Design workshop - the role and influence of design in mainstream policy making

Can design help us make better policy and, as a consequence, improve the capacity of democracy to “deliver”? 

In this workshop, we will explore the relationship between design, better policy making and the quality of our democracy. 

We’re going to start from the assumption that there is a relationship, and that it is positive – design for better policy is design for a better democracy. We need to understand better what design can do, and what design can’t do, to improve the quality of policy making and therefore of the democracy it serves. 

We’ll focus on a mainstream policy task and answer three questions: 

• How would you approach the policy task as a design exercise? 
• How different would a design approach be to a traditional approach? 
• What helps or hinders the wider use of design methods and mindsets in policy making? 

Rounding off the session will be an open forum discussion on the impact of better policy through design for the quality and effectiveness of our democracy.