Edge cases, extreme personas, preposterous scenarios?

Abstract

Over the past twenty years, the digital transformation process has forced the public sector to optimize its processes, improve its services, and generally perform better in terms of usability and accessibility, aiming to achieve the quality standards peculiar to the private sector. The evolution of digital has acted as a trojan horse to introduce designers within the public administration, but are we sure that these professionals were prepared to deal with the peculiar challenges of the public sector? its uniqueness? its complexity? Starting with the case of prisons as an example of a “total institution,” the paper tries to describe the main differences in dealing with public and private service design and proposes an experimental theoretical framework for hacking the classical tools of design, specifically service design, to promote a more responsible practice that is attentive not only to the needs but especially to the rights of people (all people) and the planet.