Episode #5 The Ethics and Bureaucracy of Public Sector Design

Featuring Nidhi Singh Rathore, Assistant Professor of Design for the Corcoran School of Arts and Design at George Washington University, former Civic Design Lead for the Montgomery County government.

Nidhi Singh Rathore, a South Asian woman living in Washington, DC on the ancestral homeland of the Anacostan people, has a multidisciplinary practice focused on bringing people together to break down complex problems. She is a Designer, Researcher, Educator, Author, and Thinker who applies design methodologies to reimagine civic engagement. She is now the Assistant Professor of Design for the Corcoran School of Arts and Design at George Washington University. She spoke to me as the Civic Design Lead for the Montgomery County government, and she continues to bring her sensibilities of ethics, civic engagement, and community-centered practice to her classrooms.

Nidhi describes design as a language. She acknowledges that design is sometimes used as a tool to talk about experiences and stories that are impossible to talk about otherwise.

My Key Takeaways.

1. Use a variety of ways to reach people - a combination of approaches to ensure that you are being as equitable as possible to reach people

2. Stop reinventing the wheel - connect with existing community representatives to understand the who, the how, and the why

3.Flip the script on bureaucracy from a series of nos to "This is not the end" mentality - build that resilience 

4. Co-design can be a method of building buy-in; co-design builds more sustainable approaches, it is THEIR idea, and more likely to want to help to bring to life

5. Bureaucracy is just made of people - make things as easy as possible for people, recognize that civil servants are also your residents, and build social capital

And a Bonus - move at the pace of trust both within and outside of government!

Nidhi’s Design Tools Referenced.

Nidhi refers to a few design or design-adjacent tools that are not beholden to one specific template or framework, constantly creating new versions of existing or completely new tools. Feel free to do a Google search on any of the below to see which ones work best for you and your contexts.

1. 5 Whys
2. Structured Think Alouds
3. Prototyping
4. Journey Mapping
5. Co-Design
6. Community-Centered design

More Resources!

Articles: 

  • Books: 

    • Emergent Strategy, Adrienne Brown

    • Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire

    • How to be Perfect, Michael Schur

    • The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression & Reflection, by Anne H. Berry, Kareem Collie, Penina Acayo (Laker), Lesley Ann Noel, PhD, Jennifer Rittner, Kelly Walters