Summary
When designing into inherently complex government services, civic designers must take a systemic approach. Too often service design focuses on public-facing and sometimes frontline staff-facing interventions, thereby placing the burden of successful service delivery on unempowered shoulders. As service delivery is the byproduct of many entities, interventions must systemically target all policy "layers", such as operations and policy, to be successful. In this presentation, the Public Policy Lab team will share their public policy 'layer cake'. Besides reflecting their affinity for baked goods, it’s a systems design framework for creating interventions at all levels of a public service, while also creating opportunities for equity.
Key Insights
-
•
Public services involve multiple layers of human roles with varying power, not just frontline staff.
-
•
Service design must address policies, protocols, and operational structures, not only public-facing tools.
-
•
The 'layer cake' framework maps where and what kind of power exists in government service delivery systems.
-
•
In the Family Pathways to Care project, co-design with caregivers and staff improved intake and referral processes.
-
•
Operational and policy level tools like standardized protocols and data dashboards support frontline service improvements.
-
•
Public feedback channels operating at the organizational level amplify family voices beyond individual service encounters.
-
•
Shared mental models and program typologies help actors at all levels align and make systemic decisions.
-
•
Civic participation tools (e.g., crowdsourcing or participatory budgeting) represent important 'consensus products' in public service ecosystems.
-
•
Designing for systemic change requires understanding and intervening in the interactions between people, tools, rules, and resources.
-
•
Systems change ultimately happens at the human scale by making invisible structures visible and open to redesign.
Notable Quotes
"Service delivery is led by frontline staff who tend to have the least amount of power in the system."
"Public services are a multi-layered culmination of people and products, not just a single entity."
"The layer cake framework helps notice where and what kind of power actually resides in systems."
"Even the best-designed public-facing tools need operational and policy support to succeed."
"We developed family-facing intake tools to make the service experience more transparent and equitable."
"A standard framework for collecting and responding to family feedback at the organizational level can increase their voice’s impact."
"Shared mental models serve as organizing frameworks that all players in the system can understand and make decisions within."
"Putting all programs together on easily comparable terms makes the system material and conceivable."
"Systems change happens at the human scale by making structures and humans visible so we can investigate and change them together."
"Designers hope to support the public in exercising agency and redistribute hegemonic power in public services."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Accessibility isn’t a checkbox you run automated tests for; you must involve people with disabilities to benchmark success."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
June 7, 2023
"We’ve had to retire the studio development category because it wasn’t prioritized due to project work demands."
Ignacio MartinezFair and Effective Designer Evaluation
September 25, 2024
"Design pairs gave strength in numbers, faster turnarounds, and more impact especially when paired with product managers."
Sarah Kinkade Mariana Ortiz-ReyesDesign Management Models in the Face of Transformation
June 8, 2022
"Psychological warmth and physical warmth activate the same part of the brain, the insula."
Daniel GloydWarming the User Experience: Lessons from America's first and most radical human-centered designers
May 9, 2024
"Finding meaningful insights is not just casting a wide net—it requires discipline, structure, and knowing where to fish."
Patrick BoehlerFishing for Real Needs: Reimagining Journalism Needs with AI
June 10, 2025
"How do you build in the context of what you specifically need rather than having tools drive the research process? That’s the future."
Andy Barraclough Betsy NelsonFrom Costly Complexity to Efficient Insights: Why UX Teams Are Switching To Voxpopme
September 23, 2024
"We should reconsider the savior complex designers sometimes have — we’re not all powerful."
Alexandra SchmidtWhy Ethics Can't Save Tech
November 18, 2022
"Strategic friction is about where you apply friction deliberately to create insight and transformation."
Louis RosenfeldDiscussion: What Operations can teach DesignOps
November 6, 2017
"Sketch made it possible to build a scalable library that millions of customers rely on with just a couple clicks."
Mitchell BernsteinOrganizing Chaos: How IBM is Defining Design Systems with Sketch for an Ever-Changing AI Landscape
September 29, 2021
