How might we implement a youth-friendly design to simplify legal forms and procedures for young people, empowering them with the knowledge and confidence to navigate court proceedings effectively before attending a court?
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Children’s Court
Re-thinking (communication of) court processes and outcomes with youth people
Youth
Just
Target user
Youth Just, is a youth-friendly educational platform designed to empower young people involved in the NSW Youth Justice system. It provides simplified legal education services, interactive learning tools, and promotes young people to easily access resources and supportive services.
Our goal is to enable users to navigate the legal system with confidence, have a clear understanding of their legal rights and responsibilities, and obtain the assistance they need to effectively meet their legal needs.
Young people, who are 10-18 years old and identified as offenders by NSW legal framework, should obey the Youth Just in the NSW. Notably, we should focus on the diversity and differences of these young criminals, who might involved with contextual cultures, reading capabilities, and other potential disabilities.
The main challenge summarized in the brief is to assist young people with a literacy disability and cognitive demands to navigate the legal system with ease.
Our design addresses this challenge in the following ways:
Youth Just supplements easy-reading legal information and builds the cooperative learning interactive measures, such as convenient forms, smoothing flashcards and near-real courtroom simulation. With the aid of these tactics, young users could effectively make sense of some complicated but significant legal concepts—rights, responsibilities, and the outcomes of court proceedings.
Youth Just offers a supportive legal environment for young people to access the assistance they need. The platform provides digital forms, quizzes and support services. It will help improve users’ memory retention, legal decision-making skills, and communication skills with legal professionals.
Cognitive demands - by accessible resources and support
Literacy demands - by comprehensive legal education
Significance
A Youth-Friendly platform designed to empower young people involved in NSW.
Male
Jay was occasionally violent to his mother.
His mother applied for a ADVO order and Jay was arrested by police.
A caseworker was called in to help Jay coordinate his case.
Jay get the formal AVO form from the police and a simplified version from the case worker. Then he began to study the ADVO form.
After completing all the learning modules, he can go home or to the place serves as his legal accommodation.
The court waiting room contains an educational lab with a row of equipments that allows YP to log into the Youth Just system.
The caseworker/lawyer will receive a report on Jay that may help them understand how to help Jay in the court.
While on bail, Jay was able to go to the education lab to study legal forms and do the practise quizzes.
When obtaining the official AVO form, the youth with reading disabilities will be given this simplified version as a supplement.
Content design
Visual design
Simplified legal language
Clear instructions
Summarised key points
Case-by-case informations
Instructive examples
Youth-friendly aesthetic
Consistent branding with Youth Just platform
Clear hierarchy and layout
Engaging illustrations and infographics
Blue as theme color to represent legal, support and friendliness
The Idea
Platform design
Courtroom simulation
We introduce users to key stakeholders in a courtroom setting and court procedures before attending court. Users can prepare themselves for the court appearance and feel more confident.
On the day of their court appearance, youth will practice the contents of the forms and familiarise themselves with the layout and flow of the courtroom on tablets in the waiting room.
Flashcards
We provide flashcards that enable users to practise legal terms and concepts. Simple card-swipe gestures facilitate effective memorisation of the content.
We simplify legal terms in forms by presenting information in plain language and adding engaging visuals. This ensures that users with diverse backgrounds and abilities can comprehend their rights and responsibilities.
Simplified legal forms
Form
Design
Interface
Design
Storyboard
User Flow
Looking back at the entire design process, we strictly followed the Double Diamond design process model. We began by reframing the current issue after conducting thorough research and employing various methodologies to conceptualise concepts once enough useful information was gathered. We then proceeded with refining and prototyping, achieving satisfactory results through continuous testing and iteration.
Process
Pre-design Phase
Development Stages
Post-design Phase
Wang, L. & Peng, S.
Based on previous client and user research, the design strategy focuses on simplicity, youth-friendliness, and interactivity.
Wang, L. & Yang, J.
Defining the project scope and design goals, which helps to clarify the required features and functions of the design.
Zhu, C., Zhang, J. & Peng, S.
Zhu, C., Zhang, J. & Peng, S.
Iterating the prototype based on testing results and user feedback. Improving design functionality and user experience.
The visual elements balance the seriousness of legal matters with youthfulness, facilitating YP understanding of legal concepts.
Zhu, C., Yang, J., Zhang, J., Wang, L., Peng, S.
Collecting all weekly files and organizing them into a folder
Zhu, C., Zhang, J., & Pen, S.
Enhancing the interaction for young people within the judicial process by introducing youth-friendly visual forms and interactive platforms.
Strategic design
Analysis & Planning
Visual design
Interaction design
Iteration
Documentation
Contributions
One foreseeable issue is that youth of different ages may experience different user experiences when using Youth Justice. Younger users may find the current design appealing because it matches their aesthetic preferences and reading habits, and the more interactive learning approach will help them better understand legal concepts and court procedures. But for older users, it may perceive the interface as childish and may reject Youth Justice on a psychological level, which may lead to a significant reduction in the usefulness of using Youth Just.
While the current design effectively addresses issues of misunderstanding and communication challenges among the target users, there remain potential areas for improvement within the Youth Just.
Improving user motivation to actively engage with Youth Justice is also a key consideration. Currently users of Youth Just are forced to use Youth Just in their arrangements, which may lead to users not taking it seriously. Consequently, this may result in features such as quizzes and flashcards not functioning as well as they should. Therefore, there is a need to explore ways to increase user motivation in future updates.
Reflection
Reflection
Colour Palette
# 000000
# 6D6D6D
# F6F7F9
# FFFFFF
Natural scale
# 1D8E49
# CFD7F5
Primary
Main actions
# 44B78D
Secondary
Support & categories
# FF6262
Tertiary
Errors
Typography
Helvetica Neue
Legal Forms
Heading1: Medium 40px
Heading2: Medium 20px
Body: Regular 14px
Youth Just App
Heading1: Bold 40px
Heading2: Semi Bold 24px
Heading3: Medium 20px
Body: Regular 14px
16 years old
Male
User Persona
Jay
16 years old
Male
Domestic senior student
Parents divorced, currently live with his mother in Redfern
Because of parents' divorce, I was often ridiculed by peers in the community. These pressures and humiliations were too much for me to accept. On impulse, I inflicted violence on my mother.
Backstory
Motivations
Frustrations
Due to lacking knowledge of legal matters, unsure of what to do in youth court and the absence of a guardian, he urgently needs help to better address his concerns.
Limited contact information with YJNSW
Family dissension due to parents' divorce
Academic overwhelm as a senior student
Complexity of Youth Justice System
Goals
Desire to learn more about legal rights and avoid being arrested for unnecessary offences.
Seeking to improve communication skills to effectively express himselfself and minimise the chances of being convicted.
I'm worried about the impact of this violence on the rest of my life and don't know how I'm going to deal with the legal paperwork I've received.
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To Minimise the complicated knowledge access in legal framework, we simplify the interface and procedures to improve youth-friendly user experience. While, during the simplifying process, it’s vital to keep flexibility and effectiveness of diverse legal queries.
Flexibility-Usability Tradeoff
Consistency
To maximum the effectiveness of communication, we utilise the consistent redesigned forms and platform prototypes, which keep unified format, with easy acceptable words, sentences, and terms to assist young people absorb the information contents.
Empowerment
The design should provide educational resources, tools, and support services to improve young people’s legal knowledge base and self-protect ability.
Privacy
The design requires strict privacy and security measures to protect young people's personal information.
Customization
The design should provide young people with a customised learning experience that is easier to understand.
Transparency
The design should provide concise and easily understandable legal information to build user trust.
Accessibility
The design should be accessible to young people of all abilities, including those with disabilities, color blindness or limited literacy levels.
Aesthetic
Ensure that the visual design achieves uniformity, cleanliness, and a reasonable combination of colours.
Design Principles