A five-month service design research engagement with Dublin City Council exploring how citizens manage refuse, using scenario-based research and prototyping to shape a better service.
The context Dublin City Council wanted to understand why illegal dumping happens and how Dubliners actually manage their refuse day to day. The goal was to move beyond enforcement only thinking and design a service that makes it easier for people to do the right thing — while also making it clearer how the council supports them. The challenge cut across multiple departments: waste management, environment, customer service, communications and enforcement. Siloed ways of working meant the citizen experience often felt fragmented, and internal teams had different views of what the problem was and how to fix it. What we did Over five months, from August 2024 to January 2025, we ran a qualitative service design research programme with Dublin citizens. The work was led by Humana and focused on understanding the real behaviours, attitudes and constraints behind refuse management in Dublin. 1. Qualitative research with citizens. We spoke with Dubliners about how they manage refuse, what frustrates them, what channels they use, and how they perceive the council’s role. 2. Scenario based research. We used hypothetical scenarios to explore how people would approach and resolve different refus
Humana Design — service design and design research consultancy, Dublin, Ireland.