Key Insights

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  Systemic design, ethics, and inclusion underpin the future directions of civic design, weaving through all sessions.

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  Governments globally face similar challenges in equitable design, highlighting shared struggles and opportunities.

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  Designers must first do internal work, including recognizing their power and biases, before shifting power to communities.

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  Inclusive usability testing benefits from compensating diverse community members to participate meaningfully.

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  Scaling civic design impact requires understanding structural policies and intervening at systemic levels, as shown by Public Policy Lab's approach.

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  Trauma-informed design requires years of investment and challenges designers to avoid re-traumatizing research participants.

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  Radical participatory design reframes design as a communal iterative process that redistributes power sustainably.

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  There is a paradox in civic design between maintaining expert rigor and democratizing design literacy broadly.

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  Future civic design needs to be localized, turning design to serve place-based communities for sustainable impact.

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  Ongoing community connection and co-creation via Slack and monthly calls are vital for maintaining momentum post-conference.

Notable Quotes