can make tech
more impactful.
Information alone is
often not sufficient for
civic-technology to
inspire action.
Behavioral design
principles can be
applied widely and help
build stakeholder buy-in.

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THANK YOU! Abigail Sellman asellman@ideas42.org
Adrian Kearns adrian@openup.co.za