Author: Margaret

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Ideabook Work Product Tool

Better Cover Sheets on Forms

We identified that Form Packets are a central ‘thing’ in the Court System. People come to court for help, and the Clerks and Self Help Centers deliver them help through a large selection of paperwork. These papers, most especially forms, are the key commodity in which their help is communicated — and what they can walk away with.

With that in mind, we propose a new Cover Page for a form packet.

It should be human-centered, with icons, pictograms, or other visuals of people.

It should be conversational, almost as if a helpful advocate is talking to the person through the sheet.

It should prep the person for what the packet contains, and what to do with it.

It should flag common problems, and key things to remember.

Categories
Ideabook Procedural Guide

Giant Visual Storyboards in legal buildings (and elsewhere)

Our proposal is for courts to make huge posters to display on the walls, that lay out the steps of a legal process. They can be replicated on handouts and brochures.

These giant maps would show an illustrated way that a person would get through the individual tasks. They could also show the back-and-forth between a person, their advocate, and the court.

They would address the need we saw, that people can’t get a clear bird’s eye view of how the system works and what to expect from the process. The map could help them contextualize the journey they are on, and to see what to plan for.

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Current Projects System Evaluation

Design Review Sheet for the legal system

We use this one-page Evaluation sheet to review a service, product, or idea. It prioritizes the user’s point of view — to make sure that the thing you’re reviewing has a good user experience. It can be used for proposals or existing things.

The sheet forces the reviewer to give a number on each factor, but the main thing is not a score-card, but thinking through where there is opportunity to better match the thing with the user’s needs and aspirations.

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Ideabook Wayfinding and Space Design

Signs that clarify relationship between Advocates and People

One of the needs we uncovered at the Self Help Centers in courts was to make it clear to people that they couldn’t expect full legal representation. The courts wanted to make sure they didn’t expect full confidentiality or an ongoing relationship.

To do this, we propose a poster that could also be replicated as handouts or cards.

It would lay out key points about the relationship in large fonts, with messages in bolds. It would have icons and pictograms to illustrate the points.

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Ideabook Wayfinding and Space Design

Welcome to Court! colored, problem-oriented signs

What is it?

Posters and other large-scale signage that can be placed physically throughout and around the court building, and on any web- or mobile-based court technology. It would reach out to people considering using the court by framing the problem in words they understand, using iconography and colors. It would give the person a ‘pathway’ view of what resources are available for their issue-area, and help them understand what applies to them.

How could it be implemented?    

Work with a visual designer to choose the right color scheme, fonts, and icons. Work with a content expert to choose the most important issues, and how people talk about them. Then create outreach signage that features the pathways of these issues, and that presents it in ways that will engage the target audience.

This will likely take several weeks to a month to design, and $1000 to create the signage.

Our design notes

Courts and associated legal actors must implement a coherent, user-centered signage system. It should be with larger fonts, consistent color coding, and use of pictograms. The names should be consistent across all signs, and they should be phrased in terms of the problem or task of the user that they are addressing, rather than the term that the legal system has created for them.

  • Signage review — does it all point to where you want to go
  • Large, colored signs
  • Bigger text, more graphics,  having pictograms to refer to
  • same name across all signs
  • Links of all the different offices and places to these same core problems of the users — clearer delineation of all the services that start with “Family Law”
  • Phrased in terms of users’ problem and their language (not legal categories) —  action oriented tasks rather than ‘insider terms’ for the organization
  • Main other language on the sign too — Spanish in this case
Categories
Current Projects Training and Info

Strategy Prep for “tough conversations”

Public legal education groups, including the Justice Education Society, in British Columbia have created online guides to help a person have difficult conversations.

They are particularly meant to resolve disputes before they become more problematic.

These give a small training in the mindsets and approaches a person can use to get to better outcomes. It’s not just the step-by-step of the process, it’s about changing lenses & strategies.

For example, here is the Negotiating a Solution resource. It provides overarching frameworks, priorities, and tips.

Good Legal Design out of British Columbia - Screen Shot 2015-10-04 at 9.10.58 PM

How to deal with ‘tough talks’ is available here at their site.Good Legal Design out of British Columbia - Screen Shot 2015-10-04 at 9.10.51 PM

Categories
Current Projects Integration into Community

Neighborhood Legal Clinics in King County

King County provides a  Neighborhood Legal Clinics program to give free, limited legal help to people in Washington State. There are specialty clinics, like around family, debt, elder law, civil rights, etc. They don’t offer help on criminal issues.

The purpose of the Neighborhood Legal Clinics program (NLC) is to offer free, limited legal advice and referrals to King County residents and Washington State residents with legal issues in King County who might otherwise have no access to the legal system. It is a goal of the program to make the clinics accessible regardless of barriers such as income, education, language or disability.

WHO WE SERVE

King County residents or people with legal issues in King County

WHAT WE DO

Provide FREE 30 minute consultations with an attorney at 34 locations across King County. Attorneys determine whether the client has a legal problem, suggest possible options, and provide appropriate referrals. These attorneys will not represent you in court. NLC attorneys may not have expertise in all areas of the law, but they will make every attempt to answer questions accurately.

 

Attorneys will

  • Provide legal advice for civil legal issues
  • Help answering papers, summons and requests
  • Provide referral and resource information

Special Requests

  • Accommodations for persons with disabilities provided when requested
  • Interpreter services available when requested for all clinics

Referrals

  • Clients who need further legal assistance may be referred to Volunteer Legal Services, the Lawyer Referral Service and other legal or law-related agencies in the community.
  • NLC is a limited legal service and should not be considered a substitute for representation.

 

WE DO NOT    

  • Give advice on criminal legal issues
  • Provide representation in court
  • Help those living outside King County (unless they have a legal issue within King County)
  • Give legal advice over the phone

 

 

 

Categories
Current Projects Integration into Community

Free Legal Aid in Iowa Libraries

In Iowa, there are two programs that sponsor Free Legal Aid for low-income residents at libraries. The Iowa State Bar Public Service Project and the Iowa Legal Aid Volunteer Lawyers Project offer statewide services through the library.

People can come to the library on certain dates to consult with lawyers without charge.

Source: Free Legal Aid — James Kennedy Public Library

Categories
Ideabook Procedural Guide

Customizable Process Map

 

What is it?

Have a standardized paper map of the steps in a legal process laid out, with tasks, hand-offs, and roles.

This map can then be marked-up and customized by the user and by lawyers and court staff, to help them understand the process in terms of their own situation.

Ideally, it would be visual — with icons and illustrations of the steps.

How could it be implemented?

A design team maps out the basic, standard process for a given Legal Issue area (e.g., child custody, divorce, etc).

They vet it with court experts.

Then they print these one page maps out, ensuring there is generous white space on the page for annotations.

If there are common note-taking-points, these can be designated on the map with a box or question bubble.

It would likely take 2 months and under $500 to implement.

Categories
Ideabook Wayfinding and Space Design

Court Resource Easel Board

 

What is it?

It is a standing easel, about five feet high, with clips to attach a series of booklets. It would be more attractive than a standard “Wall of Handouts”, and it would have more structured categories and flows of resources to take.

For example, each easel would be for a specific Problem, and then each row of resources would be for a specific task to do within that task. There would be labels and context for what the handouts are — so people know what to take, and why they’re taking them.

How Could It Be Implemented?

The Courts could buy easels, attach clips to them, and then affix labels/colors to the easels to make the distinct rows and titles. Then, they would have to stock the easels with the correct resources each day to ensure sufficient ones are present.

Planning beforehand would be required, to decide which Problems should get their own Board, and then what the key tasks/categories should be for each board. Finally, the planning team would have to decide which documents or other resources should go on the Board.