Prototyping for policy
Margaret Darin Hagan · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2021
There is great potential in combining a design approach with a legal approach, particularly for tackling complex policy challenges. A combined legal and design problem-solving approach goes beyond refining legal communications and services through human-centered design. That is useful, as the application of design to the legal system. But there is another level of work, in which a legal approach - of systematic, critical, and detailed exploration of possible solutions - is combined with a design approach - of creative, empathetic, and experimental work. This can lead to civic innovation work, particularly in the form of prototyping and testing new policies, that is both large-scale and human-centered. This chapter presents literature and examples that detail this developing practice of prototyping for policy, in which human-centered design is adapted and combined with legal analysis to create new policy development.