Design principles are concise, specific guidelines for generating and evaluating ideas and artifacts. They help us, as a team, stay on track and make sure we're making consistent decisions based on our intentions and our goals.
The principles themselves and how they are incorporated into our work can be revisited over time. What is here is a starting point based on what we know now.
- Feedback we received during a a workshop with the OFA data team, the OFA tribal TANF team, members of OFA regional offices, Raft, and 18F in September 2020. (Primer on design principles for workshop | Design principles mural)
- Conversations between Lauren and 18F after our round of spring research (Scratchpad mural)
This project directly touches on very sensitive topics, including societal inequities and how states, tribes, and territories interact with federal oversight. What we're building has a very real impact on many people. We must make voices other than ours central to our work and ensure they are respected and included in our decisions.
- Be flexible in our research methods to encourage more participation
- Create accessible tech and designs from the beginning
- Ask: How can we meet people where they are?
The data in TDRS is incredibly sensitive. We are responsible for protecting that data and the privacy rights of recipients throughout data transmission, storage, and analysis. A secure, privacy-centered system is essential for TDRS.
- Prioritize securing data in roadmap decisions
- Protect PII in our prototyping and research work
- Ask: Why do we need this data? Will it be used?
We need a stable, reliable TDRS that OFA can maintain and that supports OFA, STTs, and researchers in their work for years to come. To be sustainable, TDRS needs to be able to adapt to policy changes, diversity within the STT experience and evolving technology standards.
- Default to reusable components
- Know and respect the edge cases
- Ask: How could this change?
TDRS should make work easier, not harder, for the people who use it. We must continuously investigate how to make data reporting, tracking, and analysis easier and more intuitive. The team should do the hard work to create an intuitive, usable experience for a complicated, sensitive reporting requirement.
- Test regularly with real users
- Understand the service beyond the tech
- Ask: What does a person need to know now?