MARIE D’OVIDIO
A thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Communications Design
School of Art and Design Pratt Institute December 2014
Received and Approved
Graham Hanson, Thesis Advisor
Date
Santiago Piedrafita, Chairperson
Date
Research, writing and design: Marie D’ovidio Printing: Smudge Studio Typefaces: Mrs Eaves and Knockout by Hoefler & Co.
INTRODUCTION
31 INSIGHTS
Focus Group / Survey Analysis
ONEBACKGROUND
36 EXTRA ISSUES
12 IMMIGRATION IN THE US
Taxes
Ellis Island
Study case: Turbotax
Study case: Immigrant Nation
Social Security Housing
14
EDUCATION IN THE US
Scholarships
A Ladder to Success
Work
International Education
Banks
Fullbright-Hays Act
Health care
Open Doors Study case: OIA 18
VISA TYPES
Non-immigrant Visa Chart
42 PRESSURE OF DEADLINES
THREEDESIGN 48 SERVICE DESIGN
20 21
DV LOTTERY
AVOIDING SCAMS
Definition Service Designers 4 stages of Service Design Tools
TWOUSERS
Study case: Seb & Transformator
24 MILLENNIALS
MA in Service Design
Heterogenous Generation 56 SIMPLICITY 26 INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
Massimo Vignelli and Modernism The Laws of Simplicity
30 LIFE AFTER F-1
#Simplicity Pays
Simplicity in UX Design
Digitzed Documents
Complexity Curve
E-Filing
What should be done 88 POWER TO THE PEOPLE 64 INFORMATION DESIGN & DATA VISUALIZATION
Involving citizens in governmental issues Online Petitions
Current Situation: Information Overload Principles Study case: Sign Language 68 HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN 70 CROWDSOURCING
FIVEPROJECT 92 VISAGO 94 LOGO 96 ICONOGRAPHY
FOURGOVERNMENT 98 SITE MAP 74 NEXT AGE OF GOVERNMENT
Study case: UK Government
100 PRODUCT FEATURES
Open Government Government 2.0 80 GOV. STRUCTURES X DESIGN
104 SUPPORTING TOOLS 105 USER CASES
Study case: Ideo SSA Website 82 PAPER WORK SIMPLIFICATION
CONCLUSION
The Siegel Method Study Case: Internal Revenue Service
REFERENCES
The Center for Plain Language 87 LESS PAPER, MORE DIGITAL
E-Signatures
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Moving to the United States has always been one of my goals in life; when I finally decided to leave Paris and move to New York in 2011, little did I know how time-consuming the whole process was going to be. It took me about a year to prepare my student visa; I paid numerous mysterious fees, filled an enormous amount of paperwork and was always worrying about deadlines. As soon as I arrived to the U.S., I realized that it wasn’t over and since that day I am exposed to more and more information about my situation and am required to fill more paperwork, pay more fees, meet lawyers and such. In 2013, International students contributed $24 billion to the U.S. economy, which is about $2.8 billion to the New York State. During that same year around 88.000 students were present in the NY state, making it the top 2 destination for international students in the U.S. International students are often stressed and worried about their stay in the USA, whether it is because they are trying to find a job or just figuring out what their rights are under a visa status. The problem is that legal aliens are confused and often discouraged by the complexity and amount of procedures that they have to face in order to work and/or study in the USA. They are not fully aware of their rights and in most cases they lose money and time in the process; in the worst cases they are obliged to leave the country. It is obvious that political structures are in desperate need of reinvention and need to adopt a human-centered perspective. I believe that it is possible to simplify governmental information in order to bring guidance and resource to anyone seeking to study and/or work in the USA. International individuals should have a new experience of this service and be able to understand the process they go through. My goal is not to redesign the overall system of the government; the aim is to gather information in a clear and concise way allowing people to have access to the adequate paperwork and organizations in a timely matter.
INTRODUCTION
9
ONE BACKGROUND
IMMIGRATION IN THE US ELLIS ISLAND
First Ellis Island Immigrant Station opened on January 1, 1892. Built of wood, it was completely destroyed by fire on June 15, 1897
In order to understand Immigration in the United States it is important to briefly cover the history of Ellis Island. Ellis Island was the gateway for millions of immigrants from 1892 until 1954 through the nation’s busiest immigrant inspection station. 35 years before the station opened, about eight million immigrants arrived in New York through lower Manhattan; in 1890 the Congress created America’s first Federal immigration station on the island for $75,000. The size of the island was doubled and while the building was under construction an office at the Battery was used. Ships arrived through Ellis Island and during the first year around 450,000 immigrants were processed. After a fire and then construction, around 5,000 immigrants could be processed a day; this was in 1900. A few years after that, the Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924 which limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States; this caused immigration to fall. By the time it closed in 1954, twelve million immigrants had been processed by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration. Nowadays, over 100 million Americans (one third of the population) can trace their ancestry to the immigrants that arrived in the United States through Ellis Island. Jumping further in the future, immigration in the United States numbered approximately one million immigrants per year after 2000 and despite tougher border security after 9/11, nearly
Ellis Island in 1905, A. Coeffler - Library of Congress via the American Heritage website
12 IMMIGRATION IN THE U.S.
8 million immigrants came to the U.S. from 2000 to 2005; almost half of them entered illegally. Mexico, China, India and the Philippines are the top four sending countries of immigrants every year since 1998. Since 9/11, immigration has been a very hot topic in the United States; it has been said that the terrorists entered the country under tourist or student visas although some of them had violated the terms of their visas. Many acts have been passed since then; the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 did not pass, it was leading to giving citizenship to a large majority of illegal entrants in the country, significantly increasing legal immigration and increasing enforcement. All in all, it is clear that American people share many stories as with immigrants. This leads us to the study case of Immigrant Nation. STUDY CASE: IMMIGRANT NATION
Immigrant Nation is an interactive storytelling project designed to collect a vast range of immigrant stories and experiences in order to share them to the world. Using data-visualization, storytelling and a system of tags this project connects different stories together in order to help Americans understand themselves and one another. Their website is what they call an “Interactive Story Hub� which enables anyone to upload and share personal stories. On top of this, Immigrant Nation showcases short documentary films and holds numerous live events.
The project was funded through Kickstarter at the end of 2012 and has been launched in april 2014. Theo Rigby is the founder of this project; he is an award-winning director, cinematographer and photographer based in San Francisco.
Technically speaking, the website offers a great visualization tool that shows waves of immigration throughout the years from each country. The waves are updated through a search tool that allows you to type a country, a year or just simple tags; this also leads you to stories related to your search criteria. These immigration waves are clickable and story icons show up on them. Users can also add their own story that will then be in the website, visible to all; users can upload pictures, tag their story or even comment other stories. The most interesting part of this project is understanding the complexities of all these immigration stories, which are all very related to one another. It is a great way to build a common place where people can look into the past and discover new stories that are, again, related to their own. We can see here how storytelling has an important place in people’s lives and in any kind of interactive experience; here, we feel truly connected to all of these other stories and want to be a part of it as well.
IMMIGRATION IN THE U.S. 13
EDUCATION IN THE US A LADDER TO SUCCESS
The United States has always been renowned for its higher education and its schools’ excellence. The U.S. is the most popular country in the world for international students, after the UK. Most students who decide to continue or start their higher education in the U.S. do it because the country has thousands of accredited colleges and universities renowned for quality, numerous programs of study, and flexibility to change fields of study and schools. Students from around the world come here to pursue undergraduate, graduate, English language, or short-term programs. The term became official after the formation of the NCAA Division I athletic conference in 1954.The use of the phrase is no longer limited to athletics, and now represents an educational philosophy inherent to the nation’s oldest schools.
Some of the most renowned universities are all part of what is called the Ivy League, a collegiate athletic conference that brings sports teams from eight private institutions; the name Ivy League is also used to call them as a group. The institutions are the following: Brown University (Rhode Island), Columbia University (New York, NY), Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH), Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Princeton University (Princeton, NJ), University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PN) and Yale University (New Haven, CT). They are famous for their sports team and their prestigious programs in Business.
There are also many famous art schools that are worldly renowned for people in any creative fields; schools such as Rhode Island School of Design, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, School of Visual Arts, Pratt Institute and many others. In popular culture, American institutions are seen as a true passage to adulthood, as well as an amazing experience where students find themselves, meet great people and get started in their adult life. This image of freedom and self-fulfilment is extremely prominent in the rest of the world where other young people have the same idea of education in America; with its campuses, fraternities, huge libraries and thousands of other students. As welcoming as it looks at first, the tone used in governmental paperwork aimed at international students is often too formal and confusing. 14 EDUCATION IN THE U.S.
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
According to professionals in International Affairs, the first international student came to the USA in 1901. Fifty-four years later, the government started to get involved in international students; it started putting requirements on students that moved to the USA. At that time, the NAFSA was created; it’s a national organization that now calls itself the International Educators. One of their goals is to provide services to these international students. On a regional level, there are many different organizations that are also part of the NAFSA. Region 10 is a local one that includes the state of New York and New Jersey, for example. The NAFSA groups all the international offices from schools across America; when they meet, they usually talk about taxes, changes of regulations, etc. The NAFSA includes all 50 states and about 12,000 people attend the annual meeting; it lasts 5 days and was held in San Diego in May 2014. The people who attend these meetings are mainly government officials and partnering schools.
NAFSA: National Association of Foreign Student Advisers. The name of the association has changed since its inception in 1948 to reflect the expanding roles of NAFSA members into all aspects of international education and exchange.
In the 1970s, the first i20 document was written, on a typewriter; it looked much different than what it is now although the procedure for the i20 is pretty much the same. In 1983, the government started looking at employment for international students and how it could be regulated as well. In that same year, it was decided that F and J visas allowed people to study for 12 months in the USA. Students had the possibility to extend that stay and this has remained fairly consistent throughout the years. The government makes decisions about the regulations that are in these documents; changes are made only when needed. Since 9/11, there have been major regulation changes. In order to reassure the US public, the Department of Homeland Security had to take initiatives. In 2005 the overall system became mainly electronic. Two years before that the government started the SEVIS, which is the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. It is a part of the Nation Security Investigations Divisions and is basically a database for the government; a database containing all the information they need about certain non-immigrants that enter the US territory. In general, the documentation that students send and receive is partly paper; meaning that the overall system is not completely electronic.
See Part 4 Design, “Less Paper, More Digital”, p. 93
FULLBRIGHT-HAYS ACT
The Fullbright-Hays Act, also known as the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961, states that the Government of the United States enables it to: “ increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchange ; EDUCATION IN THE U.S. 15
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ mission is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchange that assist in the development of peaceful relations. - eca.state.gov
strengthen the ties which unite us with other nations by demonstrating the educational and cultural interests, developments, and achievements of the people of the United States and other nations, and the contributions being made toward a peaceful and more fruitful life for people throughout the world; promote international cooperation for educational and cultural advancement; and thus assist in the development of friendly, sympathetic, and peaceful relations between the United States and the other countries of the world.” This is one of the most important missions of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs; it creates programs, fundings and activities in order to answer to these missions. One of these activities is the International Education Week that is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. This is one example that shows how the government is involved in international students; but that does not mean that the information is clearer for them, most of them are unaware of this event. OPEN DOORS
See Part 2 Users, “International Students”, p.30, for visualized statistics of Open Doors 2013
It is important to talk about Open Doors, an association that gathers information and statistics about international and exchange students every year. They contact schools and send them templates that they have to fill with the number of international students. It is an important association since they are the ones that can help individuals and organizations understand the importance of students, how they impact the US Economy and how many students there are in the US. THE OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
There are currently 1235 international students at Pratt Institute; most of them come from South Korea, followed by China. Knowing this, the OIA is an office of about 5 persons; needless to say that their workload is pretty heavy. The OIA opened around 1977; the prior director from the current one (Jane Bush) was initially located in Career Services and housed at the Registrar – she was a one-person office. About twenty years later, Jane Bush started working there. She started working in International Education in 1983; a year that had major regulation changes.The OIA’s mission, as stated by Jane Bush, is to “welcome, inform and help international students”; they are the middleman between Pratt Institute and the government.
16 EDUCATION IN THE U.S.
One of the OIA’s initiative is to showcase the story of international students at Pratt and posting these videos on the OIA’s Facebook Page; other students can relate to these stories.
EDUCATION IN THE U.S. 17
VISA TYPES NON-IMMIGRANT VISAS
There are about 60 non-immigrant different visas in the USA. Classified using letters of the alphabet (ranging from A to V), most of them have a second version generally for children, spouses or special cases; i.e. the F-1 visa has a F-2 version for spouses or children of F-1 holders. The secondary versions do not give the same rights and are generally more limited regarding studies and work. Immigrant visa limits set by Congress remain at 700,000 for the combined categories of employment, family preference, and family immediate; there are additional provisions for diversity and a small number of special visas. In our case, we are only going to focus on a few visas: the H-1B, O-1, F-1 and J-1 visas.
18 VISA TYPES
H-1B
The H-1B visa is a temporary worker visa. Usually, the individual will have to work with an immigration attorney in order to get all the paperwork ready for a specific application deadline. These visas are limited and harder to get. In this case, the hiring company is the individual’s sponsor and will be required to provide a certain amount of documentation to the government.
O-1
The O-1 visa is for individuals who possess extraordinary ability or achievement in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who have a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and have been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements.
F-1
The F-1 visa also called the student visa, applies for any level of study, from elementary school to higher education. In this case, the sponsor of the student is the school they’ve been accepted in. Concerning universities and colleges, in most cases the student will have to provide a translation of their previous grades and pass an english proficiency exam. It is possible to intern under the student visa but only under certain conditions.
J-1
The J-1 visa, also known as the Exchange Visitor non-immigrant visa, is destined to individuals who have been approved to participate in work and study-based exchange visitor programs. This visa is mainly used by individuals who will intern in the U.S. for a certain amount of time; they need a sponsor (the company) and generally have to go through a specialized organization to get the visa (extra-costs).
NON-IMMIGRANT VISA CHART CATEGORY
SUBTITLE
DESCRIPTION
A
ForeignCopy Government Officials Body
B
Visitors
C
DURATION
EMPLOYEMENT
Yes 1 yr
STUDY
Footnotes Yes
SPOUSE & CHILDREN
A-2
No
No
None
Aliens in Transit
No
No
None
D
Crewmen
Yes
No
None
E
Treaty Traders and Treaty Inverstors
Yes
Yes
Yes
F
Academic or Language Students
Part time on-campus, CPT, OPT
Yes
F-2
G
Representatives of International Organizations
Yes
Yes
Yes
H
Temporary Workers
Yes
Part-time
H-4
I
Foreign Media Representatives
No
Yes
J
Exchange Visitors
Part-time on-campus, Yes with sponsor
Yes
K
FiancĂŠ(e)s and Spouses of U.S. Citizens
L
Intracompany Transferees
M
Vocational or other Nonacademic Students
N
Special Immigrants
O
Workers with Extraordinary Abilities
P
Length of studies
3+3 yrs
3 yrs
J-2
Yes Yes
Part-time
L-2
Practical Training 6 months
Yes
M-2
Yes 3 yrs + Extension
Yes
Yes
O-3
Artists, Athletes, and Entrainers
Yes
Yes
P-4
Q
International Cultural Exchange Visitors
Yes
Yes
R
Religious Workers
Yes
S
Witnesses and Informants
Yes
T
Alien Victims of Human Trafficking
Yes
U
Alien Victims of Certain Crimes
Yes
V
Certain Second Preference Beneficiaries
Yes
R-2
TD
NON-IMMIGRANT VISA CHART 19
DV LOTTERY RELY ON CHANCE
Every year the US government allows people to play a lottery in order to get a Green Card: it is called the Diversity Immigrant Visa program and is most commonly known under the name of Green Card Lottery. It takes place on an annual basis and makes available 55,000 permanent resident visas to natives of countries deemed to have low rates of immigration in the United States. This program was established by the Immigration Act of 1990 which “increased the limits on legal immigration to the United States, revised all grounds for exclusion and deportation, authorized temporary protected status to aliens of designated countries, revised and established new nonimmigrant admission categories, revised and extended the Visa Waiver Pilot Program, and revised naturalization authority and requirements.” Some countries are ineligible and this means that those born in any territory that has sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years can not receive the diversity visa. There is a very specific deadline for these diversity visas and it generally takes place 1 ½ year before the year starts; for the DV-2015 the application process was from October 1, 2013 to November 2, 2013. Concerning the distribution and lottery process, visas are distributed on a regional basis. Africa and Europe are currently receiving about 80% of the visas from the lottery and it is important to state that no single country can receive more than 7% of the total number of visas (3,500). For DV-2014, the program received 9,374,191 qualified entries. There is no charge to enter the lottery although many scams exist on the Internet; the only way to enter is by completing and sending the electronic form available at the U.S. Department of State’s website during the registration period. Since DV-2010, applicants can check the status of an application thanks to a confirmation number that is given once the application is successfully completed. The DV Lottery system does get some criticism, especially when looking at high skilled workers under H-1B visas or L-1 visas that have been temporary workers in the U.S. for let’s say 10 years and still have an unstable situation; when comparing them to 50,000 random people, questions are asked concerning the fairness of the situation.
20 DV LOTTERY
AVOIDING SCAMS MORE COMMON THAN WE THINK
According to the USCIS, many people offer help with immigration services. Unfortunately, not all are authorized to do so. While many of these unauthorized practitioners mean well, all too many of them are out to rip people off. This is against the law and may be considered an immigration services scam. Going to the wrong place to seek help can delay an application or petition, cost unnecessary fees and possibly lead to removal proceedings. Common immigration service scams include: Telephone Scams - phone calls being made by immigration scammers that attempt to take people’s money and credit card information. USCIS never asks for money over the phone.
USCIS: United States Citizenship And Immigration Services is a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It performs many administrative functions formerly carried out by the former United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which was part of the Department of Justice.
“Notario Publico” - in the U.S., notary publics are people appointed by state governments to witness the signing of important documents and they are not authorized to provide with any legal services related to immigration. Local businesses - some businesses guarantee that they can get people benefits such as a visa, green card or employment authorization document. They usually charge a higher fee than the USCIS would and claim that the application process will be faster which is completely false. Dot-com websites - there are harmful websites that claim to be affiliated to the USCIS even though the USCIS has its own official website with free downloadable forms, form instructions and information on filing fees and processing times. Visa Lottery - during the application time for visa lotteries there are immigration scammers advertising in email or websites that they can make it easier to enter the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program for a fee. These emails and websites are fraudulent and the only way to apply to the lottery is through the official government application process on the DV lottery’s website. INS - some local businesses, websites and individuals make reference to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). This agency no longer exists since 2003, therefore any information from website referring to the INS is false. It is very common for people to be targets of these scams and they can lose thousands of dollars. One of the reasons these scams work is the overwhelming amount of information people are faced to and the confusion it leads to. Since we are used to pay a large amount of fees for actual governmental procedures, it is logical that from time to time we don’t ask many questions when money is asked for these fake procedures. AVOIDING SCAMS 21
TWO USERS
MILLENNIALS HETEROGENEOUS GENERATION
Millennials are individuals who were born roughly between 1980 and 2000. It’s important to know that the millennial generation, also known as Generation Y, is more diverse and heterogeneous than any generation before. Through a study conducted by the company Exponential, the global provider of advertising intelligence and digital media solution, it has been stated that three major forces have shaped the millennials experience: the economy, globalization and social media. These forces define different categories of millennial in which there are subgroups that have their own specific needs and preferences.
They are multitaskers, connected and tech-savvy. They want instant gratification and recognition, work-life balance and flexibility, collaboration, transparency and career advancement.
MILLENNIALS
GLOBALIZATION
NOSTALGICS
SOCIAL MEDIA
FOODIES
ECONOMY
BROGRAMMERS
TRAVELERS
FRAT BOYS
EXHUBERANTS
24 MILLENNIALS
COLLECTORS
BOSS-BABES
ECONOMY
A millennial’s individual career and income level sets the stage for the other subgroups he or she may fit into. “Boss babes” and “brogrammers” are ambitious go-getters that have steady careers and relentlessly push themselves to get ahead. Women in this group are aware of their self-brand; they care about their professional image. Men tend to embody the “frat boy” culture and are interested in technology, gaming and sports. For all millennials, no matter what their income is, technology is considered a necessity. GLOBALIZATION
Millennials have gained access to global, local and even temporal cultural experiences that shape their goals and aspirations. Many of them seek refuge from the harsh realities of modern life in their own childhoods or past decades; nostalgia is a strong force among these millennials. Millennials want to take in everything the world has to offer and there are two ways for them to do that. The first way, used by the “foodies”, is to go to restaurants that serve exotic cuisines; they view dining out as an event. Other millennials prefer to travel to these locales and immerse themselves in foreign cultures to truly experience them. SOCIAL MEDIA
With the rise of social media, Gen Y has grown up under a microscope; with every tweet, photo or status update they open themselves up to public observation. There are two categories in this Social Media section: “Exhuberants” are active users who take pictures of and blog about everything and are constantly projecting themselves and their experiences out into the world. “Collectors” are the 80-plus percent of social media users that passively take in the vicarious experiences of others. There is also a hybrid of these two groups, called the “millennial Marthas” which are the generational trend setters who collect items, experiences, etc. and then tell others what to buy and do. Millennials have specific characteristics. They are multitaskers, connected and tech-savvy. They want instant gratification and recognition, work-life balance and flexibility, collaboration, transparency and career advancement.
MILLENNIALS 25
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS NUMBERS AND FACTS
In order to understand this topic there is a need to understand who these international students are, where they come from, what they study; it is crucial to grasp what their expectations are and how they experience the visa process. All data taken from Open Doors 2013 report, produced by the Institute of International Education in November 2013
There are currently 820.000 international students in the U.S., which is about 4% of all the higher education students; they contributed $24 billion to the U.S. economy in 2013 and more than half of it comes from personal and family funds. Knowing this, we can imagine how much paperwork they must go through and how many of them went through an endless process that in most cases is practically the same.
INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ENROLLEMENT
800,000
600,000
400,000
200,000
0
2007/08
2008/09
2009/10
Continuing students
26 INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
New Students
China India South Korea Saudi Arabia Canada All other countries 49% of all international
students are from the
top 3 countries
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION
Personal & Family
U.S. College or Un PERSONAL & FAMILY FUNDS
Foreign Gov’t / Un Current Employm FOREIGN GOV’T / UNI. Other Foreign Sou CURRENT EMPLOYMENTOther U.S. U.S. COLLEGE & UNI.
5% 2% 1% 7%
OTHER FOREIGN COUNTRY OTHER U.S.
21% 64%
Let’s take a look at the fields these students are in. About 22% of international students are in Business and Management fields, followed by 18% in the field of Engineering. Three fields are competing around 9%, they are the following: Math and Computer Science, Social Sciences and Physical and Life Science. As for Fine and Applied Arts they represent 5.6% of the international students.
STEM Fields Engineering 19% Math/Computer Science 10% Physical & Life Sciences 8% Health Professions 4% Agriculture 1%
FIELDS OF STUDY
STEM Business & Manag Social Sciences BUSINESS AND MGMT Fine & Applied Art SOCIAL SCIENCES Intensive English L FINE & APPLIED ARTS Undeclared & Othe STEM
17% 5%
42%
6%
INTENSIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE UNDECLARED & OTHER
9% 22%
STEM Fields
Engineering 19%
Math/Computer Sc Physical & Life Scie Health Professions Agriculture 1%
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS 27
California is the most popular state for international students with around 112.000 students, followed by New York with 88.000 students and finally Texas with 62.000. The number of institutions in these states can explain this, although some of the most famous ones are in Massachusetts (around 46.000 students). Another factor would be the size of the institutions in these states, allowing therefore a bigger percentage of students to study in their premises.
U.S. DESTINATIONS
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: 46,000 TO 112,000 20,000 TO 45,000 10,000 TO 19,000 LESS THAN 10,000
28 INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
600,000
400,000
200,000
0
It is not surprising to state that the biggest percentage of these students come from Asia, considering the ratio of the worldwide 49% of all international students population. 29% of international students come from China, they are from the top 3 countries are mainly studying Business and Management as well as Engineering. They are followed by Indian students, which represent 12% of international students; they study Math and Computer Science, as well as Engineering2008/09 for the biggest part. The third biggest2010/11 part 2007/08 2009/10 2011/12 2012/13 of these students comes from South Korea, they represent 9% of the students and mainly study Business and Management, Fine and Applied Arts and SocialContinuing Sciences. students New Students
TOP PLACES OF ORIGIN
CHINA INDIA SOUTH KOREA SAUDI ARABIA 29% 42%
China India South Korea Saudi Arabia Canada All other countr
CANADA
49% of all international
ALL OTHER COUNTRIES 12% 3%
students are from the
top 3 countries
5% 9%
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS 29
LIFE AFTER F-1 TRANSFERRING TO OTHER VISAS
What happens after you entered the U.S. is very important. The paperwork and procedures do not stop once you entered the country, on the contrary. The U.S. government requires you to prove that you will leave the country once your studies are finished but you can still look for a job and change your visa status. It is a difficult process that might discourage students to pursue their careers even though they might want to.
Not to mistake with CPT: Curricular Practical Training which is employment pursuant to an internship requirement or internship elective which is an integral part of the established curriculum of a school, which will be counted towards completion of a degree.
With the F-1 visa, students are able to work for the time period of a year after the completion of their studies; this is what we call OPT, Optional Practical Training. One’s OPT has to be related to their major of study. A recently graduated student can work as a freelancer or even full-time; most of the time students take advantage of it during the waiting time of their H-1B visa. COMPANIES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
As an international student your rights are limited when you live in the USA under any kind of visa status. It is mostly limited concerning working rights. In order to get an H-1B visa, you need to be sponsored by a company. One cannot know when a company sponsors or not and most of the time it is by word of mouth than people find out or it simply during interviews that people ask if the company ever sponsors international individuals. People who get sponsored usually work with immigration lawyers in order to get all the paperwork ready; these immigration lawyers are either recommended by the company or found by the concerned individual. It seems that some companies might be reluctant when it comes to hire international people compared to hiring american citizens; it costs money and time.
30 LIFE AFTER F-1
INSIGHTS FOCUS GROUP / SURVEY
One of the first topics international students talk about when gathered in a room is their situation in the US. Having them meet specifically for that and questioning their experience and knowledge leads to interesting reactions. After conducting a focus group with eight students, I realized how their views on the process were quite similar and yet each specific case was very different. These students come from seven different countries and they all agree on the same point; it is very stressful and complicated to be under a F-1 visa status.
This focus group was conducted in the premises of Pratt Institute with students from the Communications Design Department.
As I was writing down information about International students and statistics about them in my initial research, I realized that I had no actual facts coming from these people. What is was writing was not human and I felt like I was only stating facts and numbers. That is why I decided to create a survey, which would help me gain real insight from these students and would also open my perspectives about the overall topic. Getting all of these answers has really helped me to believe in this subject: it has confirmed that they are confused about the visa subject and that something has to be done. Out of 50 people, 6 of them feel fine about the overall visa process; one doesn’t care and the rest are mostly stressed and confused. A couple of people need more information and frustration seems to be standing out in most cases. In some cases, certain participants were quite troubled and mad about this subject as we can see here: “ With the United States having been founded by immigrants (yes, the age-old argument), I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that the visa and legal immigration policy is so stressful and often times complex. I also find it absolutely stupid that one has to establish a reasonable case of intent to return to one’s home country after graduation acquiring a student visa: in short, admitting that you would want to immigrate to the United States LEGALLY could get you in trouble!” In other cases, their answers helped me validate my project idea: “It’d be great if the visa options are shown to me in order to stay in the United States, and how to achieve that.” Some answers also pushed me to find a solution and showed me how much they do need help, here are the results of this survey.
INSIGHTS 31
WHERE DO YOU COME FROM?
EUROPE
9%
Europe ASIA Asia South America SOUTH AMERICA Middle East MIDDLE EAST Africa
5%
7% 42%
AFRICA
37%
WHAT IS YOUR VISA STATUS?
F-1
Confused F-1 Stressed H-1B H-1B Need Card moreGREEN information CARD Green Tired of it J-1 J-1 Fine
19% 2% 2% 77%
32 INSIGHTS
Europe Asia South America
n
HOW EXPENSIVE WAS THE PROCESS?
19% 26%
LOW Low Europe Moderate MODERATE Asia High South America HIGH Middle East Africa
56%
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE VISA PROCESS?
Yes No
CONFUSED
9%
19%
FINE
20%
11%
Confused STRESSED Stressed Need more information NEED MORE INFORMATION Tired of it TIRED OF IT Fine
41%
Yes Uncertain No
INSIGHTS 33
DOES SCHOOL/COMPANY PROVIDE ENOUGH INFORMATION?
Yes Yes NoNo
51%
YES NO
49%
DO YOU WISH TO STAY IN THE USA LONG-TERM?
YES
Yes Yes UNCERTAIN Uncertain Uncertain NoNo NO
rmation mation 14% 16% 70%
34 INSIGHTS
TIME SPENT IN THE USA
18
14
20
15
42%
16% 5
10
19%
9
16% 5
7%
0
>6 months
6 m. - 1 year
>6 MONTHS
6 M. - 1 YEAR
1 - 3 years
1 - 3 YEARS
3 - 5 years
+ 5 years
3 - 5 YEARS
+5 YEARS
0
Unempl
WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT WORKING STATUS?
47%
20
15
10
19% 12%
5
9%
9%
5% 0
UN
E B Job B Job D ID Unemployed Paid Internship Unpaid AInternship Freelance Full-time Part-time AI ED JO JO NC
EM
PL
P
OY
IN
TE
S RN
HI
P
P IP UN SH N ER T IN
E FR
EL
A
FU
I -T LL
M
E
PA
I -T RT
M
E
INSIGHTS 35
EXTRA ISSUES TAXES
Taxes are most probably an issue for everyone, whether it is American citizens or international individuals. An average person would either go to an accountant or use an online tool such as Turbotax.
See Part 4 Government, “Paperwork Simplification”, p.84, Study Case: Internal Revenue Service
International students are required to fill in taxes, even if they are not working or earning money. It is something that most of them are unaware of when not specified by their school. And once they do know about it, which is generally around the deadline, they do not know how to fill them. A website such as Turbotax does not take into account the 1040N form which is the form that international students are required to fill. There are softwares that allow you to fill in your taxes but they are still pretty vague. STUDY CASE: TURBOTAX
Turbotax is a tax preparation software that helps people fill in their taxes in simple way; users are asked a series of questions and in the end they get their taxes filed for a certain amount of money. It is an alternative to filing taxes yourself or through the help of an accountant. Turbotax is not the only tax preparation software; it has competitors such as H&R Block, TaxAct and CompleteTax. Unfortunately, none of these softwares, including Turbotax, take into account the forms that international students have to fill (form 1040N, 1040NEZ, 8843). The website is pretty clear and easy to use; based on a series of questions and different user cases the experience is overall enjoyable. Nonetheless, there isn’t any specification for international students and one can be lead into confusion when using this service; the user goes through the whole process only to find out in the end that it is not valid for their case, and that is only if the user searches for the international student case in the website.
36 EXTRA ISSUES
Screenshot of the Turbotax website
Screenshot of the Turbotax smartphone application
EXTRA ISSUES 37
SOCIAL SECURITY
In order to work and get paid in the USA you need to get a Social Security card. From a personal experience, it was rather easy. Being under a F-1 visa status, I am only allowed to work on-campus; as soon as I found a job I had to get my Social Security number in order to get paid and for the school to fill in their own taxes and forms. Having a Social Security number has many advantages although it is not completely essential. Nowadays when you make a purchase online using your credit/debit card, the transaction is verified by your bank and you are asked to type in the 4 last digits of your Social Security number; this is something you get stuck with when you do not possess this SSN. Talking from personal experience, I have been through this minor issue and after calling the customer service of my bank could not resolve. HOUSING
When studying in the USA, many students live in campus housing. For those who wish to live outside of campus or those who don’t have access to campus housing they must face different problems. In order to rent any type of housing most people need a credit history as well as a guarantor living in the same country or same state. It seems pretty obvious that most international students don’t have these two important components. One of many cases can be that you will have to pay between 6 to 12 months of rent in advance. Depending on the monthly rate, it is a large amount of money that most people are not prepared to pay. Some landlords don’t even accept international individuals; therefore it is much harder to find a place to live. One of the solutions is to live with an american citizen or live in a sublet. Not knowing that there are conditions like these is a major issue, especially when the individual cannot afford it and it is a major obstacle in the overall experience of living in the USA. It is already hard to find affordable places in major american cities, it gets even harder when you are international. WORK
There are disadvantages concerning the working situations as an international student; during their first year of study international students can’t work at all. It is only starting from their second year of study that they can start working but that is only on their school’s premises. Indeed, it is impossible for an international student to work outside of school; not even as a freelancer. It is well known that most students in any other country work on the 38 EXTRA ISSUES
side of their studies; either to pay back their loans or just to save up some money for their personal needs. In the USA, International students cannot work as a bartender, waiter or anything else, which makes their living situations much harder. The only way to get paid for work in the USA as an International student is therefore to work for their school or just finish their studies and get a visa that allows them to work; which involves getting sponsored, a process that is in itself already very complicated.
See Part 1 Background, “Visa types”, p.18, H-1B Visa
BANKS
Opening a bank account as an international individual is easy: you do not need a social security number or any kind of prerequisite. One of the major components one has to understand in America is that there something called the credit score. Your credit score will allow you to rent a place, buy a house, a car or even get a loan. For most Americans it is pretty easy to understand but for people that are unaware of this it gets complicated. Since international individuals are not supposed to stay longer than what is stated in their visa, there is no real use of informing them about this. If they stay longer, they eventually find out about it but the earlier you get a credit card, the earlier you can start building a good credit score. This is why there is again a need to inform these international students when they arrive in the USA. HEALTHCARE
In the USA, paying for doctors and any kind of medical procedure can become a huge expense. The United States is ranked last in the quality of its healthcare system when compared with 10 other western, industrialized nations. Although it spends more on healthcare than any other country and has the highest proportion of specialist physicians, survey findings indicate that from the patients’ perspective, and based on outcome indicators, the performance of American healthcare is severely lacking.
According to the Commonwealth Fund Report
As an international student, healthcare can be provided through one’s school. Schools have partnerships with different health care providers such as Aetna; a provider used by Pratt Institute. Students are covered for most medical problems but once their studies are over they have no coverage whatsoever.
EXTRA ISSUES 39
SCHOLARSHIPS
Studying in the USA is most of the time really expensive; there are a few ways to go around that, mostly through loans and scholarships when a student matches all the requested criterias. Through my own experience, every time my school sends me information about scholarships it is not matching my international status. Indeed, if I wish to apply for a scholarship I would have to go search for it myself and on top of that there are deadlines that I wouldn’t be aware of. The problem here isn’t that International students don’t have enough scholarships available for them, it’s more about how they don’t have access to all of these international student directed scholarships in a simple and clear way. Currently there are a few websites containing databases for scholarships allowing you to put in the country where you study and the country where you’re from; there isn’t anything provided directly by schools which to my opinion should be changed. Deadlines and requirements should be given to students according to their area of study thus allowing them to plan it out, on top of the whole visa process. As I said before there are many scholarships available for international students, one of them is the Fulbright Foreign Student Program; it is not available for students from every country but still has a good amount of eligible countries. Students that are interested in this scholarship have to apply in Fulbright Commissions/Foundations or U.S. Embassies in their home countries and match a certain amount of criterias. Depending on the countries and programs, Fulbright grants can provide with round-trip transportation to the host country, funding to cover room, board and incidental costs, Accident & Sickness Health Benefits. On top of that, they can also provide with book and research allowances, mid-term enrichment activities, full or partial tuition, language study programs and pre-departure and in-country orientation. Needless to say that it is a real advantage for students and that they should be provided with the necessary information to apply.
40 EXTRA ISSUES
Screenshots of Internationalstudent.com - Tool for scholarship research EXTRA ISSUES 41
THE PRESSURE OF DEADLINES UNDER PRESSURE
On top of having to deal with all this information and finding it, potential visa holders have to deal with a lot of deadlines and pressure; missing one due date can postpone the whole process and you sometimes have to wait a whole year to restart the process. I’d like to focus more on the H-1B process; indeed when it comes to the F or J visa deadlines are given by the school or sponsoring organizations. The H-1B process is more self-conducted, at least when it is starts, therefore keeping up with deadlines is extremely important. Students have to find the right immigration lawyer and know in advance that the time of applying for the H-1B is during the month of April; they have to be ready with the appropriate paperwork by then. Most of the time, students feel discouraged and might not even try. Even when they do and they don’t manage to get the visa, they spend huge amounts of money to get the visa application ready. It seems that they need clear and precise information before hand. MANAGEMENT TOOLS
Nowadays, management tools are mostly used for businesses and companies internally, allowing them to organize tasks, collaborate on projects, follow up on clients and more. There are tools available for individuals, most of them are checklists or to-do lists. The basic management tool that everyone uses is their calendar, that is either in their smartphone or computer. Management tools aren’t used by everyone, it really depends on one’s behaviors and habits. These tools are available on computers as software or web-based application as well as any other portable device such as smartphones or tablets. TO-DO LISTS
There are numerous ways to keep up with deadlines and finish everything you have to do on time; to-do lists are one of the most common technique. There are numerous online to-do lists but we will here focus on one of the most successful one; Todoist. Todoist is an online and mobile platform that allows you to create to-do lists, organize any kind of projects and share it with other people. It has more features than any other to-do list and allows people to customize their own experience and optimize productivity. Some of these features are the following:
42 THE PRESSURE OF DEADLINES
Sub tasks - allowing you to achieve more by breaking big tasks into smaller sub-tasks. Reminders - that are sent via email, push notification or mobile text message. Sharing and collaborating - in this feature, one can share projects, delegate tasks and discuss details. Productivity visualization - this feature is also called Todoist Karma where one can track their productivity and visualize their productivity trends over time. Multiple priorities - one can focus on the important aspects of a project by using Todoist’s colored priorities. These are a few examples of tools that allow to organize information in a clear way. Nowadays, people are extremely connected to all of their devices and rely on them to stay informed; having a tool on multiple platforms is an excellent way to have someone focused on what they have to do. Using tools like these could also be a plus in the overall visa process; the most interesting aspects being collaborative and productivity aspects.
Todoist Smartphone Application
THE PRESSURE OF DEADLINES 43
THREE DESIGN
“DESIGN IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY IS NOT REALLY ABOUT BRILLIANT DESIGNERS IMPOSING SOLUTIONS ON LUCKY RECIPIENTS. IT IS MORE ABOUT DESIGNERS INTRODUCING METHODS THAT CAN BE ADOPTED AND ADAPTED BY THEIR HOST ORGANIZATIONS. THIS IS A BIG, AMBITIOUS REDEFINITION OF THE TERM, FAR REMOVED FROM THE WIDELY HELD VIEW THAT DESIGN IS ULTIMATELY ABOUT THE STYLING OF CONSUMER PRODUCTS TO BOOST THE SALES CURVE AND THE LANDFILL.” Peter Hall, Metropolis Magazine
SERVICE DESIGN
Marc Stickdorn is one of the authors of “This is Service Design Thinking”, co-founder of Destinable - Service design for tourism and guest lecturer at different European and U.S. Universities.
There is no common definition to service design, according to Marc Stickdorn it revolves around five core principles. It’s user-centered - Services should be experiences through the customer’s eyes. It’s co-creative - All stakeholders should be included in the service design process. It’s sequencing - The service should be visualised as a sequence of interrelated actions. It’s evidencing - Intangible services should be visualised in terms of physical artefacts. It’s holistic - The entire environment of a service should be considered.
Observe the situation
Prototype and test the service
Involve users
Map ideas and develop them
Understand roles
Analyse the quality of the service
48 SERVICE DESIGN
Compared to goods, services are still not entirely acknowledge in design or at least haven’t been until recent years. Designing a service is rather challenging since it does not follow the same process as designing a good. Service design is highly connected to marketing. Much of the early focus in marketing was on goods and services became an important topic from the 1970s onwards as researchers realised the economic value of services was beginning to exceed that of other kinds of activity. They added three extra factors to the classic “4 Ps” of the marketing mix of product, price, promotion and place: participants (the human actors involved in the service encounter), processes (procedures, mechanisms and flows of activities) and physical evidence (the physical surroundings and tangible clues).
P
P
P
P
P
Booms and Bitner, 1981
P
P
Marketing is about organisations creating and building relationships with customers to co-create value; design aims to put stakeholders at the center of designing services and preferably co-design with them. Designers use tools that have been created by marketers to focus on individual user’s experiences as a way into designing services. What matters is here is not to know whether service design is part of marketing or vice versa. What matters is that understanding value and the nature of relations between people and other people, between people and things, between people and organisations, and between organisations of different kinds, are now understood to be central to designing services.
“Services must receive the attention they deserve so as to unpack the concept and place it in the center of design thought and action.” Fernando Secomandi
SERVICE DESIGN 49
SERVICE DESIGNERS
Service design is an interdisciplinary approach that includes and connects various fields of activity. Service design includes: Product Design – developing products with service applications Graphic Design - providing visual explanations Interaction Design - services as a series of interactions Social Design - delivering positive social impact Strategic Management - why corporations do what they do Operations Management - the relentless quest for efficiency Design Ethnography - taking inspiration from everyday life
“Service design is a design specialism that helps develop and deliver great services. Service design projects improve factors like ease of use, satisfaction, loyalty and efficiency right across areas such as environments, communications and products – and not forgetting the people who deliver the service.” Engine Service Design, 2010 THE FOUR STAGES OF SERVICE DESIGN
In order to understand how service design works it is important to analyse some of the tools that are used in this process. These tools are placed in a design process that has four iterative stages which are: Exploration - Gaining a clear understanding of the situation from the perspective of current and potential customers of a certain service is crucial for successful service design. Creation - One of the main features of service design thinking is that this approach is not about avoiding mistakes, but rather to explore as many possible mistakes. Reflection - It is important to prototype service concepts in reality or circumstances close to reality. Service design thinking uses different staging and roleplay approaches. Implementation - Ideally, employees should contribute to the prototyping of certain service moments and therefore have a clear vision of the concept.
50 SERVICE DESIGN
P EXPLORATION
CREATION
REFLECTION
IMPLEMENTATION
SERVICE DESIGN 51
TOOLS
There is a wide array of tools that are being used in service design, by analysing some of them we will get a better understanding of service design thinking and application. A stakeholder map is a visual or physical representation of the various groups involved with a particular service. By representing staff, customers, partner organisations and other stakeholders in this way, the interplay between these various groups can be charted and analysed. Shadowing involves researchers immersing themselves in the lives of customers, front-line staff, or people behind the scenes in order to observe their behaviour and experiences. A customer journey map provides a vivid but structured visualisation of a service user’s experience. The touchpoints where users interact with the service are often used in order to construct a “journey”- an engaging story based upon their experience. This story details their service interactions and accompanying emotions in a highly accessible manner. Making an expectation map involves investigating and charting what customers expect when they interact with a service. The map can either focus on one specific service, or take the more generalised form of analysing a particular service category. Personas are fictional profiles, often developed as a way of representing a particular group based on their shared interests. They represent a “character” with which client and design teams can engage. Design scenarios are essentially hypothetical stories, created with sufficient detail to meaningfully explore a particular aspect of a service offering. They can be presented using plain text, storyboards, or even videos. Co-creation is a core aspect of the service design philosophy. It can involve anyone from staff, designers, executives or customers working collaboratively in order to examine and innovate a given service experience. A Business Model Canvas is a useful tool for describing, analysing, and designing business models. It was developed and popularised by the book Business Model Generation. It usually takes the form of a large table split into nine sections, each of which is said to represent one of the “blocks” of a successful business model.
52 SERVICE DESIGN
STUDY CASE: SEB AND TRANSFORMATOR
The SEB bank was founded in 1856 and is now one of northern Europe’s leading financial groups. SEB’s target groups are companies and individuals with high demands for quality and they provide specialist expertise within all financial areas. Transformator is a design group based in Sweden that consists of consultants in the area of service design. This project targeted about 350,000 private SEB customers; they would lower their banking costs by integrating all of their individual bank services into one package. SEB was uncertain how to design, introduce and explain an offer that would benefit both them and their customers. On the other hand, customers have a hard time understanding the language and logic often used when banks are presenting their services; the users often discard offers as “not relevant”. The vision here was to create a stronger connection between the bank and their customers through relevant offers and an approachable tone. This is based on customer understanding, offering logical and attractive products. These 350,000 customers had individual contracts that were both time consuming and expensive to handle. These customers had throughout the years added applications like telephone banking, internet banking and MasterCard to their bank services. All these different services had individual agreements and contracts. For SEB this meant a lot of resources were spent on administration rather than on making the services better for the customers. The solution was to follow the logic of the customers and simply skip the whole cumbersome process of consenting to the changes on the internet and, instead, automatically change the contracts and lower the cost of the services. Transformator drafted a letter based on the insight from the customer interactions. The letter was sent out to all the affected customers informing them of the background to the change, the reason for the price reduction and what this would mean to the customers. The results was that the sign-up turnout for “Everyday Simplicity” was 100% . This study case shows us that in order to create relevant and profitable services, organizations have to truly understand the user’s situation, need, mindset and driving forces. By involving and interacting with the customer as part of the business development process, the end result has customer relevance and one will learn a great deal about their own business by looking at it from a customer perspective.
54 SERVICE DESIGN
MA IN SERVICE DESIGN
The Royal College of Arts (UK) offers a two-year MA in Service Design; examining this programme is a good way to understand what service design consists of and how it is taught. The programme examines how design can transform the experience and value of services, making them compelling to users, as well as attractive and profitable for the organisations that deliver them. It educates students in the very latest tools and techniques of service design and, through its research activities, develops pioneering new models for service innovation.
“Service Design has become the new frontier for designers who are seeking to make a strategic impact on business and society.� Dr Nick de Leon, Head of Programme The MA Service Design Programme aims to: Introduce the concepts, tools and techniques of experience design and service innovation, and through project assignments learn to apply these tools and techniques to consumers, businesses and public services. Understand the importance of the societal, environmental and business context for experience design and service innovation, and the broader systems context. Understand how design creates user and business value in services and the importance of an architecture for service provision that ensures consistent delivery of user experience. To consider the opportunities and threats posed by both technological as well as business model innovation in services. Apply those techniques to the experience design and systems and service innovation in the context of tackling challenges of sustainability, systemic issues, and social enterprise. Engage at a strategic as well as operation level in the design of services, potentially leading interdisciplinary design teams in the design and deployment of innovative services.
SERVICE DESIGN 55
SIMPLICITY MASSIMO VIGNELLI AND MODERNISM Vignelli was an Italian designer who worked in a number of areas ranging from package design through houseware design and furniture design to public signage and showroom design.
Massimo Vignelli was asked in the 1970s to redesign the New York subway map ; at the time it was a controversial design since it wasn’t a map like any seen before. It is a perfect example of simplification and clear design of something that might be confusing and complex. In 2008, Vignelli Associates elevated the map by making it even more clear and unifying the colors. Vignelli worked firmly within the Modernist tradition and focused on simplicity through the use of basic geometric forms in all his work. Modernism is a trend of thought which affirms the power of human beings to make, improve and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation. The term covers a variety of political, cultural and artistic movements rooted in the changes in Western society at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Broadly, modernism describes a series of progressive cultural movements in art and architecture, music, literature and the applied arts which emerged in the decades before 1914. Embracing change and the present, modernism encompasses the works of artists, thinkers, writers and designers who rebelled against late 19th century academic and historicist traditions, and confronted the new economic, social and political aspects of the emerging modern world.
“It is extremely important for a satisfactory result of any design to spend time on the search of the accurate and essential meanings, investigate their complexities, learn about their ambiguities, understand the context of use to better define the parameters within which we will have to operate.� Massimo Vignelli
56 SIMPLICITY
SIMPLICITY 57
THE LAWS OF SIMPLICITY
In The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda offers ten laws for balancing simplicity and complexity in business, technology and designguidelines for needing less and actually getting more. John Maeda is a professor in MIT’s Media Lab and a world-renowned graphic designer that explores the question of how we can redefine the notion of “improved” so that it doesn’t always mean something more, something added on. Law 1: Reduce “The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.” Law 2: Organize “Organization makes a system of many appear fewer.” Law 3: Time “Savings in time feel like simplicity.” Law 4: Learn “Knowledge makes everything simpler.” Law 5: Differences “Simplicity and complexity need each other.” Law 6: Context “What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral.” Law 7: Emotion “More emotions are better than less.” Law 8: Trust “In simplicity we trust.” Law 9: Failure “Some things can never be made simple.” Law 10: The One “Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.”
58 SIMPLICITY
#SIMPLICITYPAYS
Siegel and Gale’s Global Brand Simplicity Index gives a great overview of how brands can be simple. According to the report this is what was learned about simplicity in 2014:
See Part 4 Government, “Paperwork Simplification”, p.84, The Siegel Method
Complexity costs - For complex industries, people are more likely to use high-cost customer service channels. Simplicity pays - 38% of consumers would pay more for simpler experiences. Simplicity gets shared - 70% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand because it’s simple. Simplicity outperforms - Since 2009, a portfolio of the simplest global brands outperforms the major indexes by 170%. The world’s simplest brand is Aldi, a worldwide German discount supermarket that offers “a clear pricing and a clear offer” with high quality at low prices with a trimmed-down approach that makes decisions easier and the shopping experience basic, but rewarding. The world’s most complex brand is Axa, a global insurance group. Axa contracts are “hair-splitting” as well as time-consuming. There’s a new breed of brands emerging, and they’re changing expectations of what it means to be simple. They are called the Disrupters: they are empowering people by side-stepping traditional industries (i.e. Airbnb), removing friction by eliminating everyday pain points (i.e. Uber), re-imagining experience by turning annoying experiences into moments of delight (i.e. GrubHub) and saving time by delivering services to people where and when they need them (freshDirect). Starting from simple gives brands a head start. Staying simple yields long-term returns. But no matter where they begin, all brands can benefit from conquering complexity. It’s interesting here to see how simplicity is being showcased through these brands and how this could be applied to governments and organizations.
SIMPLICITY 59
SIMPLICITY IN UX DESIGN
Complexity is easy, anything can be complex. It is difficult to define, but many people know what it is when they see it. It is important to get different perspectives to define it; here we will look at the perspective of designers, people and scientists. Visual designers are concerned about appearance, aesthetics and style; it’s about having sufficient negative space, avoid visual noise and being concerned with hierarchy. UX designers are concerned about how things work (functionality), the context in which people are doing things and the flow (how do people move through experiences step by step). When it comes to web pages they are concerned about how it works. They are concerned with structures, how things are organized and connected; it’s that structure that helps us move through experiences. People think about it differently than designers. They’re based on relevance, if they find what they need when they need it, it feels simple even if there’s things around it. Clutter gets in the way so does irrelevance. To people, difficult tasks are often complex tasks, confusion leads them to calling things complex. Scientists believe in the concept of chaos, the chaos theory; its characteristics are ever changing, it is deterministic - we can describe it but it’s not predictable nor random- it is structured but you can’t predict it. This theory states that out of chaos there are self-organizing systems. It evolves around the idea of the butterfly effect- a very small change in the system in one place can produce a very large change in another place or in the future. Complex systems that appear to have an impossibly large number of variables can actually be described and understood with remarkably few.
“Everything should be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.” Albert Einstein
The complexity curve represents the process of a project in which 60 SIMPLICITY
COMPLEXITY CURVE
the level of complexity increases the further we get into that design project. When designers start a project, they’re energetic and know what they have to accomplish. Then they begin, it’s a little more complex that they think; the complexity increases a list of to-do grows. People review and add things to it, change it. When they approach the completion, different factors appear (technology, system, memory, etc.). They get to a point where the feature is complete, everything is in it - the product is at its maximum complexity. The second half of the complexity curve consists on maintaining the functionality but making it easier. Designers iterate;they continue to work on the design and refine: this achieves a better sense of clarity, reduces the confusion and the ambiguity, and they get clearer content and clearer purpose. They continue to iterate thus improving structure and organization: the skeleton gets better on the inside. By iterating a bit further they manage to make refinements to the flow, find opportunities for efficiency and accuracy.
FEATURE COMPLETE
High
COMPLEXITY
CLARITY The system doesn’t... STRUCTURE Looks good. Now let’s.. FLOW Wouldn’t it be cool if...
Low Begin
Launch TIME
Designers need to teach people and have a system for teaching SIMPLICITY 61
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE
them; when we can’t make it any simpler, we need to assist them; create a transfer of knowledge and skills, when facing a new problem or challenge we take what we know and look for similarities between the existing knowledge and the new situation. We look for instructions that tell us explicitly how to do something, we look for people that can show us how to do it or we watch videos or look over their shoulders, we look for analogies ; something that is being done naturally all the time which are all problem-solving skills. Designers can overcome complexity by putting people first: the end-user. There are four things to consider: design for motivation (what drives them, what are they trying to accomplish, what is their goal), design for behavior (how are they going to act and interact, what are they going to do), design for emotion (how is it going to make them feel, make people happy) and creativity (find opportunities to leverage creativity to engage people). We need to look for opportunities to reduce the amount of effort it takes to do things, the amount of time it takes to do them and reduce the number of errors. Simplicity is not only about reduction, simplification shouldn’t be confused with subtraction. If too much is taken out, the outcome might be more complex. The key ingredient to simplification is critical thinking - think hard about everything you are doing. It’s about recognizing when you’re making assumptions, assessing the relationship between things and looking for optimal solutions.
62 SIMPLICITY
Designing for simplicity equals to thinking and reasoning, taking the time to think about the problem, understand it, analyze it. There are many opportunities for simplicity and this can be determined by assessing what is complex. It may be complex if there is: Irrelevance, not what the users need Disorganization Ambiguity Indirect action Being everything to everyone - hitting an entire market base, too many variables, too little focus Noise, clutter, excess Copying solutions - misapplied design patterns Exposing system models Leading with technology - solving the wrong or non-existing problem Solution looking for a problem Designing for yourself - ignoring mental models
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INFORMATION DESIGN & DATA VISUALIZATION CURRENT SITUATION: INFORMATION OVERLOAD
Nowadays information design is becoming increasingly relevant; in a complex world, clear and accessible communication has become essential. Information design addresses this need by blending typography, illustration, communication studies, ergonomics, psychology, sociology, linguistics, computer science, and a variety of other fields to create concise and unambiguous messages. There are a few trends that created this current state of complexity in the modern world; the age of information and global connectivity has created an overwhelming need for clarity where governments, corporations, educational institutions and individuals struggle to find better ways to communicate. This has been created by geographic, cultural, and language barriers, combined with a glut of conflicting messages, available media channels, and consumer choices: there is a strong demand for universally accessible knowledge.
“Information design is about the clear and effective presentation of information. It involves a multi and interdisciplinary approach to communication, combining skills from graphic design, technical and non-technical authoring, psychology, communication theory, and cultural studies.� Frank Thissen GLOBALIZATION
The first trend we will talk about here is globalization through technology; advances in technology and communication are driving phenomenal change. Research on worldwide internet usage indicates that Asia, North America and Europe have the majority of online users, but usage in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa has grown by more than 400% over the last several years. Each of those users has the power to access or distribute a vast amount of information from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. English and Chinese are the top two languages represented on the internet, each with approximately 30% of users. The rounding out the top 10 are Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, German, French and Malaysia. With communication technology spreading rapidly, clear visual (and sometimes nonverbal) communication is of paramount importance when sharing ideas and concepts with a broad audience. It is obvious to state that communication efforts on the internet must be able to cross language and cultural barriers. Designers must communicate ideas to people who may or may not share their native language, aesthetic sensibilities, or cultural understanding. 64 INFORMATION DESIGN & DATA VISUALIZATION
INTERNET USAGE BY WORLD REGION
Asia Asia Europe Asia Europe North America Europe North America LatinAmerica America North Latin America Africa Latin America Africa 104M Middle East Africa Middle East 25M Australia / Oceania Middle East Australia / Oceania Australia / Oceania 0 0 0
1265M 566M 302M 300M 240M
350 350 350
700 700 700
1,050 1,050 1,050
1,400 1,400 1,400
INTERNET PENETRATION BY WORLD REGION
North America North America Europe North America Europe Australia / Oceania Europe Australia / Oceania Latin America Australia / Oceania Latin America Middle East Latin America Middle East Asia Middle East Asia Africa Asia Africa Africa 0 0 0
85% 69% 68% 49% 45% 32% 21%
0 0 25 0
0 0 50 0
1 1 75 1
1 1 100 1
TOP SEVEN LANGUAGES ON THE INTERNET
English English Chinese English Chinese Spanish Chinese Spanish Arabic Spanish Arabic Portuguese Arabic Portuguese Japanese Portuguese Japanese Russian Japanese Russian Russian 0 0 0
801M 649M 222M 136M 122M 110M 88M
225 225 225
450 450 450
675 675 675
900 900 900
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FAST COMMUNICATION
Another trend we can talk about here is how information is communicated at a faster pace. Nowadays people receive messages through print, television, radio, websites, e-mails, text message, podcast, webcast, blog, social network, guerilla or viral marketing, interactive outdoor advertising and even spam. There is more data available to us now that we can possible process. Every minute, Internet users add the following to the big data pool: 204,166,667 email messages sent More than 2,000,000 Google searches 684,478 pieces of content added on Facebook $272,070 spent by consumers via online shopping More than 100,000 tweets on Twitter 47,000 app downloads from Apple 34,722 “likes� on Facebook for different brands and organizations 27,778 new posts on Tumblr blogs 3,600 new photos on Instagram 3,125 new photos on Flickr 2,083 check-ins on Foursquare 571 new websites created 347 new blog posts published on Wordpress 217 new mobile web users 48 hours of new video on YouTube There has never been more content to sift through, or so many ways to access it. With so much new material being generated each day there are unprecedented needs and opportunities for designers to create meaningful contexts. Data can provide us with new and deeper insight into our world. It can help break stereotypes and build understanding. But the sheer quantity of data, even in just any one small area of interest, is overwhelming.
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PRINCIPLES
The goal of any information design task is to communicate a specific message to the end user in a way that is clear, accessible, and easy to understand. Studying the human perception, thinking, and learning can provide the designer with crucial insight into the needs of the end user. Visualizations should strive towards the following goals: Content focus Comparison rather than mere description Integrity Utilization of classic designs and concepts proven by time STUDY CASE: SIGN LANGUAGE
Signs, symbols, and icons used in public spaces require instant clarity and accessible messages, often necessitating communication across cultural and language barriers. Many governmental entities and trade organizations require standardization of the marks used on their projects. Mies Hora, designer and founder of Ultimate Symbol, had the idea that designers needed a comprehensive and definitive for these symbols so he developed Official Signs & Icons: a collection of thousands of signs, symbols, and icons used in wayfinding and environmental design, graphic design, architecture, and commercial publishing. The comprehensive set of digital artwork was created to meet the high standards of professional designers and includes several different collections from international standard-setting organizations. Hora spent almost a decade updating the original volume of Official Signs & Icons, based directly on feedback from the design community. Not only did he set out to catalog a collection of existing images, he also created new systems where they were desperately needed.
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HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN
Human-centered design is a process and a set of techniques used to create new solutions for the world; solutions include products, services, environments, organizations, and modes of interaction. It’s closely connected to service design thinking. It places the end user at the center of the design process. Often associated with human-computer interaction and ergonomics, this philosophy can also be used in the development of artifacts that are interactive, print-based, or three-dimensional.
See Part 3 Design, “Service Design”, p.48
Human-centered design is driven by research. Research during the developmental process provides valuable insight into the needs, behaviors, and expectations of the target audience. Focus groups, interviews, ethnographic and observational studies, and other tactics help the designer to create the most effective communication piece. Emphasis is placed on iteration and participation. Projects are developed through cycles of testing, analysis, and refinement. Multiple iterations often provoke questions and solutions previously unforeseen by the design team. Engaging a sample of actual end users to participate in the vetting process guides a project toward further refinement. The goal is to create artifacts that enhance the way people work, learn, and play- rather than forcing them to conform to new or unfamiliar skill sets and learning methods.
H
HEAR
C
CREATE
THEMES
Time STORIES
OBSERVATIONS
68 HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN
According to Ideo’s Human-Centered Design Toolkit, the process of human-centered design starts with a specific design challenge and goes through three main phases: Hear, Create, and Deliver. The process will move the design team from concrete observations about people, to abstract thinking as they uncover insights and themes, then back to the concrete with tangible solutions. During the hear phase, the Design Team will collect stories and inspiration from people. They will prepare for and conduct field research. In the Create phase, teams will work together in a workshop format to translate what they heard from people into frameworks, opportunities, solutions, and prototypes. During this phase they will move together from concrete to more abstract thinking in identifying themes and opportunities, and then back to the concrete with solutions and prototypes. The Deliver phase will begin to realize solutions through rapid revenue and cost modeling, capability assessment,and implementation planning. This will help to launch new solutions into the world.
D
HEAR HEAR CREATE CREATE DELIVER HEAR DELIVER CREATE DELIVER
DELIVER
OPPORTUNITIES
SOLUTIONS PROTOTYPES
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN 69
CROWDSOURCING HELP FROM POTENTIAL USERS See Part 4 Government, “Power to the people”, p.88, Online Petitions
Crowdsourcing is the process of getting work or funding, usually online, from a crowd of people. The word is a combination of the words ‘crowd’ and ‘outsourcing’. The idea is to take work and outsource it to a crowd of workers. The principle of crowdsourcing is that more heads are better than one. By canvassing a large crowd of people for ideas, skills, or participation, the quality of content and idea generation will be superior. A good example for this would be Wikipedia: by hiring writers and editors instead of creating an encyclopedia on their own, Wikipedia gave a crowd the ability to create the information on their own. The results is the most comprehensive encyclopedia the world has ever seen. Crowdsourcing can be divided into 4 groups. Microtasks - Breaking a large project into tiny, well definable tasks for a crowd of workers to complete. Great for: Data validation, research, image tagging, translation Major platforms: Mturk, Microtask.com, Clickworker, Lingotek Macrotasks - Presenting a project to the crowd and asking them to get involved with the portions they’re knowledgeable in. Participants are empowered to determine the best course of action. Great for: R&D, product innovation Major platforms: Quirky, Innocentive, Chaordix Crowdfunding - Asking a crowd to donate a defined amount of money for a specified cause, project, or other use within a predetermined timeframe. If your goal isn’t met, all donations are refunded. Great for: Project fundraising, disaster relief, artistic support, startups, market research Major platforms: Kickstarter, crowdrise, SeedUps Contests - Asking a crowd for work and only providing compensation to the chosen entries. Great for: Logo design, business names Major platforms: 99designs, crowdSPRING, Squadhelp
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Screenshot of a Kickstarter project
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FOUR GOVERNMENT
NEXT AGE OF GOVERNMENT A NEED FOR PROGRESS
Innovation = The process of improving, adapting or developing a product, system or service to deliver better results and create value for people. Innovation happens every day, drive by both large and small ideas. It is about solving problems for people and delivering an organization’s missions more effectively and more efficiently. Innovation is about having a positive impact in the world. In government structures it can come in three forms: Improving something that an organizations already does to deepen its impact on people’s lives. For example, simplifying a core business process, redesigning the customer service systems or making information and programs more accessible to citizens through online services. Adapting a tried and true idea to a new context. Developing something entirely new to achieve the organization’s goals. This may be a new service, policy or tool. Making progress on society’s biggest problems requires governments to make better use of data, involve citizens, invest in employees and collaborate with other sectors. Innovation can be achieved in governmental structures through specific design principles. In order to understand how this can be done, it is important to analyze the current state of the government and what has been done so far by the government itself and outside consulting agencies.
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PEOPLE CONTROL GOVERNMENT
Governments have run out of money, they have vast deficits. The United State’s current public debt is around $14,000,000,000,000. How do we make things better without spending money? There is not a lot money to improve public services and governments. If we combine the right political thinking with the information revolution that has taken place, there’s an incredible opportunity to remake politics, government and public services to increase our well-being. David Cameron believes that we should have the following political philosophy: power to people, give them more control, put them in the driving seat, this can make a stronger society. Another aspect of that philosophy is the understanding of people, politics will only succeed if they treat people as they are rather than how they want them to be. All of this would increase well-being without necessarily spending too much money.
David Cameron is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party.
The are three passages of history in government, the pre-bureaucratic age, the bureaucratic age and the post-bureaucratic age: Pre-bureaucratic age (local control) - an age where everything had to be local. There was local control because there was no national-level information, travel was restricted. Bureaucratic (central control) - the industrial revolution made transport, travel and information possible. Suddenly there was a central state, it was able to organize health care, etc. All the power from the localities became central. Post-bureaucratic (people control)- the information revolution allows us to send and receive information without any cost. It’s an age where people power is possible.
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” John F. Kennedy Now is a time for the people control. The internet revolution has gone through our society in many different ways (ie. the way business is done, the way we shop, the way we travel) but hasn’t touched the government yet.
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STUDY CASE: UK GOVERNMENT
See Part 3 Design, p.45
In 2010, a report commissioned by the UK government suggested changes for the government digital services and recommended that all these services should have a single ‘front end’, should create a central team with absolute control over all interaction experiences and appoint a CEO of Digital who would have absolute authority over user experience across all digital channels. These changes eventually happened under the direction of Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude and what is now called the Government Digital Service has created a manifesto including a set of design principles: Start with needs (user needs, not government needs) Do less Design with data Do the hard work to make it simple Iterate. Then iterate again. Build for inclusion Understand context Build digital services, not websites Be consistent, not uniform Make things open: it makes things better.
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NEXT AGE OF GOVERNMENT 77
OPEN GOVERNMENT
In the U.S., the Open Government Initiative takes the values and practices of transparency, participation and collaboration and instills them into the way people work, to open up government and work with people. The government invests plenty in innovation, for example broadband, science education, science grants; but it invests far too little in reinventing and redesigning in the institutions it has. Noveck believes that the open government evolution with be seen in two phases. The first phase is delivering better information from the crowd to the center which means getting better information in. The second phase is in getting decision-making power out. When we start to see power over the core functions of government - spending, legislation, decision-making - then we’re well on our way to an open government revolution. There are many ways to get there, opening up the data but most importantly creating and curating lots more participatory opportunities with the youth.
“When we start by teaching young people that we live, not in a passive society, a read-only society, but in a writable society, where we have the power to change our communities, to change our institutions, that’s when we begin to really put ourselves on the pathway towards this open government innovation, towards this open government movement, towards this open government revolution.” Beth Noveck, open government expert
INDIVIDUALS
CORPORATIONS
VAL
UES
MONEY
EXP INDIVIDUALS
78 NEXT AGE OF GOVERNMENT
ERT
ISE
CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT
DECISIONS
GOVERNMENT 2.0
Also known as Gov 2.0, Government 2.0 is about “putting government in the hands of citizens”; it combines Web 2.0 fundamentals with e-government and increases citizen participation by using open-source platforms. The government’s role is to provide open data, web services and platforms as infrastructures. The initiative was launched by President Barack Obama in 2009 through the Data.gov website; the idea of Gov 2.0 already existed since the mid-2000s but it became viral through Data.gov. San Francisco was the first city to follow the initiative by creating DataSF.org as well as using Twitter in the process; it launched the first Twitter 311 service (@SF311) that allows residents to tweet, text and send photos directly to the city in order to send requests. This initiative is saving the city money in call center costs. DATA.GOV
Data.gov is a website that lets users access most of the Government’s data in order to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more. The website is very well-designed in its simplicity and clear information. There are currently around 104,779 datasets available; these are organized into different topics such as Agriculture, Climate, Education, Science & Research, Health and many other important issues. The user can simply type their subject of interest in a search tool and is also exposed to different highlight sections/subjects. The website also showcases a number of applications that use the provided data; applications such as Small Business Alert (notifies when new opportunities come out for a small business), Pulse Point (connects those who know CPR with those in cardiac arrest nearby) or even StudentAid.gov (provides information about planning and paying for college in an interactive format).
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GOV. STRUCTURES X DESIGN KEYS TO INNOVATION
One of the leading design firms in governmental innovation is without a doubt Ideo; they take a human-centered, design-based approach to helping organizations in the public and private sectors innovate and grow.
Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success. According to Ideo, there are 7 keys to design and innovation for government. Start with Citizens See Part 3 Design, “Humancentered Design”, p.68
In order to serve the public better, government groups and agencies need to have human-centered approaches, even in complex problem-solving situations. Like any other organizations, they need to get better at understanding the people they serve, the end-users; their needs and aspirations. A few genuine stories from the people who will use or benefit from the service can lead to simple steps that encourage change. Forget the “average” Governments can’t pick and choose the people for whom they design; it’s design for all. They have to search out common types of behaviors that span broad demographics; there are usually a few dominant behaviors that highlight opportunities. By targeting these behaviors, it will become easier for a team to design change. Visualize change By showing tangible ideas through rich visualizations and prototype, design drives organizations to demonstrate and envision change faster. It is known that words are often up for debate and discussion whereas visuals allow people to naturally get on the same page more quickly. Simplify in the face of complexity
See Part 3 Design,”Simplicity”, p.56
It is common to have systems that feel so burdensome that even simple problems seem impossible to solve in governmental structures. This can be explained by large-scale systems that are
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often complex and political shifts that alter processes and goals. It is possible to translate complex systems into simple ideas when looking at the root of an issue; it allows organizations to debate, accept, or reject paths forward. Prototype before piloting Prototyping in small, quick ways allows for in-the-world trials without the risk of high-stakes failure. Most of the time, political pressure to succeed fast requires releasing a pilot into the world when the solutions fail an entire effort may be abandoned until the next year or next administration. If an idea is truly bad, it’s best that it fails on a small scale. Envision a future together Co-design, or envisioning a future together, leads to a future state that everyone can own. It is important to put employees’ tremendous expertise around a topic into account and in the process in order to achieve a successful design, that can be used on the long-term. Share the mission Sharing a mission can reawaken hope in both government employees and designers who want to make real change happen; they have to address governmental challenges with the idea of building toward something versus creating a fix to a problem. STUDY CASE: IDEO SSA WEBSITE
Ideo was asked by the Social Security Administration to redesign their website in order to increase the number of applicants filing online for retirement. After identifying four kinds of online behaviors, Ideo then explored different visuals and tones in order to get to a bold, bright website that would suit these user behaviors all in one page containing collapsible sections and a visual calculator. Over the course of the design research phase, Ideo’s team identified a retirement journey and four key behaviors around decision making, creating a new framework for the experience. This framework, together with deep collaboration around the tone, look, and feel of the online design, fueled an iterative cycle of meeting the public’s needs and providing internal alignment around a shared vision.
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PAPERWORK SIMPLIFICATION THE SIEGEL METHOD
It is impossible to talk about design and governmental structures without mentioning Alan Siegel. Considered as a leader in brand and corporate identity consulting, he founded Siegel & Gale about 43 years ago and has now opened a new agency called Siegelvision; a brand and corporate identity firm consulting for nonprofit organizations, educational institutions and foundations. Siegel & Gale is the “simplicity company”; known for its work for companies like MasterCard, USX and Xerox as well as for efforts to simplify the way corporations and government agencies communicate with consumers. Since 2010, the agency has been compiling an annual report, known as the Global Brand Simplicity Index; report in which 12,000+ consumers worldwide are asked to rank brands based on how simple they are. On top of that, the agency created what they call the SimplicityLab, an online tool that allows organizations to evaluate and refine their communications. It is based on quantitative data measuring consumer’s comprehension, impressions and actions in task-based evaluation. According to the agency, an abundance of agencies with overlapping and sometimes competing objectives can lead to confusing, inefficient communications. Government agencies can simplify processes and communications to cut costs and enhance consumer access and understanding. First of all, it’s important to understand why the government has difficulty communicating. The unique responsibility of the government is to avail its citizens of their rights and obligations as well as its duty to tackle society’s most fundamental and complex problems makes clear communication critical. Government communicates in many ways, including letters, notices, pamphlets, forms and applications.
See Part 3 Design, “Information Design & Data Visualization”, p.64
There are multiple reasons to explain this problem, one of them being the vast and diverse audience it has to speak to. This audience is the broadest including all taxpayers, citizens or retirees; it makes it hard to determine a proper tone and level of communication. Another reason are the constantly changing laws; documents are constantly revised and patched in order for the government to be accurate and up-to-date. There is also a misbelief that government writing must sound “official”, which can often mean pompous and convoluted. The government has to give all citizens equal access to information; when trying to be comprehensive and to anticipate the needs of its citizens, readers become victims of information overload. There are many other factors but these ones remain the most prevailing throughout governmental paperwork.
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The results of complicated governmental paperwork go from frustration to injustice and generally includes excessive costs to citizens. In the United States, citizens who fail to provide certain information to the federal government may be penalized. The reaction to this has been a growing support for a plain-English movement since the mid-1970s. By then, the consumer movement had gained momentum, and consumers demanded more information, greater rights, and self-help remedies. Market research studies indicated an increase in public participation and a growth of participatory democracy, a conviction that with proper information people would make informed decisions about their lives. The signing of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1981 marked a turning point in the United States, when the federal government acknowledged the “paperwork burden” imposed on its citizens and instructed federal agencies to reduce paperwork and eliminate gibberish from regulations. It seems that conducting paperwork audits, rewriting reports and redesigned forms will take time and effort, and in some cases can be facilitated by outside consultants. Methods for establishing, communicating and maintaining design and language standards also must be determined to ensure the success of a simplification policy.
“Since most people really have very little knowledge of how many government regulations there are or what they cover, we believe that people are basically expressing impatience and lack of confidence in government bureaucracy. They are weary of endless arguments and debates on the part of politicians who recount hard-to-follow statistics, recite acronyms, and speak in jargon. People are overwhelmed by quantity and complexity and are seeking a “back to basics” approach as a way to regain comprehension and control.” Alan Siegel
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STUDY CASE: INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
In 1982, Siegel & Gale designed a simplified income tax form for the IRS, the 1040EZ form. Three decades later, they were approached by the agency with another challenge: letter proliferation. Every year, the IRS sends more than 200,000,000 notices; a taxpayer can receive over 1,000 different notices created by 120 different authors generated by more than 40 different systems. The first step of this project was to do an audit of all letters sent by the IRS; many letters lacked a logical framework and consistent voice. The team determined that just 37 letters could serve as models for 70% of all correspondence and they simplified these 37 letters by testing them through their SimplicityLab. The result was a modular document-generation system that standardized layout, navigation, content and tone of voice; this ensured consistency and comprehensibility of all letters. Simplified versions continue to roll out after the initial release in January 2010 and the result was a significant increase in the number of taxpayers who said they would either pay the IRS in full or pay more quickly. In the end, the real beneficiary is the U.S. taxpayer who now receives IRS communications that are easier to understand and simpler to use. This project was honored the 2011 Grand Prize ClearMark Award from the Center of Plain Language.
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Simplicity Lab Application
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THE CENTER FOR PLAIN LANGUAGE
legalese: the formal and technical language of legal documents that is often hard to understand
The Center for Plain Language is a non-profit organization that helps government agencies and businesses write clearly. Their belief is that plain language is important, especially from government and how it saves time and money. The organization states that people need to understand what their government is doing and that democracy can’t work if they don’t. When federal agencies publish regulations and guidance in legalese, people can’t: Fill out forms or report data correctly Access benefits that they need and are entitled Follow the law One of their main project is the Plain Regulations Act, that has been working its way through Congress. If it becomes a law, it could require agencies to write and revise federal regulations in plain language. In order for it to pass, individuals and businesses can send a sample letter to the Congress which is available on the Center for Plain Language’s website. The non-profit celebrates great writing and publicizes bad writing through “awards”. The ClearMark Awards recognize communications written for consumers by government, private companies and nonprofits. The 2014 winner was the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Loan Estimate Form which has been redesigned into a shorter and clearer version; consumers understand and can use this form more easily. On an opposite note, the WonderMarks Awards draw attention to particularly complex, confusing or just plain bad writing and the companies that produce them.
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LESS PAPER, MORE DIGITAL E-SIGNATURES
For a government agency, going paperless is an essential requirement for delivering improved citizen service in a cost effective manner. While most agencies have been going green for several years, business processes that require signatures remain stubbornly paper-based. Government workers, retirees, businesses, and citizens still lose countless hours printing, faxing, mailing, and tracking documents because a signature is needed. Concerns about compliance with electronic signature legislation - as well as security and privacy mandates - have been a barrier. Adobe came up with a solution called Adobe EchoSign, a cloudbased electronic signature service, helping federal, state, and local agencies fast track their paperless efforts. It’s an automated solution that lets you instantly send, sign, track, and file documents securely online. E-signatures require big players to enter the market. It is quite obvious that using E-signatures in governmental procedures would take a lot of time and effort since it would involve changing the whole system; it is possible to envision it for the future if all the necessary measures are taken. DIGITIZED DOCUMENTS
Nowadays anyone can digitize their documents. The main way we can think of is using scanners but there are now smartphone applications (i.e. DocScanner) that allow you to digitize your documents and even web-based applications that use a computer’s webcam. This system has been used by businesses when one needs to verify their identity and could be used by governments on a broader scale. E-FILING
There are many advantages to e-Filing which means to file documents and paperwork online. Doing it online is already one of them, since the user can just type in information. Users can pay fees with a credit or debit card or directly through a checking or savings account. They receive immediate confirmation of their application being received by the organization. USCIS offers this opportunity for different forms but not all of them.
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POWER TO THE PEOPLE INVOLVING CITIZENS IN GOVERNMENTAL ISSUES
Challenge.gov is a technical platform and list of challenge and prize competitions, all of which are run by more than 65 agencies across federal government. These include technical, scientific, ideation, and creative competitions where the U.S. government seeks innovative solutions from the public, bringing the best ideas and talent together to solve mission-centric problems. “A partnership between the public and the government to solve important challenges.� One of the challenges that we will focus on here is the Health Design Challenge. In this challenge designers and developers were invited to redesign the patient health record and could win up to $50,000; this challenge was posted by the Health and Human Services. Participants were invited to rethink how the medical record is presented; making health information patient-centered and improving the patient experience. Entrants had to submit a design that improves the visual layout and style of the information from the medical record, makes it easier for a patient to manage his/her health, enables a medical professional to digest information more efficiently and aids a caregiver such as a family member or friend in his duties and responsibilities with respect to the patient. The first place winner for this project is Nightingale, a medical record that is dynamic, holistic, understandable and personalized; Nightingale would empower people to be smarter about their own health. There is no information about how this winning project is going to be used but it seems to be a good initiative and will surely lead to progress in the future. ONLINE PETITIONS
We the People is an online platform that allows anyone to write or sign a petition that is directly transmitted to the White House if enough signatures are raised. Launched in September 2011, it is a section of the whitehouse.gov website that has gone through some criticism such as the digital divide that wouldn’t allow poor communities to participate equaly in We the People or issues such has unanswered petitions for months. The platform addresses many issues that are clearly organized and in which petitions are accordingly placed through a system of filters; issues such as civil rights, defense, economy, education, healthcare, women and many others. There is also an Immigration section which is mostly the one we are interested in here.
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There are three main steps in the process: creating a petition, having other signs and the White House’s review and response. In order to submit and/or sign a petition, the user has to create an account that goes through the whitehouse.gov website. Creating a petition is pretty straightforward; entering basic information, looking for similar petitions, providing additional details (this is where the petition is more detailed) and finally preview, publish and promote the petition. In order to get the petition to the White House it has to reach 100,000 signatures in 30 days and in order for it to be publicly searchable on We the People it has to reach 150 signatures first. One recent petition dating from April 2014 concerns H1-B applicants that have not been selected in the FY2015 lottery temporary work authorization. The creator is an unknown person located in Texas (names of petitioners are not revealed) and the petition is tagged in issues of Economy, Immigration and Job Creation. The petition states the following:
See Part 1 Background, “Life After F-1”, p.30
“The USCIS received approximately 172,500 H1-B applications for fiscal year 2015. However, there are only 85,000 visas available. This results in 87,500 applicants out of a job. Many applicants received a United States education and are already working here on either OPT or other forms of work authorization. Preference should be given to H1-B applicants who are already here in the United States working. This could be in the form of temporary work authorization (3 years) until comprehensive immigration reform is passed. This will prevent the H1-B lottery FY2015 from hurting companies and the American economy.” It is interesting to see how many aspects of the issue this petition covers; education, companies, economy and overall work authorization in the US. To this date it has collected 6,119 signatures, this result being far off from the 100,000 signatures needed.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The First Amendment, United States Constitution
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FIVE PROJECT
VISAGO SYNTHESIS
When it comes to the visa experience for international individuals in the U.S., it seems that there is a big need of restructuring and design thinking. Designers are becoming more involved in governmental services; how they can become adequate not only for the people but for the organizations as well. Applying design principles to governmental structures and services allows to find new ways to innovate and give power to the people. In this case, they are not American citizens but they contribute to the country and its flow. There is real potential in a matter such as this one. By reducing the number of stakeholders, the number of governmental websites that are visually and verbally inconsistent will reduce confusion. The user needs one place where all the information is clearly gathered and curated for his/her needs; with a consistent and welcoming tone. When looking at what has been done in other governments or other governmental agencies, we can see that these initiatives have positive impacts on society especially when the user’s need is pinpointed and answered to. PROCESS
When I was asked to find a problem and solve it with visual communication, I wanted to focus on something that was part of my daily life, something that I could have a grasp on and that would have a real-life solution. My thoughts lead me almost immediately to the visa experience, not only because it concerns me, it’s a subject that concerns my friends and all the other young adults that come from foreign countries and that decided to move to the U.S. The first step was to verify how other people felt about this whole subject and checking if my own assumptions were right. After conversations, surveys and focus groups, I realized that it was a much bigger concern that I ever thought it was; although feedbacks were different depending on where the person came from and their situation, the overall statement was the same. Too much paperwork, too many deadlines, too many mysterious fees that lead to a general sense of confusion. As I was researching about what was being done in governmental services, I started to understand that there was a huge amount of design principles that could tackle the visa process and allow it to become clear. Instead of seeing it as a hassle, users should be provided with a service that helps them and doesn’t scare them or trouble them. Knowing that most of my target are millennials, it seemed obvious that they needed some sort of digital tool that would be connected on all the different devices they own and would be easily accessible from anywhere. Another important 92 VISAGO
factor is that they all have different needs depending on their status, country of origin, field of study or work; a good solution to that is a service tailored to their needs, through a system of modules that automatically adapts to what situation they are in and what they need to get done. PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Visago is a platform for international individuals that are studying/working/interning in the U.S. and are under a certain visa status. Visago allows them to follow through their status, apply for a new one, be aware of any new regulations and deadlines and much more. The platform doesn’t only focus on international students- they are the base for it but it evolves around cases that are similar and that relate to international students, giving them all the possible cases of what could happen. If a student wants to intern or work for example he/she can do it through the platform. Getting a visa is not the most important part, they need to know how to manage their status and eventually know if there is an opportunity to change it to something else. We can imagine that all the paperwork would be digitized, except one’s passport. This would be a huge advancement in this problem, since one of the biggest problem individuals have to deal with is the amount of paperwork they face and need to fill in time and accurately. We can also imagine that the platform’s security level is extremely high and that none of the user’s information can be leaked or hacked; this could be done through fingerprint scans or even retina scans (taken from a device’s camera). This would allow the user to have all of their information centered in one place; making a considerable change in the whole process. NAMING AND LOGO
The name of this project is straightforward and simple; Visago allows users to remember the name and link it directly to the subject of matter. The word GO is used in the platform every time the user has to make an action, either to fill a paper online or pay a fee or anything matter of that sort. The logo is simple as well; the user can clearly read the name of the platform and the arrow leading to the O represents the entry- in this case entry in the U.S. ICONOGRAPHY
Throughout the platform and the smartphone application a set of icons is used to represent different sections and categories. Visualizing these elements reduces the amount of words and gives visual cues to the users. VISAGO 93
94 LOGO
LOGO 95
96 ICONOGRAPHY
ACTIVITY
CALENDAR
CONTACTS
GLOSSARY
GO BUTTON
CHAT
TO DO
PROGRESS
NEWS
PROFILE
REMINDER
BUDGET
CHECKLIST
ADD
NOTIFICATION
PHONE
APPOINTMENT
ICONOGRAPHY 97
NOTIFICATIONS
MORE
TAXES SOCIAL SECURITY
SOCIAL MEDIA
COMMUNITY
SEARCH
ACTIVITY
TWITTER TO DO GOOGLE +
HOUSING
REMINDER
SCHOLARSHIPS
NEWS
BANKS
PROGRESS
WORK
RECOMMENDED
HEALTHCARE
BUDGET CHECKLIST CUSTOM
98 SITEMAP
ONLINE CHAT
CALENDAR
HOME
REGISTER
LOG IN
DASHBOARD
CONTACTS
SCHOOL OIA
MY PROFILE
GLOSSARY
TERMS
BUDGET
INTERACTIVE VISA FLOWCHART
CURRENT STATUS
MY DOCUMENTS
SWITCH
SCHOOL ADVISOR STUDENT
WORK
INTERN
LAWYERS EMBASSY
TASKS
ADD CONTACT
SITEMAP 99
PRODUCT FEATURES REGISTER
The registration process on Visago aims to be as simple as possible; setting up an account has to be a straight-forward process that doesn’t lead to confusion. Since every user has different sets of data and profiles, the most effective way to create an account is to let the platform do the work for the user. By answering a set of questions, the user’s account will set itself up on some of the following criterias: country of citizenship, field of study/work, school or company, state in which they live in, etc. The last step of the registration process will be the upload of the user’s documents; passport, i20, visa and anything else that would be needed.
DASHBOARD
The dashboard is the main feature of the platform; this is where the user will spend most of their time. The dashboard has four main sections, in form of a sub-menu bar. Activity Based on a set of modules, this section’s purpose is to be as flexible and adaptable as possible to the user’s needs. It regroups all of the tasks and information the user faces in their visa process. It also is a helping tool that leads them to the necessary tasks they need to do. There are different modules in the activity section: To-do - adapted to the process in progress, the user can access any task just by clicking on the “Go button” Reminder - important dates and deadlines News - a customizable news feed from the government, schools, companies, lawyers, OIA’s and such Progress - a visualized set of progress bars showing the user’s progress in a certain task at hand Recommended - curated suggestions for the user Budget - a visualization of the user’s expenses Checklist - either for appointments or application processes, the checklist allows users to verify that they have all the necessary components Custom - a customizable module for the user Calendar The calendar is a section that allows the user to be aware of any type of appointment and deadline. It is filtered by government, 100 PRODUCT FEATURES
school/company and personal issues allowing the user to have order in their scheduled events. The user has the possiblity to synchronize the Visago calendar to their iCal or GoogleCal. Contacts This section is a quick way for the user to contact the people that have an influence on their visa status. All of their contacts’ information are gathered and they can even make appointments with them through the platform; appointments that would automatically be added in their calendar. Contacts can be the following: School OIA School Advisor Lawyer Embassy Glossary The glossary is a simple tool where the user can find popular searches. The user can find out about any type of information such as a type of visa, a particular governmental organization or anything that concerns the visa process. Another part of this tool is the interactive visa flowchart which allows the users to go through other types of visas that could fit their need or the needs of their relatives.
COMMUNITY
The community feature allows users to connect with one another. Based on three different criterias, they can get in touch with other people like them, that might have gone through the same situations. The community feature also showcases recommended lawyers, organizations and associations. The three different criterias are the following: Nationality Users can find citizens from their country living in the U.S. School/Company Users can find individuals that are in the same school or company. Field Users can find individuals that are in the same field of study or work. PRODUCT FEATURES 101
MY PROFILE
The users’ profile page gathers all their information in a clear and concise way. From here they can edit/update their profile and access any documents they need Current status This section allows the user to have a summary of their current status. They can see when their status expires, if they are under any type of special status, their passport expiration date and any other information of that sort. One of the main options in this section is the Switch Status option; when needed they can launch the process of switching from a status to another and be guided through the necessary steps. Budget The budget section is a visualized summary of the user’s previous and future expenses. Through this section they can enter their payment information that automatically allows them to pay any type of fees. My Documents The user can access their documents at all times from this section. They can also scan their documents and upload them in this section if needed. Through the documents section, they can also access to e-Filing, from which they can fill or sign documents online. This e-Filing option is present throughout the whole platform whenever needed for a task or a particular process step.
MORE
The more feature is a drop-down menu that leads the user to extra issues and subjects they have to deal with. Through these sub-categories they access external links curated by Visago that respond the most accurately to their situation. The sub-categories are the following: taxes, Social Security, housing, scholarships, banks, work and healthcare.
NOTIFICATIONS
This is a pretty straight-forward feature through which the user can see any type of news, message, update, due-date or any information of that sort; by clicking on a specific notification they are guided to the appropriate page/link.
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SOCIAL MEDIA
From here, the user is able to access Visago’s Social Media platforms which are Facebook, Twitter and Google +.
SEARCH
The search bar is present at all times and allows the user to research any topic or keyword they want, this leading them to a page of results.
ONLINE CHAT
This chat allows the user to write instantly to Visago advisors at all times. The advantage here is that the advisors have access to the user’s information, therefore they are able to answer to most questions and when needed redirect the user to the appropriate information or person they need to contact.
The Visago Platform prototype can be found in the USB provided with this book.
PRODUCT FEATURES 103
SUPPORTING TOOLS SMARTPHONE APPLICATION
The smartphone application focuses on the main feature of the platform: the dashboard. In order to make it easy to use, it consists of the most important parts of the platform that truly help the user and keep him/her updated about his/her status. The user can still access their profile thus their documents if they ever need to use them for any kind of situation. The colors remain consistent throughout the application and are the same as the platform. Technically speaking, the user would login through a retina or fingerprint scan depending on their smartphone’s available technology; therefore no one else can access their confidential information. Any action that would be done in the application would automatically be done in the platform. Some of the main functions include: Hamburger Menu - a left-sided menu that allows the user to easily navigate in the application and find what they are looking for Icons - a bigger number of icons is used in the application compared to the platform thus adapting the content to the device Calendar - events and reminders that it contains automatically appear in the smartphone’s calendar Contacts - the user will be availble to call or email their Visago contacts through their smartphones with a simple tap The smartphone application could be developped for tablets as well, with a need to adapt the content as well and allowing the users to have access to more features of the platforms in accordance to the size of the screen. The prototype of the application can be downloaded at the following url: https://www.flinto.com/p/fdeeab84 PAPERWORK
In addition to the platform and smartphone application it is useful to add an explanatory sheet with a prospective student’s application package. It could also be included in application packages for potential interns and workers. The sheet would inform them about Visago and encourage them to create an account in order to help them understand what they need to fill in, pay and keep in mind for their future actions. This sheet would show how schools, companies and the U.S. government are involved in this project and are considerate of the user. It would also bring in potential users to the platform 104 SUPPORTING TOOLS
USER CASES ADAPTED SOLUTIONS
By creating 4 different user cases, we will get a better idea of the challenges these students have to face. It is always important to design with a user-centered approach for these kind of challenges. 1- Accepted student, in the process of getting a F-1 visa Saana is a 26 year-old student from Finland that just got accepted at Pratt Institute for a Masters degree in Communications Design. She received her i20 with her acceptance letter and has to start the process of getting an F-1 visa. She is completely unaware of the steps to take in order to get the visa and what the deadlines are. Her school provided her with a set of instructions but it still is rather unclear to her. Along with her acceptance package she got a Visago explanation sheet and will now create an account. 2- F-1 student, going to travel Chuan-You is a 25 year-old student from Taiwan currently studying Politics at Duke University. He has an F-1 visa and is planning to go back to Taiwan for the summer. In order to do that, he has to get his i20 signed 2 weeks prior to his departure. Chuan-You is in the middle of his finals and doesn’t have time to go to the OIA; that’s when he uses Visago to contact the OIA and get them to sign his i20 electronically. 3- F-1 student at the end of studies, getting OPT Rui is a 23 year-old student from Japan and is about to graduate from a MBA in Business from Harvard University. She wants to stay in the U.S. and has to get an OPT card. She’s not really sure where to start and knows that there are specific deadlines. Using Visago, she sees that the procedures for OPT are starting and decides to apply for the card through the platform. 4- F-1 student under OPT switching to H-1B Jihye comes from South Korea and just turned 23. She finished her Bachelor degree in Fashion Design at Parson’s and has been under OPT for a few months now. She’s been interning at Vera Wang and got a job offer for a full-time job. The H-1B visa deadline is coming up soon and she has to start the whole process to switch her visa status. She uses Visago on a regular basis and will now use the platform to start the H-1B procedure.
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108 CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
When thinking of the government, most people feel overwhelmed, angry, frustrated or bored; for most people it isn’t the most exciting subject. It seems like a huge challenge for designers; having to figure out what to do with all the information that they would have to face and organize in order to make a change. At first, I thought that this subject was mainly about simplicity. Taking these complex governmental pieces and simplifying it all. I realized that there was more to it and than simplicity isn’t about taking out until you have the strict minimum. Simplicity in design is about clarity and usability. When I started working on this project, I didn’t realize that it concerned something much bigger; to an extent it concerned our society. I realized that governmental structures are in desperate need for innovation; there is a huge potential for change. There are people out there that are trying and changing the way our society works. It seems that Millennials are one of the most complex generations; it isn’t surprising knowing that we have more access to information, we are submerged by it; there’s potential for difference in that, individuals are becoming less mainstream and have their own voice. It doesn’t mean that they don’t face the same problems, and in this case it is a universal problem for international individuals in the U.S. It is hard to find marketing strategies for millenials but here we are not in that field; we are actually helping them and in return will help the government. In order to make a project like Visago possible, the U.S. government should be involved in the process of creating the product and allow this tool to be used by individuals. But most importantly, it is up to designers to try and make a change; take the initiatives and propose new systems, new ways of thinking and designing. By implementing systems that are user-centered and that answer their needs we can strive for a balance and a sense of understanding between the government and the people. It goes beyond governmental services; services in general are in need of design and it is something that has been happenning more and more. I truly believe that once a big organization such as the government takes an initiative for change others will follow.
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REFERENCES
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16. Kelley, David. “Human-centered Design.” TED2002. Feb. 2002. TED. Web. May 2014. 17. Kolko, Jon. “Abductive Thinking and Sensemaking: The Drivers of Design Synthesis.” Design Issues 26.1 (2009): 15-28. Design and Applied Arts Index. Web. 3 Mar. 2014. 18. McCandless, David. “The Beauty of Data Visualization.” TedGlobal 2010. July 2010. TED. Web. 05 June 2014. 19. Morelli, Nicola. Beyond the Experience: In Search of an Operative Paradigm of the Industrialization of Services. Diss. Aalborg U, 2009. Oslo: n.p., 2009. Print. 20. Noveck, Beth. “Demand a More Open-source Government.” TEDGlobal. June 2012. TED. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. 21. O’Grady, Jennifer Visocky, and Kenneth Visocky O’Grady. The Information Design Handbook. Cincinnati, OH: How, 2008. Print. 22. Secomandi, Fernando, and Dirk Snelders. “The Object of Service Design.” Design Issues 27.3 (2011): 20-34. Design and Applied Arts Index. Web. 3 Mar. 2014. 23. Siegel, Alan M., and Irene Etzkorn. Simple: Conquering the Crisis of Complexity. London: Random House, 2013. Print. 24. Siegel+Gale. Global Brand Simplicity Index 2013. Rep. Siegel+Gale, 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. 25. Stickdorn, Marc, and Jakob Schneider. This Is Service Design Thinking: Basics, Tools, Cases. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2011. Print. 26. Tate, Charles C. “Using Visualization Tools to Mitigate Information Overload on the Internet.” Thesis. Georgetown University, 2008. Print. 27. UK Government. “Government Digital Services Design Principles.” Gov.uk. Crown Copyright, 2 July 2012. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. 28. Vignelli, Massimo. NY Subway. Digital image. Vignelli Associates. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. 29. Vignelli, Massimo. “NY Subway.” Vignelli Associates. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank those that have guided and helped me throughout my Masters degree and this project: Pratt Faculty Graham Hanson, Ashish Shah, Kevin Gatta, Ann Morris, Eun Sun Lee, Katya Moorman, Arem Duplessis, Gusty Lange and all of my other incredible teachers. You are the ones that have inspired and pushed me further than I could ever imagine. My Pratt family Saana Hellsten, Rui Maekawa, Buzz Chang, Alejandro Torres Viera, Jihye Um, Tania Lili, Annie Sexton, Paul Caicedo, Liyang Sean Xú, Remy Kass, Soo Kyung Jeon, Caroline Matthews, Christie Mealo, Aapo Mattila, and the rest of the Studio people; I will miss our numerous all-nighters. You are becoming the great designers of this generation. My actual family My dad, my mother and my sister that I don’t see too often but that are always there with me. You are the ones that have brought me where I am now.
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