We are all citizens, but how might we make better decisions as a society? How are policies made, and how could we reimagine the policy making process? What role might design play? Which are the tools and processes available for leveraging collective intelligence from the society?

All these are questions which arise in a policy arena enabled by digital technologies. Participatory budgeting, digital democracy and open government are current and future trends which ask more of design in order to ensure success.

In this course, you will learn about how policies are being made in different contexts and cultures and how design can play several key roles in it. You will be presented with case studies of global initiatives such as Policy Lab from UK, e-residency from Estonia, a crowdsourced constitution from Iceland, and “fork the government” from Taiwan, where a shadow government was established using open data.

Most importantly, you will experience a hands-on process for a grassroots approach to policy making, learning tools to help make change not only by enabling people to have a say, but also by making or prototyping where we might go as a society!