Articles about Civic Design

So You Want to Get into Civic Tech? (Book Review)

Shannon McHarg

A Civic Technologist’s Practice Guide by Cyd Harrel shows what it’s like to work in the field of civic technology by offering a roadmap for how to get started working in the field, a glimpse into the day-to-day work, and the big challenges faced within this field. [Read More]

A Civic View: Bridging the Gap between Citizens and City Government

An innovative civic data collection tool, Civic View combines video footage and GPS tracking to give citizens a more immediate voice in city government. [Read More]

Engaging Citizens: A Review of Eight Approaches to Civic Engagement

An evaluation of eight civic engagement platforms that are attempting to use technology to increase civic engagement with local governments. [Read More]

User-Centered Design and Food Stamps: Delivering a 21st Century Government Service

A case study from Code for America shows how user-centered design can be used to reduce barriers to accessing social services online and offline. [Read More]

openFDA: How User Centered Design and Open Data Can Serve the Public

How a user centered design process makes openFDA accessible for the public, developers, and agencies (globally). Learn how you can improve consumption of large government datasets. [Read More]

With Safety in Mind: Building Online Experiences for Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

Designing websites for an Intimate Partner Violence nonprofit organizations comes with many special considerations that need to keep the safety of survivors at the forefront. [Read More]

Design de experiências sem fins lucrativos: criar um kit de ferramentas de UX

UX sem fins lucrativos difere do design com fins lucrativos, mas os dois mundos podem se beneficiar de uma troca mútua de técnicas. Um olhar rápido sobre o que o “outro lado” está fazendo pode fornecer novos truques para nosso kit de ferramentas. [Read More]

Using Your UX-pertise to Save the World: Pro Bono Work That Also Benefits You

A team working around a laptop

Take a love for helping others. Mix in a passion for UX. The result can change your career, and make a difference in the nonprofit community. [Read More]

Designing with a Service Perspective: A Bronx Tale

photo of street interview

The world is heavily reliant on services. User experience and design professionals are primed to apply a service perspective for making these experiences effective. [Read More]

Helping Students Go to College: Lessons Learned from the KnowHow2GO Public Service Campaign

Image of KnowHow2Go.org homepage

Public service campaigns, like KnowHow2GO.org, intended for college bound students, must understand how best to present necessary information in order to serve large, diverse audiences. [Read More]

HCI for Peace: An Invitation to Positive Action

image of faces with doves in the heads

Human-computer interaction (HCI) provides novel opportunities for user experience professionals to design technologies that promote specific human values such as peace. [Read More]

Voting in New York City: Why is Ballot Design so Hard to Get Right?

New York City ballot

There is movement toward reform and improved ballot design in New York. We need more user experience people getting involved with elections and civic life. [Read More]

A Design Method for
 BOP Users: Products for Social Innovation

graphic from instruction tutorial

When developing products for 90 percent of the world, in order to create acceptable devices, designers need to resolve belief conflicts between themselves and target users. [Read More]

Editor’s Note: Designing for Social Change

UX

This issue’s theme of “Designing for Social Change” focuses on the challenge of UX design for constructive social change. [Read More]

Accessible, Private, and Independent Voting: The Prime III Voting System

The Prime III Voting System is pursuing the ultimate goal of electronic voting systems; a single design that allows everyone to vote privately and independently. [Read More]

The View from Here: A Call to Action for Universal Design from the United Nations

Usability professionals should lead the implementation of the dispositions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities relative to accessibility and universal design. [Read More]

The View From Here: Ballot Forms

If elections are to accurately reflect the will of the people, then ballots should be designed so that all voters can easily understand and use them. [Read More]

Usable Voting (Issue 4.1)

Magazine cover

Observations from U.S. elections and automotive interfaces. (Some articles available in PDF format.) [Read More]

The Power of One (Issue 3.2)

Global UX with views from India, Israel, Canada (Full text not available) [Read More]