Hey Babe – Take a Walk on the Wild Side!: Why Role-playing and Visualization of User and Abuser “Scripts” Offer Useful Tools to Effectively “Think Thief” and Build Empathy to Design Against Crime

There is a self-evident need to “think thief“ when designing against crime. If we do not understand how thieves operate, how are we to thwart their efforts? Also, precisely how should designers go about trying to think like a thief? This paper attempts to address a gap in knowledge. It seeks to introduce role-playing and empathic tools and techniques from drama and design to generate strategies that might inspire and help designers to design against crime. The paper describes how immersive and empathic methods employed in design and theater, supported by “scripting“ exercises detailing the human and non-human actors and competencies in given crime scenarios, provide tools for designers to better understand the problem context. Such methods help generate insight into the opportunistic mindset of the casual thief, or even the professional career criminal, without losing sight of the need to design for users.