The Design Clinic: Building Design & Social Literacy
Year: 2025-2026 • Type: Research Project • Collaborators: Dr Peter Hall • Award: UAL Knowledge Exchange
The Design Clinic explored how communication design could support community organisations and local government in helping Londoners navigate bureaucratic systems in an increasingly digital-by-default environment. The project worked with local community organisations and Ealing Council, using communication design as a means of supporting community education and improving access to information and services.
The project was founded on the premise that forms, leaflets, guides, maps, digital media, language and human–computer interfaces could be improved through scenario-based approaches to communication design. The pilot began by gathering challenges experienced by community groups and developing scenarios that illuminated barriers to accessing services and explored how these might be addressed.
The pilot was structured around two activities designed to build relationships with community groups and establish the scope of the wider project:
- A trust-building meet-and-greet with community groups from across the London Borough of Ealing.
- Four workshops exploring key themes and needs identified in Ealing, including 72 Hours in Crisis, Benefits Calculator and Temporary Accommodation.
The project responded to the prevalence of lengthy, legalistic language on local government and non-governmental organisation websites, where users often encounter leaflets, FAQ-style information and annual-report-style documents in which essential information is difficult to locate. For under-represented groups and people facing language barriers, access to services can be further hindered by bureaucratic systems in which avoidable errors may lead to sanctions or the withdrawal of support. The increasing reliance on digital-by-default interfaces can compound these difficulties, particularly for people with limited digital or language literacy.
The Design Clinic also examined the limitations of conventional UX/UI research methods, which can overlook people who do not fit dominant assumptions about the “user” — for example, people who are able-bodied, digitally literate or fluent in English. The project therefore used storytelling methods to foreground the specific challenges experienced by people in Ealing who encountered these barriers. Fictional personas and hypothetical real-life scenarios provided participatory tools for identifying shared priorities and challenges in accessing services and support.
Through the pilot, the Design Clinic explored how communication design could support community organisations working as intermediaries: decoding council services, translating complex information and mediating between councils and the communities they serve. Identifying the areas of greatest relevance to residents was central to establishing the direction and scope of the wider project.
Outputs:
- Workshops
- Communication Design Tools
Photos by Gabriela Vergara Toro | Design Work by Chaahat Thakker, Svenja Tong, Kritika Sharma, Regina González Rossi, Dina El-Nakla, Sarah Weights and Thi-uyen Nguyen.