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I think I understand how Rawls constructs the original position. It's a bit abstract, but here are the main features:

The Original Position

• People in the original position are behind a "veil of ignorance." We're going to say more about this veil in a minute, but in general it restricts what people know about themselves and the position they will occupy in society.
  
• People in the original position have a general knowledge of human psychology and sociology.
  
• People in the original position are rational.
  
• People in the original position are "mutually disinterested."
  
• People in the original position know that the "circumstances of justice" will obtain. It is not the case that everyone loves everyone or that everything is so abundant that questions of justice simply do not arise. Therefore, rules of justice are needed in the world they will live in.
  
• Certain formal constraints on the concept of right apply to whatever principles people choose. the rules must be impartial; and they must treat equal cases equally.
  
• People are capable of a sense of justice.

What Rawls wants us to do is to imagine people in this original position choosing the principles of justice that are to apply to the basic institutions of the society in which they will live. Because everyone agrees to the same set of principles, Rawls speaks of this choice as a "contract."

According to Pogge, Rawls hopes that he can ultimately bring us to a shared moral consensus that has three parts: (1) a criterion of justice agreed to by the parties in the original position; (2) a justification for that criterion; and (3) a basic structure design.