How San Francisco upended its affordable housing application with user centered design
San Francisco citizens were stunned by the ease of the city's new portal for applying for affordable housing.
San Francisco citizens were stunned by the ease of the city's new portal for applying for affordable housing.
Chicago's CityKey project -- an optional, government-issued ID card to help citizens access services -- was created with a human-centered design approach to make sure everyone could benefit.
Local and federal governments have compiled toolkits and guides that outline best practices and hands-on tips for employing user-centric design of services.
The key to human-centric design in government is for public sector IT leaders to focus primarily on the needs of system administrators and citizens when designing digital services and websites.
Code For America founder Jennifer Pahlka wants to continue promoting user-centered design as a tool to help public servants figure out what their constituents need.
Vendors that offer human centered design services can compete to earn a spot as part of the master contracts. City agencies will then have a faster, pre-confirmed avenue for purchasing design services.
If properly researched and executed, human-centric design can make things easier for constituents, while at the same time greatly reducing the amount of work public servants must do to process forms and make decisions.