Key Insights

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  New Civic designers often start with naive beliefs of being design 'heroes' but learn to value collaboration and humility over time.

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  Power in design is fluid, intersectional, and can shift depending on context, relationships, and systemic structures.

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  Design can unintentionally reinforce existing power structures if practitioners do not critically reflect on whom they serve and how.

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  Gatekeeping in design occurs not only through credentials but also through specialized jargon and practices that exclude outsiders.

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  The hero’s journey framework, while useful, may be too individualistic for interpreting Civic design work, which should focus on community and collective journeys.

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  Effective Civic design emphasizes relationship-building and trust over just applying design methods or delivering isolated outputs.

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  There is a growing expectation and policy mandate, like the recent executive order, to embed human-centered design as a core, not optional, part of government technology.

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  Design research should expand beyond service delivery to influence upstream policy and program design in government.

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  A shift from short-term, transactional user engagement toward long-term, relational collaboration can help rebuild trust between communities and government.

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  Designers have a responsibility to consider the environmental impact of design decisions, such as digital consumption’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.

Notable Quotes