Mirroring the city

Abstract

The objective of this thesis was to bridge the gap between the municipality of The Hague and the residents with lower digital proficiency, by answering the main research question: How can less digitally proficient residents be included in resident research?

stadskamer & inclusive resident research
his project was carried out in collaboration with the municipality of The Hague, specifically The Stadskamer. The Stadskamer is part of the municipality-wide expertise centre of the Innovation and Services team. Here, residents can provide feedback and share ideas about municipal services, actively participating in their improvement. The Stadskamer uses resident research to examine how the municipality can improve its services. They believe in the potential of inclusive resident research: this type of research focuses on reaching and involving residents who are usually underrepresented in resident research.

The Stadskamer works hard towards inclusive resident research, yet the reality is still different. Many groups have not yet been involved in research, preventing (policy) decisions from being made that align with reality.

Context
One of the underrepresented groups were residents with lower digital proficiency. This group was not very visible for the Stadskamer and they had little means to effectively involve them in resident research. Their current research strategy was not working. There is also a dearth of literature specifically addressing the needs of digitally less proficient residents. This research therefore focused on bridging the gap between existing literature and practice and design a strategy-based intervention for the municipality to contribute to a better and more inclusive approach to resident research.

Approach
In order to design the intervention, I conducted literature- and desk research, and I embarked on an exploratory journey to discover the best strategic approach. I used experiential learning as a central methodology. It consists of four stages: experiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting. This approach aligns well with the needs of conducting inclusive research, as it emphasizes learning from direct experiences and observing the actions and consequences of others.

Design results
The final design concept is the strategy for involving less digitally proficient residents in resident research, including research tools, presented in the form of a handbook. This handbook provides all the practical guidelines needed to successfully conduct research with less digitally proficient residents. The strategy consists of five building blocks, each representing a step in the process of including the target group in research. These include identifying, reaching, approaching and involving less digitally proficient residents, and providing feedback.

Conclusion
Applying this strategy, showed that it is feasible, viable and desirable. It can be concluded that the final design successfully provides the Stadskamer with a strategic approach that facilitates the inclusion of digitally less proficient residents in the resident research.

This thesis also contributes to the field of science and design as it validates and generates knowledge that is directly applicable. The findings provide a basis for the development of more effective municipal policies and address the gap in existing literature by providing specific information on conducting research with this target group.