{"id":377,"date":"2023-04-25T04:05:50","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T04:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/ored\/?p=377"},"modified":"2023-10-10T21:28:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T21:28:03","slug":"urban-institute-invites-civilla-for-human-centered-design-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/ored\/2023\/04\/25\/urban-institute-invites-civilla-for-human-centered-design-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Institute invites Civilla for Human-Centered Design Talks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On April 5, 2023, dozens of attendees converged on a lecture hall in the White building on University of Michigan-Flint\u2019s campus for a presentation on how a focus on human-centered design can help us to have more equitable access to government and community resources. Researchers and designers, Kristen Uroda and Maki Nakagawa from Civilla were invited by the Urban Institute for Racial, Economic, & Environmental Justice (UIREEJ) to speak about human-centered design on their mission and what Civilla has accomplished so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Viewers
Nakagawa and Uroda explain the basics of human-centered design as it relates to their approach at Civilla.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After a brief introduction from Jan Furman, executive director of UIREEJ, the Civilla presenters made a powerful demonstration of why their work is so impactful. They stated the vision of Civilla as \u201ctogether, we believe the best and fastest way to scale positive social change is through public-serving institutions. But we can only do that well if we put people first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nakagawa held up a large roll of paper, explaining that it was the inspiration that spurred one of the co-founders to get involved and start the company. Nakagawa and Toko Oshio, the REEJ faculty research cluster lead  who initially invited Civilla to present at UM-Flint, began to unravel the paper scroll as he explained that it was Michigan Department of Health and Human Services form 1171, the form that individuals and families need to fill out to apply for assistance. The form was around 50 pages and 18,000 words long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"An
Nakagawa unfurled this copy of the 1171 form from DHHS and it stretched across the entire conference hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Three
The Civilla team gave the cumbersome DHHS form 1171 to some state-level politicians so they can experience it first-hand.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
This image was used to show that, if you pay attention to user feedback and behaviors, you can find inefficiencies in our institutional planning.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nakagawa and Uroda explained that by helping the Michigan DHHS office to create and use processes to design the application process to consider the needs and perspectives of the clients served as well as the caseworkers and other front-line staff, they were able to reduce the size of the application by around 80%. Not only did it reduce the burden on those applying for relief; it also saved a measurable amount of caseworker time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uroda shared feedback from Michigan residents and caseworkers who experienced the process improvement that Civilla implemented. One resident said, \u201cI felt like a number [with the old system] rather than a human with a complex story to tell. I was dropped into a system with no sense for where I was, where I was going, and the clear steps I needed to take to succeed.\u201d Another said, \u201cafter filling out the new application, I feel like I can breathe again. The old application would have taken me a whole day. This one was more understandable and less stressful \u2013 it asks you the questions but with respect\u201d (emphasis mine).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Presentation
A small breakdown of the insights gleaned from caseworkers in the field.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition to feedback from the residents themselves, Uroda also explained that the caseworkers really appreciated the process. They were able to focus more on their casework rather than data entry, they felt as if they were servicing the people rather than the systems themselves, and they were able to get through a larger volume of work in a shorter period of time. One DHHS Caseworker said, \u201cyou have to remind yourself everyday: this is an actual family. I am not just entering numbers. These are people that need our help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They explained that, in addition to empowering end users of the programs and processes, Civilla also meticulously instituted robust systems to ensure human-centered design remained central to the revision processes so they can deliver impact at scale through the long-term. Another caseworker said, \u201cI have been involved with many initiatives within the state of Michigan over the years. I haven\u2019t ever experienced the way this initiative is being communicated. You didn\u2019t just tell us \u2013 you involved us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nakagawa stepped back up to tell how Civilla helped do the same thing for Michigan\u2019s Child Welfare systems. These systems are essential for helping to mitigate harm from abuse and neglect of children through such avenues as temporary placement. They were, however, plagued by \u201can unmanageable backlog of defects, incidents, and data fixes that [were] likely to persist indefinitely, inhibit effective casework, contribute to data entry errors, negatively affect outcomes for children and families, and impact MDHHS\u2019s ability to collect and report accurate and timely data.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have to remind yourself everyday: this is an actual family. I am not just entering numbers. These are people that need our help.\u201d<\/p>Michigan DHHS Caseworker<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Have you noticed in the past couple of years that you now receive a notice to renew your vehicle registration by mail? Or that the lines at the Secretary of State are quite a bit better? These changes, too, are a result of Civilla\u2019s human-centered design approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m really grateful that the Office of Research and Economic Development was willing to fund this presentation today,\u201d said Oshio. Furman\u2019s remarks speak to why: \u201cIt\u2019s really important that we think about ways that we can embrace both compassion and efficiency in our institutions. My hope is that new connections can be made from this presentation today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On April 5, 2023, dozens of attendees converged on a lecture hall in the White building on University of Michigan-Flint\u2019s campus for a presentation on how a focus on human-centered design can help us to have more equitable access to government and community resources. Researchers and designers, Kristen Uroda and Maki Nakagawa from Civilla were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,7],"tags":[126,135,111,125,129,127,128,133,18,19,17,136,130,137,123,124,120,134,131,28,121,132],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computer-science","category-um-flint-research","tag-civilla","tag-dhhs","tag-environmental-justice","tag-government","tag-hci","tag-human-centered","tag-human-centered-design","tag-michigan","tag-office-of-research","tag-office-of-research-and-economic-development","tag-ored","tag-presentation","tag-process-improvement","tag-racial-economic-and-environmental-justice","tag-racial-equity","tag-reej","tag-research-clusters","tag-state-of-michigan","tag-systems-design","tag-um-flint","tag-urban-institute","tag-welfare"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/ored\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/ored\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/ored\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/ored\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/ored\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/ored\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/ored\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions\/395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/ored\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/ored\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/ored\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/ored\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}