1. Sylvia Harris

2. Sylvia Harris
& Company
Research, Insights and
Designs for Public Service
Communications

3. Searching for
Design Activism
Models

4. 1960’s
Civic Rights

5. 1970’s
Civic Action

6. 1980’s
Participatory
Design and
Usability

7. 1990’s
Yale Class Action

8. U.S. Census
Assignment:
Figure out how to reverse
declining response to the
Census through design

9. U.S. Census
Response:
Yale students designed
alternate forms with
clear typography

10. U.S. Census
Hired:
Two Twelve + me + students
to explore user-centered
design process that included
prototyping and testing

17. 2000’s
Design for
Democracy

20. 2010
Public Design Lab
Sylvia Harris
David Gibson
Ann Harakawa
Chelsea Mauldin
Carla Hall

23. Citizenship + Design

24. Government
Communications
The first brand mark was
citizen-designed.
Where does it come from
today?
Who should design it?

25. Government
Communications
Can be Inspiring
But too often it is…
of American Design

26. Bureaucratic

27. Overly
Complicated

28. Over Designed

29. Just Plain
Confusing

30. Poorly Maintained

31. Unfriendly

32. Traditional

33. We live in two worlds

34. Question + Dream + Design

35. Why can’t government
communications be
more like my iPhone?

36. I can do a better job
designing government
communications.

37. What if the solutions
to our greatest problems
weren’t waiting to be
conceived, but just
waiting to be found?
- Jeff Howe

38. Models for Design
Engagement

39. Crowd Sourcing

45. Virtual Pitching

52. Crowd Sourced
Virtual Pitching

59. Thank You