Ongoing Matters: Government Document Design in the Public’s Interest

The panel comprises the work of seven design researchers whose work addresses existing practices within governmental communication and cultural institutions. They ask how these processes could be redesigned to increase public engagement and drive design innovation to ultimately benefit the common good. The first paper looks at strategies for activating the process of designing factually dense documents, such as government reports and records to increase public engagement. The second paper explores participatory methods for the design of cultural institutions, particularly design museums, opening up processes to stakeholders, communities and designers. The third paper proposes a framework for a more collaborative, "activist" model of curating design exhibitions, repositioning cultural institutions as facilitators for innovation in design and the curator as a catalyst of this process. In this panel the audience will be invited to participate in the discussion within a mutual visual space exploring the topics and concepts of all three papers.