Design in Government: Improving Services through Creativity
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Summary of an AIGA DC initiative called DotGov Design that meets quarterly across the DC area to have regular conversations about how we can build community, improve standards across agencies, and help each other be better designers. dc.aiga.org/about-us/dotgovdesign/
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Design in Government: Improving Services through Creativity
- 2. Creative Commons / John Sonderman
- 3. NASA
- 8. Government is one massive, continuous service design project. —Dana Chisnell
- 16. USAID
- 17. USAID
- 19. White House
- 20. 18F
- 21. 18F
- 23. 18F and US Digital Service
Editor's Notes
- My name is Mollie Bates, and I’m a graphic designer at CFPB. I’m also a former board member of AIGA DC and an organizer of their DotGov Design initiative. To start this presentation, AIGA asked me to frame CFPB’s work with an overview of the federal government design scene blossoming in DC, so for the first few minutes of the presentation I’ll be wearing my AIGA DC hat.
- photo by John Sonderman DC is an industry town — like LA centers around the entertainment industry — DC revolves around the federal government. Historically, designers haven’t had a strong foothold in the federal government - today we’re seeing that change.
- There have been pockets of success over the years - From the 1975 NASA graphic standards manual - recently reissued via Kickstarter
- To Massimo Vignelli’s Unigrid for the National Parks Service
- To a long history of beautiful stamp designs for the Postal Service - some of them art directed by AIGA DC Fellows like Antonio Alcala and Ethel Kessler.
- And there have been some really high profile examples of design and technology failures in the dot gov world. Image: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/29/enough-already-on-healthcare-gov-don-t-you-remember-medicare-part-d.html
- But we know that government design and technology can be better. We’re inspired by the UK’s Government Digital Service: an in-house team making public services digital by default, and simpler, clearer and faster to use
- As USDS user experience expert Dana Chisnell said last week at the Code for America conference: Government is one massive, continuous service design project. The new design innovators in government are working with software developers and user experience designers to build better government services that have gone through user research and usability testing.
- AIGA DC has been working to activate this community of designers, with our initiative called DotGov Design. We’ve organized quarterly meetups and even a one-day conference with case studies from different designers across the government. We have a Facebook page
- and twitter account where we try to promote great design work and keep the conversation going between meetups.
- We also maintain a growing email list of government designers and a survey to help track the community and guide our programming.
- I want to show you a few examples of the work we’ve seen presented at the DotGov Design events over the past two years.
- The Department of Energy told us about their efforts to bring thousands of energy domains under one central energy.gov
- And shared how infographics help to spread their message on the site and on social media.
- The Innovation Lab at the Office of Personel Management told us about their work with the US Department of Agriculture’s School Lunch Program. The team reviewed rules of the program, interviewed school officials and families and then redesigned the application form to make it only one page long, with a simpler design and more space to write in the names.
- USAID’s in house designer Nan Dearborn told us about their efforts to end Extreme Poverty
- And their development challenge to redesign Ebola suits to better help health care workers prevent the spread of Ebola. USAID is partnering with the White House Office of Science and Technology, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The Department of Defense to launch Fighting Ebola: A Grand Challenge for Development to help health care workers on the front lines provide better care and stop the spread of Ebola.
- We’ve heard from the amazing in house team at the National Parks Service who’ve worked to maintain and expand Vignelli’s unigrid system for more than 40 years.
- AIGA DC’s president Ashleigh Axios told us about her efforts to engage Americans at the White House Office of Digital Strategy, which can range from drawing white board illustrations for health care enrollment, making whitehouse.gov responsive, or creating an imressive live stream of social share graphics for the State of the Union.
- A new consultancy group inside the General Services Administration called 18F has hired over 150 designers and developers in the past few years, and they’re working with agencies like the Department of the Interior to create new sites like “Every Kid in a Park”
- and the US Citizenship and Immigration Service’s myUSCIS - an effort to improve the immigration process.
- There’s even a new federal team similar to the UK Government Digital Service - The US DIGITAL SERVICE! They’re providing leadership at the executive level to improve government digital services - and their Playbook helps to outline 13 plays to meet users needs and build effective services.
- And if this all doesn’t excite you enough, let me tell you about a new project from 18F and the US Digital Service: The US Web Design Standards. This is an open source website with code for UI components and a visual style guide to create consistency and beautiful user experiences across U.S. federal government websites.
- It’s a great time to be working in government technology. Check out all of these agencies and think about ways you might serve your country with design. Many have opportunities to work remotely, or programs like Code for America can place you in city and state government positions. I’m really excited to be a government designer and want to tell you all about our team at the CFPB with my coworker Natalia.