developed by [24]. This theory suggests that users confronted to a new technology are
influenced in their use by the:
• Perceived usefulness : Davis defines it as “the degree to which a person believes that
using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance”;
• Perceived ease-of-use: Davis describes this as “the degree to which a person believes
that using a particular system would be free from effort”.
Although this theory was developed for technological systems we believe it can be applied
to serious games and design thinking workshop as well. Other dimensions such as perceived
risks, costs, immediacy, or fun, are not formally integrated in our assessment but will be
discussed in an ad-hoc manner in the next section.
4 Lessons Learned
hal-00616740, version 1 - 24 Aug 2011
We used the above framework as a guideline for assessing the result of this work in terms
of the impact of design thinking and serious gaming as significant factors augmenting
participation. These findings, although not formally surveyed are however the result of
informal debriefing sessions that took place systematically after each workshop. These
sessions involved gathering feedback form the participants through discussions; later
discussions also took place among the workshop organizers. It is for this reason this paper is
presented as “lessons learned” rather than actual formal findings. Future work to validate our
hypothesis will require the use of formal quantitative and / or qualitative survey techniques.
Perceived usefulness. Based on informal discussions and debriefing sessions following all
workshops, it is clear that the vast majority of workshop participants explicitly stated that both
the actual outcome of the workshop and the methods used would significantly contribute to
enhancing their performance in their work. Some workshops have actually led to follow up
workshops or concrete actions based on the outcome.
Perceived ease-of-use. Again, all feedbacks converged acknowledging the high degree of
reusability of the methods and techniques. This is further strengthened by the fact that all our
workshops are documented in open workshop briefs available for anyone to take, use and
enhance. The briefs describe in detail everything that is needed to run the workshops. As an
example, the Create the Service Box brief can be found here [21]. One participant mentioned
after a workshop that he would use these techniques in work related problem-solving and
mediation meetings. This illustrates the high degree of ease of use of the approach.
Cognitive shielding and safe house phenomenon. Interestingly we have found from our
participants that as an external not for profit Think Tank we carry a tremendous potential as a
“safe place” for experiencing, testing, trying new ideas that would have never surfaced
otherwise or would have been difficult to argue in their respective professional environments.
We refer to this phenomenon as “cognitive shielding” as it basically offers a protected
environment for expressing such ideas and positions with much less risk.
Power of tangibilizing the intangible. All our workshops have a strong focus on
tangibilization. Whether a Service Box, Stories, etc., they all rely on the production of an
artifact. The key point here is that the artifact serves as the focus point allowing a much
needed intermediation between people. The attention is therefore transferred on this artifact
rather than between people. Moreover, it significantly contributes to reducing the complexity
of the issues being discussed. Such tangible artifacts become easier to deal with than
concepts. This has also proven to be a major value of the approach. The serious gaming