New guide to government forms was written ‘by public servants for public servants’

In Washington, D.C., opening a food truck requires filling out several forms from multiple city agencies, including the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, the Department of Health, the Department of Motor Vehicles and even the police department.

“There isn’t sort of a central place, one form for I want to open a food truck. It is a series of trips between different agencies and different forms that, from the resident perspective, can be very frustrating,” said Karissa Minnich, civic design manager at The Lab @ DC, a division of the mayor’s office.

The Lab recently published a guide aimed at transforming the way government interacts with residents via forms, furthering its mission to help agencies improve programs related to education, transportation, housing and other areas.

The guide, which The Lab debuted at Code for America’s virtual FormFest last week, takes lessons the team has learned over its years of data-driven design work and seeks to refine accessibility, clarity and user experience. Since its inception in 2017, the Lab has overhauled more than 60 forms across 14 Washington agencies, including most recently streamlining the Sun Bucks application, which helps residents apply for SNAP benefits.

The guide argues that poorly designed forms often act as gatekeepers, placing an unnecessary burden on the most vulnerable to successfully navigate government bureaucracy in order to apply for services, or even prevent eligible individuals from accessing services.

“People love to hate forms, but they are also super important. They’re the entry point into government services,” Minnich said. “This guide is very much written by public servants for public servants.”

Minnich said government forms can fall short due to various factors, including adding questions without first checking for redundancies, agencies failing to share data or designing from a place of institutional knowledge rather than from the perspective of someone filling out the form.

“The people behind the desk live and breathe this every day. But for somebody filling out the form, it may be their very first time, it may be the only time in their life that they fill out this application,” Minnich explained. “So it’s hard sometimes to explain what you know so intimately and we end up leaving steps out inadvertently.”

One notable tension the guide addresses is the relationship between paper and digital forms. While moving services online is often preferred, the guide emphasizes that digitization should not come at the expense of accessibility and that agencies must balance mobile-friendly interfaces with assistive technology such as screen readers.

The guide also notes that confusing paperwork or opaque language can also erode trust in government. Minnich encouraged agencies to conduct accessibility audits and avoid jargon that can confuse residents as well as translation tools.

“Thinking about what level of reading ability our users are at and how we can design a form to meet that, but also writing in a way that is free of metaphors and idioms,” said Minnich. “If it’s not plain in English, it’s not going to be magically become plain in Spanish when you hear it to the translator.”