"What are my options"-concept ("Wat mag er wel")

During the global COVID-19  pandemic government agencies around the globe have introduced measures to stop the spread of the virus. Many of the measures limited the exposure of people to others, and relate to maintaining (physical) distance. This has resulted in reduced availability and access to services and social contacts. As the pandemic continues, the effects of the resulting social distance become increasingly noticeable in our societies and communities. Especially around the holidays and other special events that normally would be opportunities to connect. Combined with the long duration of these measures, people are struggling to maintain distance, adhere to the measures and follow the guidelines. People are looking for ways to make social connections, and even with the best intentions, it can be hard to follow the rules.

Lucky, information and communication technologies (ICTs), creative thinking and (digital) communities have led to creative ideas to stay engaged and facilitate social contacts. In order to not only remind people of the measures and their importance, it is also important to share information about possibilities. In other words, an additional narrative not on restrictions but possibilities. At the same time, people may suffer from an information overload, and need to apply efforts to come up with suitable alternatives. Using modern technologies relevant suggestions can be tailored to the context of the user. We introduce this concept note and the related prototype therefore to demonstrate two principles:

1. Introducing an additional narrative from restrictions to possibilities. And therefore creating an extra incentive for the public to act in accordance with the measures.

2. Tailoring the information to the user-specific context. Thus reducing the cognitive load for people to identify and assess possibilities for undertaking activities.

The prototype is available at: https://dev.watmagweltijdenscrisis.nl/. We encourage you to take these concepts and design documents and develop your own implementations. We invite you to share your ideas, projects and findings with us. At the same time, if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback it would be most welcome.