Effective use of the Voxit platform to support decision-making

Citizen participation in the preparation and making of decisions can strengthen decision-making capacity and help achieve socially sustainable decisions. The prerequisite is that citizens can participate in the decision-making process at the right time and in a meaningful way. Therefore, it is important to thoroughly plan participation and choose the most suitable methods for the situation.

This memo provides guidance on the use of one digital participation method, the Voxit participation platform. Voxit is a low-threshold platform designed for the participation of large groups. The platform is particularly suitable for the early stages of decision-making when there is a need to deepen the shared situational understanding. On the platform, people discuss the chosen topic by voting on statements related to the topic and by proposing new statements for others to vote on. Participation is anonymous, easy, and fast, and trolling or online harassment are not possible.

The organisation of the Voxit participation process is divided into three important phases: planning the discussion, implementation, and analysis and reporting of the results. The final phase also includes evaluating the impacts of the Voxit process. The Voxit platform has already been widely used in Finland, especially in municipalities and wellbeing services counties.

This memo reviews the lessons learned from each phase of the Voxit discussion, based on experiences from discussions organised in Finland. The reader is given valuable tips on, among other things, implementing communication to support the Voxit discussion, moderating the discussion, and creating diverse analyses.

To ensure the impacts of the Voxit process, it is also important already at the planning stage to ensure that the process has a clear owner – a decision-maker or preparer who is committed to utilising the results of the Voxit discussion to support their work.