World’s Worst involves thinking about the absolute worst example of a public service, professional or business! This method works because it get’s people talking and get’s their imagination running wild.
Method
Ask participants to think about the world’s worst example of a business or public service. You may also them to draw it or write it up too.
Step 1:
Start with a prompt to ask people to think of the world’s worst:
- Restaurant
- Hotel
- Politician
- Public park
- Shopping mall
- Bus station
- Taxi driver
- Website
- App
- Phone
Step 2:
Ask participants to describe the details of what would make this the world’s worst [X] and why. For example:
- Restaurant (rude waiters, undercooked food, slow service, dirty tables, chefs don’t wash their hands, dangerous kitchen, dirty bathrooms, rats!)
- Public park (rusty kids play equipment, needles on the floor, broken benches, dog poop, wild animals, litter)
- Website (links don’t work, site takes 25 minutes to fully load, pop-ups everywhere, can’t click on anything, can’t find any information, etc)
This could be a group discussion in small groups.
Step 3:
Once you’ve defined the ‘world’s worst’ example of a business or public service, define the exact opposite of this from all the “worst” prompts you’ve just discovered.
Outcome:
This will help you set yourself goals for designing a public service or customer experience. For example, if you defined a marker of the “world’s worst restaurant” as having a chef that doesn’t wash their hands, the opposite is staff who take hygiene very seriously – so there’s one of your service delivery outcomes.
This gives ownership of the service design to participants and provides you with useful insight.