What are better ways to help people follow a legal process? To get all the tasks, forms, consults, and decisions made to get to resolution?
One mode I’ve been experimenting with in my Prototyping Access to Justice class is the photo storyboard. Using Google Sheets (or Powerpoint), I lay out a series of photos I’ve taken documenting the actual, real-life process of getting a task done. Then I describe each of the scenes with a few lines of description.
I had originally created this template to have my students make photo storyboards documenting their trips to courts and self-help centers, so that I could see what kinds of experiences they had there.
I made one of a DMV trip, to get a license. The students then made variations based on this model, for starting to file for divorce.
The thought is that we could made multi-page photo-storyboards to get a person through an entire process, like of filing child custody or divorce, or dealing with an eviction notice.
Why a photo walkthrough rather than the standard text paragraphs or bullet points? Because it shows the process in human, relatable ways. And it can help a person envision what it will take, what it will look like for them to do it themselves.
We will be making more of these visual storyboards — some in poster format, others in booklets, and others in click-through digital stories (ala Snapchat or Instagram Stories). Do you have a process that would benefit from photo/sketch-walkthroughs? Let us know!
