CHAPTER 12 The Design of People
proceeded to take the test), I hoped that this final point, combined with
written and verbal acknowledgements from all the stakeholders in the
following days would nudge the stakeholders to behave more rationally.
A better solution, in hindsight, would have been to have stakeholders
individually respond with a digital signature of sorts to pledge their
rationality; some email software like Microsoft Outlook allows you to
enforce a binary response (“I accept” or “I do not accept”) from each
recipient upon receipt of the email. Also, if the Brafman brothers’ report on
inmates’ perceptions of the legal process had broader applicability, then not
only would this kick-off email succeed in inspiring fruitful participation
in the process, but stakeholders would feel positive about the entire
experience irrespective of the outcome.
So, the question is: did it work?The Results
Simply put, yes. But it was the process and not the outcome that left me in
admiration of the research that enabled the outcome. Sure, we successfully
designed the website in three weeks. By any reasonable measure, this