Designing games for policy making
Sruthi Krishnan is a Writer and a Designer, with a focus on participatory media. She is a co-founder of Fields of View, a non-profit organisation that designs tools to make better public policy. Fields of View has been listed among top think tanks worldwide and over the past decade has designed and implemented tools such as games and simulations to improve public participation and evidence-based planning. She co-authored ‘We are Not Users: Dialogues, Diversity, and Design’ that was published in February 2020 by MIT Press, USA. The book is about how participatory design is at the heart of tackling the complex social issues we face today.
At Fields of View, Sruthi and her team work towards attracting public participation in a discourse around policies of the government through games.
Some of the games created by Fields of View include City Game, Kattu Kathe, Role play (rubbish). After using Kattu Kathe, FOV is building a toolkit for civil society, which has two phases. In the first phase one would play the game. While people play the game they also share stories in different booths. There are note takers who note down the issues the person has faced (according to their stories). In the second phase people sit in groups and prioritise the issues. One goal of doing this was that in public hearing sessions people come up with personal problems. This helps in developing a sense in people about the problems they can talk about in public spaces, so that effectively as a community they are able to engage the Policy Maker. When the planners play this game it is called Tape City as they see the city as networks. Thus, the games do not tell what to do but it brings out what needs to be done in a more constructive manner.
For Sruthi life is not a path with only yes and no in two directions instead it is more like rowing a boat and navigating through the currents, and this is the experience that should be lived through games.