The Civic Design Room
Responsibility
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Attentiveness
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Competence
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Responsiveness
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Responsibility 〰️ Attentiveness 〰️ Competence 〰️ Responsiveness 〰️
Tune Into the Podcast
With Danita Reese and Andrea Ngan
Danita Reese is the Deputy Director of Strategic Design, and Andrea Ngan is the Community Co-design Practice Lead for the Philadelphia Service Design Studio. Danita and Andrea spent four years building the Equitable Community Engagement toolkit - a living, breathing source of information guiding the City of Philadelphia on how to practice equitable community engagement.
#1 Equitable Community Engagement
With Pamela Hastings
Pamela Hastings, who started her career as a photographer and a layout artist, entered the field of civic technology to make services more accessible and human-centered. She has over 2 decades of experience working across private and public sectors in journalism, travel, and education. She is now a Senior Digital Services Expert for design and Research at the United States Digital Service. She spoke to me as the Principal UX Designer and Designer Leader at Code for America.
#2 Design at Every Layer
With Gina Kim
Gina Kim is the Director of Design at the NYC Digital Service. In this role, Gina focuses heavily on designing for digital tools, such as language access and digital form usability for all New Yorkers. Gina comes from a history of designing for the digital arena having served as a Digital Service Expert for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as part of the United States Digital Service, and as a Senior Product Designer with the ACLU.
#3 Design Solutioning and User Research
With Federico Vaz
Federico Vaz is a Design and Futures Fellow for the United Nations Development Programme, as well as a Tutor and Researcher at the Royal College of Art in London, UK. Federico previously served as a Design Researcher for the MIT GOV/LAB — a research lab within the Department of Political Science. During Federico’s time at MIT GOV/LAB, I served as Head of Design for the MIT GOV/LAB working together on the implementation of a new design approach for local governments in Abuja, Nigeria.
#4 Design for Public Sector Innovation Globally
The Civic Design Room is a podcast and media thesis project that engages designers in the public sector, primarily in the US, on how they have operationalized design methodologies in the public sector. This podcast and media thesis project was created by Mariama N’Diaye when she was finalizing her Master’s in City Planning and Master’s in Business Administration at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This thesis aims to understand the complexities of the many working definitions of design, share practical directives on applying design in the public sector and navigating bureaucracy, and understand the management skills needed to lead a team applying design in the public sector.