Yesterday I visited HM Treasury for Visual Camp. This was an event that brought together designers and policy makers to explore how we can use visualisation to improve what we do and how we do it. Prior to the event I submitted two options/scenarios to explore. The organisers asked me to introduce one of these – “explaining policy to designers and design to policymakers”.
There were three parts to this scenario.
- There is a broad lack of understanding of design in policy circles. Policy makers understand innovation (especially technical innovation) but they don’t have the tools to understand design from a policy perspective.
- Designers don’t really understand policy. As designers are moving into new spaces such as social innovation it is becoming clear that there is a lack of understanding of policy process and delivery (power & control)
- Policy makers could benefit from design. We need to innovate on how we shape and deliver policy and strategic design tools can help with this.
