Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

Civic Design in 2022

Thursday, January 13, 2022 • Civic Design Community
Share the love for this talk
Civic Design in 2022
Speakers: Ariel Kennan
Link:

Summary

Fresh off the December conference, we join together to chart the year ahead for the Civic Design Community. Together we reflect on key tactics, themes, and areas of inquiry you’re carrying into your practice.

Key Insights

  • Community members focus on diverse civic design challenges including form design, voter registration language access, and resident engagement.

  • Capacity building in public sector human-centered design is a priority, especially training leaders and multidisciplinary teams.

  • There is a push to modernize government operational workflows integrating enterprise architecture and business analysis.

  • Complex systems thinking and life-centered design are gaining traction as more holistic frameworks beyond human-centered design.

  • Embedding inclusive practices (DEI) inside government remains a core goal, alongside managing time and resource constraints.

  • The community seeks more practical case studies to learn how teams solve real-world problems.

  • The Civic Design Library is exploring electronic lending similar to public libraries to increase accessibility.

  • Networking formats like random pairings can deepen personal connections within a global civic design community.

  • Ongoing asynchronous engagement through Slack and mural boards supports continuous community conversation.

  • Formal processes such as calls for presentations and newsletters are planned to maintain engagement and growth.

Notable Quotes

"I'm very much focused on voter registration language access and form design processes in my field."

"It's surprisingly hard to hire product managers and designers in government; I'm looking at how to unblock those system barriers."

"I'm working on creating a more holistic view of life rather than just centering humans in design."

"We have to shift from mechanistic linear thinking to complex systems thinking."

"What would Universal Design mean for communications, like a podcast that serves visually impaired listeners too?"

"We want more practical case studies showing how specific teams approached problems and what they learned."

"Could the Civic Design Library offer electronic book checkouts like the Toronto Public Library does?"

"Doing random pairing or 'donuts' could connect Civic designers from around the world for informal one-to-one exchanges."

"Protecting my time is something everyone is empathizing with right now."

"We want regular monthly meetings to keep conversations alive while being doable for everyone’s schedules."

Ask the Rosenbot
Tricia Wang
From Users to Shapers of AI: The Future of Research
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Natalia Radywyl
Co-Designing New Power in Australia's Public Sector
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Melinda Belcher
Insider preview of Enterprise Experience 2020
2020 • Enterprise Community
Sam Proulx
To Boldly Go: The New Frontiers of Accessibility
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Josh Clark
Sentient Scenes and Radically Adaptive Experiences
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Mac Smith
Measuring Up: Using Product Research for Organizational Impact
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Kristin Skinner
Theme 1 Intro
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Megan Nipe
Human-Centered Design for Engagement: Maturing from Newsletterville to Personalized, One-to-One Messaging
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Christian Madsbjerg
Influencing Strategy
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
James Wieselman Schulman
Research is a team sport: advancing the work when everyone does the research
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Dave Gray
Connection, Community, and the Future of Work
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
David Cronin
The GE Design System and Thoughts about Craft at Scale
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Dan Saffer
Why AI projects fail (and what we can do about it)
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Edward Cupps
The Principal Path: Journeying from Management to Individual Contributor
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Yunyan Li
UX Best Practices
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Wendy Johansson
Be a Product Boss!
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold

More Videos

Joanna Vodopivec

"Video parties allow many teams to engage and observe learnings in a more compelling and digestible way than slides."

Joanna Vodopivec Prabhas Pokharel

One Research Team for All - Influence Without Authority

March 9, 2022

Louis Rosenfeld

"Onboarding often felt like trial by fire—go to the meeting and hope you understand something."

Louis Rosenfeld Lashanda Hodge Senongo Akpem Chris Hodowanec

Becoming a Civic Designer: Making the Move from Private to Public Sector

November 17, 2022

Bria Alexander

"Lauren Cantor is our house librarian and has made an outstanding contribution to the conference."

Bria Alexander

Day 3 Welcome

September 25, 2024

Uday Gajendar

"Sponsor sessions are so great that people want recordings. They’re not sales pitches."

Uday Gajendar Louis Rosenfeld

Day 2 Welcome

June 5, 2024

Sam Proulx

"Consistency is so important that sometimes even consistency in failure works if it means I only have to learn the workaround once."

Sam Proulx

Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience

June 7, 2023

Russ Unger

"The post-offer period isn’t HR’s alone; hiring teams must stay in touch and keep the candidate engaged."

Russ Unger

Onboarding: The Ecosystem, not the Afterthought

November 7, 2017

Catherine Dubut

"No one really knows what to expect anyway, so failure goes largely unnoticed. It's better to be transparent about the mess."

Catherine Dubut

Bridging Physical and Digital Spaces: Approaches to Retail Service Design

March 18, 2021

Josh Clark

"Sentient design is about intelligent interfaces that are aware of context and intent so they can be radically adaptive to user needs in the moment."

Josh Clark Veronika Kindred

Sentient Design: New Postures for AI-Mediated Experiences (2nd of 3 seminars)

January 29, 2025

Dantley Davis

"It was a tax I had to pay my entire career — balancing the work and trying to lift my community."

Dantley Davis

Leadership & Diversity—A Fireside Chat with Dantley Davis

September 17, 2020