Public Processes Are Open for Play

Abstract

As public services become digital and online, both the need to design digital public services closer to citizens’ expectations and to provide ways to improve their participation and engagement increases. To participate and co-design, citizens must understand how the public service is delivered, but understanding service provision is challenging for non-technical subjects. This article argues that games can promote transparency of public service processes and citizens’ understanding of them. We designed games related to three distinct public service delivery scenarios using Play Your Process (PYP), a method which translates business process models into game design artifacts. We also investigate players’ ability to understand the process designed into these games through evaluation settings based on qualitative and quantitative analyses, using questionnaires and interviews. Results show that these games can help citizens understand the process execution aspects, with at least 95% confidence through statistical analysis. This research is innovative by showing an approach to systematically design serious games describing public processes as a potential tool for citizen-government transparency and understanding of public process delivery, particularly in Brazil.