The City of New York has made a commitment, through its investment in the Service Design Studio in the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity), to improve policy making and service delivery through the use of human-centered research, design, evaluation, and implementation methods.
As part of this investment, PPL is partnering with NYC Opportunity and ISLG to add to the capacity and capabilities of the Service Design Studio and ISLG by delivering three areas of work:
See below for further details on each of these work streams.
City Staff Engaged
Workshops Held
We’re working with NYCO and ISLG to identify and facilitate design projects in New York City using our human-centered approach to qualitative research; policy, service, and product design; rapid prototyping, piloting, and formative evaluation; and systems change to support scaled implementation.
Reticketing for Asylum Seekers is our first collaborative design project between PPL, NYCO, and ISLG. We’re partnering with the city’s asylum support and emergency management agencies to improve reticketing uptake amongst asylum seekers, with the goal of ultimately connecting asylum seekers to communities outside of the city that can offer long-term support. Click here to learn more.
Reticketing Improvements for Asylum Seekers
Our first collaborative design project is focused on improving reticketing uptake amongst asylum seekers.
To engage residents in government decisions, our public employees need to be equipped to facilitate meaningful and thoughtful engagements. We’re working to build the capacity of City staff to use human-centered methods.
Capacity Building Workshops
We’re hosting a series of workshops for City staff, aimed at building capacity to incorporate human-centered design and research into government services. So far, we’ve held workshops focused on:
Interested in attending one of our workshops? Sign up for our newsletter to get notified about the next one!
Office Hours
We’re co-hosting weekly virtual office hours for City employees. These office hours are a great opportunity to meet with designers to get light-touch consulting on a project or idea, or just learn more about how design is applicable to the work of City agencies.
Interested in attending an office hour session? Sign up here!
External organizations and internal City teams have been using human-centered design approaches for more than a decade. However, there have been limited opportunities to share best practices or project outputs with one another.
We’re working to develop mechanisms for cross-organization and cross-agency knowledge sharing. Our goal is to support the coordinated application of human-centered learnings and the cross-utilization of project tools, findings, and materials.
Civic Design Forums
Every quarter we co-host a session for teams across the City, inclusive of both City agencies and non-City partner organizations, who are applying human-centered methods. During these forums, we discuss how to apply best practices and human-centered strategies in government contexts.
So far, we’ve hosted forums on plain-language writing and basic communication design principles. Stay in the loop on our next Civic Design Forum by subscribing to our newsletter.
Collaborative Newsletter
To keep internal City teams, external organizations, and the general public informed about the human-centered efforts under this collaboration, we’ll be sending out a quarterly newsletter with all the latest offerings and recaps of recent projects. Subscribe here!
Civic Design Forum
Our first Civic Design Forum focused on the importance of plain-language writing and basic communication design principles.
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