Legal design thinking is applying design-centric thinking to the world of law; it aims to make legal services and systems more user-friendly, and accessible, and provide satisfactory human experiences. It makes technology processes more interactive and isn’t limited to redesigning contract lifecycle processes. It’s more about taking a creative approach to problem-solving, identifying issues, and coming up with the best solutions.
The four steps involved in legal design thinking are:
- Exercise user empathy – This involves looking at problems from the eyes of users and understanding their pain points.
- Brainstorm solutions – After identifying the problem, legal design thinking methodologies encourage users to think outside the box. This helps to develop solutions that are not restricted to solely technical specifications.
- Idea testing and trial – The idea or solution is tried and tested before the user moves on to the next. Doing this allows users to test different hypotheses, and prototypes, and understand which models work best in the real world to solve current problems.
- Decision-making and review – Once the user collects enough data, they can decide whether or not to implement the new solution. They can go back to the brainstorming process and start over again, or stop here and move on to the next problem.
Legal Design Examples and How Firms Can Benefit
- Visual design principles in legal tech can simplify contract management and eliminate unnecessary jargon. Good contract design can engage stakeholders and bring critical information to the forefront, in simple language
- Legal process design can eliminate low-value tasks from workflows, improve productivity, and reduce response times for companies. It can speed up project progress, ensure consistency, and standardize access to legal information and services
- Legal design thinking implementation can help firms increase trust among customers and foster loyalty. It identifies opportunities to personalize user experiences, remove friction, and reduce negotiation times. It’s a unique problem-solving approach that enhances innovation and promotes better prioritization.
Conclusion
Legal design thinking isn’t a short-term solution but takes a more iterative approach. Businesses can set smaller milestones and evolve those milestones into bigger projects. It’s a great start to answering many unanswered questions. It is a way for the legal industry to add enterprise agility, and make legal professionals smarter, by making incremental improvements
