Open Law Lab
Graphic Justice is a UK-based blog and network of academics who are interested in storytelling, visuals and the law. The posts on the group’s site focus mainly on…
A quick visual guide I made for very low-barrier, easy ways to make your text communications more usable to average readers. This applies to both hard-copy print-outs, and…
This post is not just for lawyers — it is for people who work in hospitals, banks, insurance companies, government agencies, loan companies, accounting firms — people who…
I have been working on several legal designs over the past few months — scoping out how new interactive tech products should behave, what kind of experiences users…
I’ve put together a new short questionnaire, on the topic of the increasingly-discussed ‘Generational Gap Among Lawyers’. I’m interested to hear your take on whether this gap exists,…
I made another visual based on a short questionnaire I ran back in November-December last year, on people’s thoughts on Access to Justice. Earlier visuals of the questionnaire…
In December, I had the pleasure of meeting Kanan Dhru when she visited the d.school on her trip to the US. I had written about her project Lawtoons…
Following up from my earlier post about making Visual cover-sheets for academic work, I was pointed toward this video blog from University of Alberta law professor Peter Sankoff.…
As I’ve been writing papers aimed for law journal publication, I keep coming back to my frustration that whatever I write for such a journal, it’s likely to…
Last week, I was a facilitator at a Shaping Davos design thinking workshop at Stanford’s d.school. Several local non-profits had brought some big social impact challenges they’re facing…
I’ve been talking with some of my colleagues about how to set up some more deliberate & collaborative groups who are working on human-centered design & law. Part…
Here’s an entire special edition of the journal Law Text Culture devoted to Justice Framed: Law in Comics & Graphic Novels. I’ve linked to an introduction to the…
As I’ve ventured into the world of public legal education — helping lay people figure out and navigate their legal problems — I keep hitting my head against…
CALI, or the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, created an online law game Time Trial. The game teaches the player legal history, by having them try to place…
Connected to my post last week on crowdsourcing legal investigations, I wanted to spotlight the possibility of using crowd support online to get attention, funding, and social capital…
Isobel Williams is an artist in the UK who on her site Drawing from an uncomfortable position keeps a collection of gorgeous drawings from the UK Supreme Court.…
When giving a talk — whether it’s a three minute pitch of a new idea, or a forty minute lecture on a topic — I find it very…
At the end of November 2014, I published a short survey on this site, asking respondents to weigh in on the ‘Access to Justice movement’ (if we can…
Kristina Brousalis tipped me off to this Canadian initiative at giving trainee lawyers ‘Tours of Duty’ through different parts of the legal profession. Legal Aid Ontario has a…
I have been writing up my findings from a recent research study I did, on how lay people use the Internet to respond to legal problems that crop…
A quick sketch from my notebook, on how a design-driven innovation team can be set up. The core group should be small — 5 people or under —…
Over winter break, I got through a stack of books — including two by Stanford Management Science & Engineering professor Bob Sutton. I read his new one with…
Yesterday I went to a lunch at Stanford Law School on the podcast Serial, and the role of advocacy & the media in the legal system. My friend…
I’m working this week on pulling together an academic paper I’ve been writing on best practices & design standards for online legal resource sites, aimed at helping lay…
Over the past month, I’ve been doing a series of interviews with all kinds of people working in legal innovation. Some are focused on visualizing law, others on…
Another fun little lightweight law game — this time from Koding Global Virtual Hackathon in December 2014. It’s called the TOS Game — it’s more of a live…
Immigration Advocates Network & Pro Bono Net released an app Immigo this year to serve advocates on the go. It is an app with 3 main functions: Listing…
There is an interesting court redesign organization that’s come out of the University of Michigan Law School. There is an Online Court Project that Univ. of Michigan has…
I am working on a paper right now that stakes out a framework for those of us who are working on building access to justice innovations & accessible…
A sketchnote about one of the fundamental parts of the design process: Prototyping to Think. The quicker we start to build, sketch, act out, and otherwise make our…
Here’s a quick-note mindmap that I made while laying out notes for a paper I’m working on, defining what Legal Design is, and how design approaches can serve…
I am on the hunt for law games that are rich, fun, and adaptable to many different ways of learning/practicing law. After I started developing my game Law…
Last week I hosted a Visual Law Meetup at Stanford d.school. You can see a written report of the event over at LegalTechDesign. From our exercises, sharing &…
I have been creating more resources for the Visual Law Meetup that will be happening today at Stanford d.school. I’ve been making guides to a visual design process,…
From November’s 5 Question Friday, I have compiled some of the responses and quotes I received in response to this question — Is There a Coherent A2J Movement?…
The second phase of the design process is Scoping & Defining a Design Brief. It moves on from the first phase of user research & understanding the status…
How do we brainstorm well in the legal world? I know plenty about what Ideal Brainstorming might look like, from my time at the d.school. But the truth…
As more talk grows about Internet & mobile-based technology opening up a new era of Consumer Law, it’s useful to look back a few decades when there was…
A quick talking head sketch of a ‘What-If’ for legal design. What if we started over with our legal systems? Instead of patching over the problems with better…
Here is a sketchnote I drafted for a general audience, to explain the value of taking a design approach to solving a problem. The term ‘wicked problems’ comes…