Public services need to serve all the public. Not all the public are digitally savvy adults between the ages of 18 and 35 with perfect eyesight, hearing, and mobility. Accessible design ensures those with limited hearing, sight, mobility, and other impairments can access the public information and services that they need and pay for.
We say that people “throw their hat in the ring” when they run for election. But what if, instead of an election, we just selected a hat at random and its owner won the office? Election lottery is an old idea that’s becoming new again as a way to repair our civics.
The spread of infectious diseases in the era of globalization means that public health is a global shared resource. A brand-new, infectious disease with no known cure or vaccine—call it Disease X—puts us all at risk. Unfortunately, designing new vaccines for unknown viruses isn’t enough to motivate the private sector to invest the time and...Continue reading
Are you a visual thinker with a lot on your mind? Try mind mapping to get all your thoughts out of your head and onto a screen where you can connect, rearrange, and elaborate.
In 2020, the US has the rare occurrence of income taxes coming due just 111 days before a presidential election during a recession. This combination will surely push economic topics to the top of the news feed. Voters will likely be flooded during the summer and fall with many top-down proposals to reform government spending....
Recent and ongoing incidents of blatant racism and police brutality against African Americans has reignited the discussion of reparations for the US history of slavery and racism. After 250 years of legal slavery and another 150+ years of discrimination, what could reparations even look like? Here’s a design experiment for reparations, based on topics covered...Continue reading
Recent protests against racism and police brutality have included calls for “defunding” police departments. I think few people, if any, want to completely abolish a critical social good such as public safety. So, calls for defunding are likely not literal and absolute. If that’s the case, then what are protesters demanding? How We Fund Public...Continue reading
During the coronavirus pandemic, public officials have promoted social distancing and strongly encouraged us to stay home. But aside from promoting this behavior through traditional and social media, what else could these officials have done to increase the likelihood of compliance? Distributing coronavirus supplies could also help, and South Korea has been held up as...Continue reading
In promotion, vocabulary makes a difference. In the US, promotion has been our best tool in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in the absence of widespread testing and available treatments. But the muddled message and vocabulary between politicians, scientists, and the healthcare community has led to a fractured public health effort.
Beginning in the earliest colonial times, U.S. children have been required to attend school. That means for nearly 400 years, education in the US has been a social good.