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Background

My (sketched) vision of the future of accessible legal services

How can we help people on-ramp into the legal system in much easier & accessible ways? This is the solution that’s been growing in my mind (but still obviously a little rough) over the last few months.

Accessible Legal Services

We need to invest in several layers at once:

1) The especially hard one: Building a central repository (or a smart, organized network) of all the information about legal services that people need when they are figuring out what legal help they need & how they can get it. This includes: basic legal info about options and procedures, eligibility info about what they qualify for, service options and hand-offs to people/orgs who can help them, know your rights materials that help them spot legal issues and respond to them quickly.

2) The more designerly one: Building better tools, interfaces, and user-facing services that help people access information from this central repository in a clean, just-in-time, quick way. These are the apps, websites, kiosks, in-person meetings, SMS channels that let a person find the right help for them right when they need it.

3) The flashier one: Building a single, memorable brand that lets a person know that the legal help they’re accessing is trustworthy, up-to-date, and right for them, and that is sticky enough that they can remember it if they’re in an emergency or just far away from lawyers.

A lot to do, I know — but an exciting one, and something that is not impossible. I have been experimenting in this second camp over the past few years — with websites & SMS channels that would let people find and access content in user-friendly ways. But I keep coming back to camp #1 & #3. We need all three in order to build a truly accessible & 21st century system of legal services.

I’m excited to be working with Open Referral & others on starting to think about how #1 is achievable, at least in a small Bay Area pilot.

Are you interested in any of these 3 undertakings? Let me know!

Categories
Ideabook Triage and Diagnosis

Story-based intake

Legal Design Projects - title cards - visual stories

An idea for gathering intake information & triage-ing users to the right legal resource by giving them video scenarios/stories to watch and then figure out which best corresponds to their situation.

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Ideabook Procedural Guide

Interactive Legal Maps

Open Law Lab - Visual Law - Interactive Legal Maps

I’ve been prototyping various means to deliver & build legal knowledge — with a specific consideration of bolstering Access to Justice. One pathway, of course, is Visualized Law.

I’ve been playing with it with cartoons and illustrations, and in other forms (hyperlinked, layered checklists — visual expert systems).

One promising prototype is the Visual Mind Map, that is hyperlinked & lively with images, videos, & other cues that can guide the user through. The promise of such a map is that it lets the user locate themselves in a specific cluster of resources within a broader field of information. They can see the broad scope of the area they are in, while still focusing in on what precise information they need to retrieve & actions they need to pursue.

What would such an interactive legal mind map look like in practice? See this embedded Popplet for a first generation play with this format. I’ve used Popplets a lot for my own brainstorming, paper-writing, research, and collaborations with teams. I know there is great potential in scoping out a version of such a mind-mapping specifically for legal resources.

I see a future mash-up of interactive mind map diagrams with a curated, semi-open wiki format. I would love all the legal knowledge and advice out there on a specific legal problem to be extracted out of forums, pamphlets, q-and-as, blog posts, news articles, and other random clips of text around the web — and diagrammed out clearly & visually (if not beautifully too).

I can understand legal topics better when they are composed on the page in a meaningful way, and my guess is that most people with legal problems who are searching around the Internet would also benefit from a Legal Map to ground them & guide them. No more blocks of text!

Another kind of navigator, that shows you how to get from point A to point B, from problem to resolution — this one came out of our immigration hackathon.

Legal Design Projects - title cards-12 - interactive legal map

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Ideabook Triage and Diagnosis

National ad campaign for legal services

National Legal Services Advertisement campaign

Could we use the same methods of those television lawyers who bombard daytime-tv-watchers with ‘Are you injured? Can you sue? Call now to find your rights!’ — to increase lay people’s awareness of their rights, of civil remedies, of free or low-cost legal services?

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Ideabook Procedural Guide

Legal navigator concept sketches

Legal Navigator Images

One of the projects on my front-burner is getting a great legal navigator built, that takes a person step-by-detailed-step through a legal process. Here are some of the sketches from my notebooks on how I hope to actually lay these out on a webpage and/or printed page. Composition has turned out to be a fun but non-linear design challenge. How to lay out lots of complicated steps thoroughly, but without overwhelming the user? You can see some of my rough initial thoughts here in my sketches.

Process Guide - Triage and then guide - Design Process - Legal Navigators

Categories
Background

What does a good Court Self-Help website look like?

Last summer, I started a design review of the California Judicial Council’s Self-Help webpage. It is meant to be a central hub for lay people in the state to find legal resources & referrals for their life problems. The goal is that the state court can provide a trustworthy & centralized hand-off to either local, court-sponsored Self-Help centers (where pro per litigants — without a lawyer — can get court lawyers’ help in figuring out the right forms to fill out, and how to fill them out) or to other legal bodies.

So what should this website look like? I’ve been sketching out some designs.

Self Help online presence design - Margaret Hagan

Here are some of the functions that the site should have:

For the Main Content

  • A bolder, graphic welcome & orientation message
  • Prominent, image based links to the most commonly clicked help pages
  • A 1-2-3 storyboard of how a lay person can use this site, what functions it will provide to them (and what the dominant flow through the site will be)
  • The full collection of resources organized into chunks, framed around lay people-terms of the ‘legal problem’, and each marked with their own icon (and a search/filter function at the top of this section of resources)

For the Sidebar

  • Very prominent search bar — with big text and set off with other bg color — and perhaps 300 px tall
  • En Espanol in larger text
  • Reframing the Librarian-chat in a more conversational way, with a sample question in gray
  • Reframing the map in a conversational way — around the question of “Where to find help”

Apart from these specific functions, I’ve also drawn up some more general User Experience/User Interface guidelines for those designing online legal portals, like this self-help site.

CHECKLIST 1: SIMPLICITY & GUIDANCE

Orient your user immediately as to what path they may want to take. Present a roadmap that orients them, that lets them see what you have on offer & where they may want to go. Anticipate what they will likely need & tell them the pathways to get the information & tools to get them there

Give relevant Entry Points to your site’s resources. Present scenarios or personas as entry points. First present the most basic possible pathways (likely, categorize the type of legal situation you’re dealing with, choose a ‘type of law’ path).

Build a Clear Hierarchy: Present information in a clear, thoughtful hierarchy. Only disclose what is necessary at that moment. When you do present it, make sure it is presented with clear logic & rationale.

Do not present long lists of resources. Present resources in categories based on answers to specific questions (how to solve this need? how to accomplish this task?). Do not present alphabetic lists. Categorize and group them. Present indexes based on how your user understands her problem, names her problem, categorizes her problem. That is not usually be the first letter of a term for the problem — a term she may not even know.

Stage information. Present very limited information in the first place, with a limited set of options that the user can pursue — and gradually uncover more specific, in-depth information she is seeking out. Have a comprehensive set of information on your site, but do not present it at first. Let the user unpack it if she wants it. Otherwise, give summaries, shortcuts, headlines, and other ways to digest main points without having to spend time reading through comprehensive explanations, lists, options, etc.

Be consistent, be familiar. At each step, have a consistent template of information you’re providing to them. Borrow these patterns from other dominant services and products in your area. Put your user at ease so they know what to expect, where to find things, how easily to scan & shortcut through your material.

Create a Dominant Flow-Pathway. Have a path of least resistance, especially for the new user and the naive user. They want to just flow through process in the quickest, least thoughtful way possible (the ‘No-Brainer’ mode). Make it easy to stay on path — don’t give lots of other options or pathways when they’re on a path. If most of your users are naive to the experience or content, then rein them in. Give them more of a single-use path, that lets them accomplish a task with very clear & strict direction from you.

Give Shortcuts: Especially for expert users, allow them to jump off your dominant flow-pathway. Give lots of shortcuts to find the right bit of information for the user who is coming to the site ‘with a bullet’. Right from the first page, let the user go to the Specific Tasks that she wants to accomplish, through a search box, an index, or a common-shortcut list. Don’t lock your user into the dominant-path. Do not make them feel trapped. Let the user ‘Off-Road’, wandering farther afield, to dive in more, to try things out, especially if they are in expert mode and want something very specific. Give these off-roaders the ability to undo, reverse, and go back to the home-path.

Use white space, do not crowd: space out all of the resources you are providing. Add icons and pictures to flag different categories, tasks, path-entry points. Do not crowd pages with lots of text and options.

CHECKLIST 2: USER-FRIENDLY CONTENT

  • Architect your resources into an integrated system. Take a step back to look at all the resources you want to offer to your users, and organize them into a coherent flow of content. Sort & categorize it, cut repetition, and find where you are missing resources that you need to collect.
  • Unbury your materials out of PDF and Word documents. When you are presenting legal documents, forms, resources, or otherwise to your user, present them whenever possible on your website, in html, and not as an attachment in another file format (most common culprits: the links to the .pdf download or the .doc download). Take it out of these other formats and lay it out into the flow of your site. If the material is meant to be filled in by the user ( like a form) or printed off (like a training manual) then give them the option to download the .pdf or .doc — but always present it live on your site first, and give the user a clear way to download it in the non-html format.
  • Only use the plainest of plain language. Rewrite your existing resources into terms that are meant for the layest of lay users, even when your target audience is very well-educated & familiar with law. Take out all jargon, or define it immediately & in simple terms if you must use jargon terms.
  • Make your knowledge visual, graphic, and easy to look at. When you can, transform your text into (or add to your text with) icons, photographs, diagrams, cartoons, and scenarios. Even putting a face on each page will help your user pay attention & relate to the content better. Particularly when you want a user to pay attention to a piece of content, put an image with it.
  • Convert long paragraphs into digestible formats. Big chunks of text will induce gloss-over & misunderstanding. Break them apart intelligently & strategically. Use as many checklists and bullet-points as possible, so that the user can designate individual steps and concerns easily.
  • Keep your content Up-To-Date & Correct. Do not let your information go to seed. Keep pruning. Remove resources that are out of date. Check back with contributors. Recruit new donations. Recruit updates. Users will tune out from your resource as a whole if even part of your resources contain faulty or irrelevant information.
  • Ensure your site is mobile-friendly. What does your site look like on a mobile phone? Make sure your site is responsive to the screen size, so the text & containers all change size for optimal phone experience!

CHECKLIST 3: INTERACTIVITY & RESPONSIVENESS

  • Allow for multiple modes of interaction. Give users multiple ways to get their intended task done, based on their user preferences. Like, some may want to browse to find the right thing and check it out; others may want to search through query to get right to an answer for their query.
  • Give rewards, sense of achievement. Let the user check things off, feel they have progressed, be rewarded by the interface for having got through material. Provide immediate reactions when a user has taken a step, so they know it has registered & they feel satisfied that it is done.
  • Make the possible interactions direct, clear & limited. Make it very clear to the user at each page/section/step what they should be doing— and what the effect of their actions will be. Give clear tips for each possible action the user might take. Give one screen per goal. Don’t crowd with too many functions or tasks, make it clear what the goal is.
  • Reduce the number of clicks. Let the user stay on the same page for as long as possible, but stage & selectively reveal/hide the information on the same page. Put in enough details for a person to know what they’re clicking on (don’t make them click for them to find out what will be at the link). You can use hover to give the details without a click. Also try to avoid too much scrolling, closing, clicking…
  • Once a user has made some choices, give Targeted & Bordered Resources. Once a person has chosen a certain pathway, then you know which specific area of your site that she wants to be in. Wall off the other resources on the sites from her, so that she doesn’t accidentally cross over into another area that doesn’t apply to her. She can come back to the home & restart her search if she wants to enter another area of resources.
  • Give Status Mechanisms to keep users aware. Tell your user if there’s been a failure, if conditions are changing, what the status of a process is, when things are being saved, what can be done/undone.
Categories
Background

Plain Language & Legal Design

I have been reading through articles documenting how ‘Plain Language’ came to be a standard by which legal communications are judged — and which courts, firms, and companies are willing to invest money and time in. From my limited research, I’ve been able to trace the rise of ‘Plain Language’ as a standard from the late 1970s through the early 1980s, when it became much discussed in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia-New Zealand. Government commissions began to investigate what Plain Language would look like in practice, how much it would offer to the end user of legal documents, and if it was worth investing in.

The conclusion seems to have been a resounding ‘yes’, as Plain Language became a dominant metric against which legal writing, explanations, outreach, and work product is judged. President Clinton mandated that federal agencies author their work using Plain Language techniques. Courts, self-help centers & legal aid groups hire plain language companies to ensure the text they release out to the public meets the Plain Language standard. And firms and corporations put an emphasis on how they offer clarity to their users, with a commitment to Plain Language communications.

Plain language is more than just what words you use to communicate — it is the way in which you compose your sentences, and the tone and voice your communication. It is about making your text more user-friendly by adopting a consciousness of who your target audience is, thinking of how they would best understand what you’re trying to get across, and ensuring that you speak and write in the most direct way to get your point across to this audience in the most succinct yet clear way.

This emphasis on usability is where there is a strong link between the Plain Language standard, and the legal design work that I have been so focused on as late. What I see is that to make a communication user-friendly & usable, we must think of more than just the language we use. It is more than vocabulary choice, sentence structure, tone, and voice.

Plain Language to Legal Design standards by margaret Hagan

Designing for usability of legal communications means thinking of all of the other factors that affect (and potentially enhance) an audience’s comprehension of a communication. Beyond just Plain Language, we must also focus on:

  • Composition of the text on the page: how is it laid out? how many characters go across the line? how is it structured, indented, boxed, and otherwise made visually comprehensible?
  • Interactivity: is the communication staged? can a user get a quickly glanceable version, and then dig selectively into the text for more detailed explanations? Can we use digital tools to make the communication more engaging, customizable, and lively?
  • Visuals: are graphics, illustrations, and symbols used to enhance the user’s understanding? is there a way to shorten the amount of text we present, or to better show priorities and warnings within the text through the use of graphics? Is there a way to ground the text in more context & situational understanding by showing illustrations or photographs?
  • Service flows; what is the role of this communication in a larger service experience of the end user?

Legal Design work could be as powerful as the Plain Language standard has been. My goal is to get more legal organizations invested in making their communications as understandable & engaging as they can. This is both for the sake of the lay person consumer, but also for other lawyers and professionals. Better designed information can enhance the experience of even the most educated person, who is not intimidated by legalese — they don’t necessarily want to read through badly designed legal communications either.

Reading through the descriptions of how Plain Language has gone from movement to standard, I’m inspired to think how we can set more standards, guidelines, and best practices for how legal professionals communicate. I want to see legal orgs invested not just in Plain Language, but in Wholly Better Designed work product — that is Visually Composed, Interactive, Illustrated, and Service-oriented. We need more than just improved language to really make legal communications connect with lay people.

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Background

Wise Design (or why are human systems so screwed up?)

This post is not just for lawyers — it is for people who work in hospitals, banks, insurance companies, government agencies, loan companies, accounting firms — people who work in complex systems that are supposed to be serving lay people.

I propose a new field of Wise Design — to build out tools, principles, and patterns to help normal people make more strategic, smart decisions for themselves while trying to make their way through overwhelming systems.

Where I’m coming from

As I’ve been working on legal design, I’ve been hunting down analogous fields — what other areas outside law can legal professionals draw from to rethink how they provide services? Like a good design-thinker, I’m hungry for cross-pollination.

And what I’ve come to realize is that the same challenge I’m tackling in the legal sector — trying to make it easier for a lay person to understand & to navigate the legal system — runs parallel to so many other complicated systems that humans have set up.

Wise Design - system versus person

What I’m realizing is that the challenge (if not the crisis) around how unusable the legal system is coincides with other human system design challenges. The systems that adults are expected to be able to navigate — insurance, mortgages, health care, taxes, student loans, personal savings, estate planning, visas and immigration, credit card offers and payments — have not been designed for humans.

Wise Design we are embedded in hyper complex systems Wise Design systems are anti user

Most adults — even those well-educated & well-meaning — struggle to figure out how to make their way through these systems. You turn 18 and are expected to be able to deal with these systems — follow their rules, use them to your best interest, walk the straight path through them. But the learning curve is steep, we aren’t trained for them, and usually it’s only after making mistakes and missing opportunities do people figure out how to navigate these systems (if they ever do).

Wise Design - happy birthday adult

We need cross-industry Wise Design

All the work, patterns, insights, principles I’ve been gathering up to guide legal design efforts — it can all be extended, shared & remixed with design for these other human systems. We who are working to make law more accessible need to be partnering with people in these other fields — financial planning, health care empowerment, patient engagement, consumer protection.

We are all fighting parallel battles — how to make life more livable for normal people. How to help them make better decisions for themselves, to protect their interests in complex systems. How to make these relatively dreary (or, in worse cases, horribly frustrating) parts of our lives — taxes, insurance, loans, litigation, accounting, medical care, banking — less frustrating, confusing, and punitive.

Wise Design - what if we used design to make systems more navigable

Human-centered design has great potential here, to transform both the front-end of these systems (how we people interact with them) and the back-end of them too (how the systems are actually structured, the rules and procedures that comprise them). What I’d love to see is cross-discipline collaborations, to build better front-end tools and back-end systems and then share best practices among these different fields.

Wise Design - this is a branch of design called wise design

I’m hoping to link the work of legal design, all focused on making legal systems more usable & user-friendly, into a larger movement of Wise Design.

Innovations that Intuit comes up with to make filing taxes easier should be borrowed and used to make it easier to choose the right health insurance. Great insights and experience designs that hospitals create to guide patients through a treatment plan should be remixed into navigation tools for a litigant going through a family law case.

There needs to be a Wise Design coalition — sharing code, design, and momentum. We in the legal sector need to scout out and partner with our counterparts in other industries —  to figure out together how to make human systems more user-centered and how to empower people to make more strategic, rewarding decisions.

And my other hope with a Wise Design movement is to attract all those wonderfully creative designers & developers who are currently working on interesting consumer-based challenges (how do we get people to buy things, love products so much they will use them and spend money on them?) and persuade them to work on these larger systems challenges.  We need more creativity & experimentation on how to help people deal with complex information and make smart decisions.

Wise Design - A design typology

This post has been brewing for a while — I’m interested in your thoughts, especially on how we in the legal world can build better partnerships from other sectors & recruit more creatives and entrepreneurs to work on these challenges.

Categories
Background

What if we redesigned legal systems for the end user?

Legal Design - what would a child welfare system designed for the child look like
A quick talking head sketch of a ‘What-If’ for legal design. What if we started over with our legal systems? Instead of patching over the problems with better interfaces — we imagine what a user-centered legal system would look like from the ground up. This sketch came from a Children Right’s Summit held yesterday at Google’s headquarters, sponsored by the law firm Baker & MacKenzie, that brought together lots of legal & social service providers, together with counsel from a variety of tech companies.

The other insight in this sketch is that legal professionals need outsiders to come in & see where the opportunities lie for redesign. Because the systems are currently so professional-focused, doing more to serve the bureaucracy that currently exists or the status quo practices of the people working in the system — an outside perspective is needed to break open new spaces for innovation.

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Ideabook Training and Info

Access to Justice & self-representation tools

As I’ve been writing up a paper on new legal tools & an agenda for access to justice innovation — I keep coming back to the same point.
Margaret Hagan - what we need for access to justice

To really address the access problem, we should be focusing on scalable, modular tools.  They could be in the form of software & other tech — or they could take other forms: new roles, new organizations, new workshops, new services, new designs of forms & pamphlets.

But the basic point is the same: we don’t just need more lawyers (though this is certainly needed too), we need to be investing on ways to help people get informed about legal processes & give them tools to navigate them.  Even if we (as lawyers) would prefer people to only use lawyers to address their legal problems, this is not what most people want and they will try the DIY route.  We should be building the tools that allow for more responsible & competent self-representation.