How Can We Change the System? Understanding and Addressing Redesign Inertia in Digital Public Services

Research Background and Issues

• What problems or challenges did the authors identify?

  • Marginalized communities lack decision-making power in the design and maintenance of digital public services, perpetuating structural discrimination and inequities.
  • Two specific cases illustrate these issues: the lack of real-time captions and Danish Sign Language in the Danish Parliament's online TV, and the binary gender input options in Danish public sector job application forms.
  • Complaint mechanisms are often overlooked or lack sufficient transparency, making it difficult for affected users to advocate for redesigns that meet their needs.

• Why is this issue important?

  • Digital services have become the primary mode of public service delivery globally. However, if these services are not designed with diverse user needs in mind, they risk exacerbating social inequalities.
  • Current technological and institutional frameworks often neglect the needs of marginalized groups, reinforcing existing power structures and hindering true digital inclusivity.

• Research Motivation and Related Work

  • Drawing on interdisciplinary design research and the field of "digital citizenship," this paper examines how power dynamics are embedded in design processes and how marginalized groups influence redesign through protest and complaints.
  • Inspired by Crip Technoscience and social justice movements, the authors aim to challenge existing technological determinism and provide a framework for resisting design inertia during redesign processes.
  • Related studies emphasize the post-design maintenance phase and marginalized users' "counter-design" practices, such as repair, modification, and complaints.

Solutions

• What methods or solutions did the authors propose?

  • Introduced "Complaint Ethnography" as a research method combining participation and action to investigate how structural and institutional barriers affect the redesign of digital services.
  • Proposed the concept of "Redesign Inertia" to explain how institutions and structures impede changes to digital systems, infrastructures, and services.
  • Highlighted the value of the complaint process, advocating for transparent, user-friendly complaint mechanisms as a critical component of digital service design and maintenance.

• What is innovative about this solution?

  • Positions complaints as a central tool for research and design critique, rather than merely user feedback, using ethnographic methods to deeply understand structural barriers in the complaint process.
  • Expands design literature, particularly discussions on digital citizenship design and post-design maintenance, by framing complaints as a key mechanism for driving redesign.
  • Illuminates how structural oppression constitutes part of design inertia, providing a theoretical framework for related fields.

• What are the implementation steps and key techniques used?

  • Engaged deeply in the complaint processes of two cases: accessibility issues with Danish Parliament TV and the binary gender options in public sector job applications.
  • Conducted a three-year longitudinal study of the complaint process, including field observations, interviews, archival analysis, and dialogues with multiple stakeholders.
  • Applied an interactive design thinking framework, emphasizing "maintenance and use" as critical stages in the design lifecycle and integrating user feedback and complaints throughout the process.

Research Outcomes

• What specific results were achieved?

  • The concept of "Redesign Inertia" revealed how the rigidity of technological and social norms hinders changes to digital systems.
  • The complaint process led to modifications in the Danish university recruitment system, introducing a "prefer not to answer" option to avoid mandatory gender classification for non-binary users.
  • Demonstrated that the lack of real-time captions and sign language translation in Danish Parliament TV is closely tied to broader issues of linguistic deprivation at the national level.

• What advantages does it have over existing solutions?

  • Focuses on the complex social and institutional mechanisms underlying complaints, offering deep insights into design inertia and opportunities for improvement through ethnographic methods.
  • Advocates for the establishment of transparent, archivable user feedback mechanisms, providing a long-term evidence base for future design changes.
  • Unlike existing design research, which often emphasizes new technology development, this study focuses on marginalized users' critical engagement with existing technologies and their implications for redesign.

• What were the experimental or evaluation results?

  • The complaint processes in the two cases revealed how institutional complexity and decentralized accountability slow down the pace of change, exemplifying "Redesign Inertia."
  • While some progress was achieved, such as the modification of the university recruitment form, the process took several years, highlighting the challenges of systemic change.

• Limitations and Future Directions

  • Current complaint processes are often slow and lack transparency, requiring significant resources and time from users. Future efforts should aim to simplify and optimize complaint procedures.
  • Recommends developing a comprehensive, anonymized complaint archiving mechanism to allow the public to track complaint histories and foster collective action.
  • Calls for integrating design processes with structural justice and further research on how design interventions can address institutional oppression.

Conclusion

This paper uses complaints as an entry point to explore the power dynamics in the post-design maintenance phase from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The authors propose the innovative concepts of "Redesign Inertia" and "Complaint Ethnography," offering new insights into digital citizenship and design justice. The study underscores the importance of the complaint process as a critical tool for reflection and driving change.