Public Service Design

Why are there dozens of beautiful apps to order food delivery in minutes, but signing up for food stamps online often takes hours of navigating confusing and complicated forms? 19% of our GDP is spent on social service programs, but too often these services don’t work for people who need help the most. Molly will share stories from her experience working inside and outside of government to make design more accessible. You’ll learn about the challenges and opportunities of designing for the public sector, and what you can do to help your community — even if you don’t consider yourself a designer.

Transcript

1. Public Service Design How you can make a difference 
 in your community Affect Conference • October 8th, 2016
2. Hi! I’m Molly. Who are you?
3. You’re all designers!
4. If you care about creating a great experience for someone using something you’ve made, you’re a designer.
5. If you can’t help thinking about how something could be better, 
 you’re a designer.
6. Design is not (only)
 how things look.
7. Design is not (only)
 how things look. Design is 
 how things work.
8. Government is a massive, continuous service design project. Dana Chisnell, United States Digital Service
9. tech problems/human problems
13. What do you do when you’re hungry?
18. What if you can’t afford groceries… let alone take out?
19. Food stamps reduce poverty
20. 2 million people are eligible for food stamps in CA, but not getting it
26. Efficiency in government is a 
 matter of social justice. John Norquist, former Milwaukee mayor
27. DESIGN MATTERS
29. “Now, with this program, I don’t have to worry about food, it’s one of the best feelings ever. Now we actually cook things, and we cook what we want to cook.”
35. Start with user needs
36. Start with user needs well-defined statement of what your service or program empowers people to do USER NEED:
37. Start with user needs
38. Start with user needs When I fill out my ballot, I want to make the correct kind of mark, so I can ensure my vote gets counted.
39. Start with user needs When I send in my ballot, I want to know what the mailing deadline is, so I can ensure my vote gets counted.
40. Start with user needs
41. 200+ pages!!! ALL CAPS LEGALESE Start with user needs
42. Who is using this? What do people need in order to make decisions? Start with user needs
43. Start with user needs
44. Always be talking to users
45. Always be talking to users 100% Usability problems found Number of users 75% 50% 25% 0% 0 3 6 9 12 nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/
46. Always be talking to users Meet people where they are
47. Always be talking to users Photo by Daniel X. O'Neil www.cutgroup.org Civic User Testing (CUT) Group
48. Fix the basics INNOVATION
49. Fix the basics
50. Use best practices
51. Use best practices
52. Use best practices
53. Use best practices civicdesign.org
54. Start with user needs Always be talking to users Fix the basics Use best practices
55. U.S. Digital Service
56. VOTE DESIGN
57. This government was designed to be changed. Jesse Williams
58. mollymcleod.com/resources Together, we can design better government. Find this slide deck and links at