What Does Community-Centred Design Look Like in Local Government?
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Community-centred design is a collaborative problem-solving process that lets community members design the services that will affect them the most. Throughout the pandemic especially, community-centred design has become an important way for local government (and public servants) to understand and address the needs of all community members.
Timing, bureaucratic red tape, community distrust, and a host of other factors can make community-centred design difficult to achieve in local government. A panel of civic and service designers addressed this challenge at the Rosenfeld Design Conference. They emphasised the importance of community-centred design, and provided a map of what effective design might look like in local government.
Why is community-centred design important?
Panelists pointed out that traditional governance and policy making has excluded community members from the design process. “Many of the communities we work with – most whom are BIPOC, immigrants, in-poverty and/or ignored – have been harmed by [local] government,” said Mari Nakano, a Design Director at NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity. As a result, many community-members are expressing their desire to be a part of the design process. Involving community members can mitigate further harm, foster trust, and uncover the needs of people who have been made invisible by the system. “The people who stand to be the most impacted by policies, services or programs should really be the ones who get to design and make those decisions,” said Danita J Reese, a Service Design Strategist at City of Philadelphia.
How does it work?
Effective community-centred design starts with flipping the traditional role of the designer. “Community-centred design is about shifting decision-making power,” said Reese. Indeed, the designer must ditch their role of the omniscient, powerful designer and become a facilitator. From there, their job is to draw on and highlight the knowledge of experts already in the community. (After all, citizens have been seeped in the needs of their community far longer than the designer has.) Throughout the project, service designers should empower community members to steer the project scoping, inflection points, sense-making and outcomes.
Start with the right conditions
Panelist Devika Menon, a Service Design Strategist in the City of Philadelphia, said that good community-centred design is founded on two conditions. First, the government must have a desire to engage in community-centred design and to implement the changes that a community asks for. Designers can scope this out by asking questions: Is local government ready to listen and act on the community’s needs? Is there a political will to make change? And is there enough money and staff capacity to do so?
Secondly, there has to be time. Effective community-centred design involves building relationships and being responsive to the community’s needs, which can be time consuming. “If these conditions aren’t in place, the costs of engaging the community can outweigh the benefits,” Menon said.
Vulnerability and transparency are key
Giving ample time for a project is especially important, as it’s hard to put a firm deadline on such emotionally intense and fluid work. “Community-centred design is emotionally heavy,” said Nidhi Singh Rathore, a Civic Design Lead at Montgomery County Government. “When you bring in [community members] to hear their stories and learn from them, you have to be as vulnerable as [they are being].” She acknowledged that this can be uncomfortable, and that designers should be honest with one another about how the project is impacting them.
While it’s important to be honest with oneself through the process, it’s equally important to be honest with community members. “Residents really need and want us to be very clear and honest about what we can do, and forthright about what we cannot,” Reese said. This might look like setting honest expectations about what services can and can’t be delivered. It can also look like setting up feedback loops with community members – whether that’s through a thank you email, or in the activities that service designers are running. Throughout this process, service designers and civic servants should seek to understand and genuinely get to know community members. “People remember how you make them feel. If they feel you are listening to them, and responding to them, and are taking the time to know [them], then relationships are able to move with you”, said senior service designer, Ashley Cortez.
Implement long-term changes and keep the ball rolling
Finally, it’s important to have a plan for what happens once the designer leaves the room, and leave the community empowered to carry out ongoing service design. This might look like creating guides to implement changes over the long-term, or bringing in community members who can continue to carry out that work with minimal burden. Ultimately, all work should be driven by the end-goal of letting communities envision and built a better community for themselves.
Words by Holly-Bodeker Smith.
