A Design Space for Legal and Systems Capability: Interfaces for Self-Help in Complex Systems

In 2020, I co-authored A Design Space for Legal and Systems Capability: Interfaces for Self-Help in Complex Systems, published in MIT journal Design Issues. This research explored how design can increase people’s capability to navigate complex bureaucratic systems like legal, healthcare, financial, and government services. Too often, these systems assume users will intuitively understand complex rules, requirements, and processes—but without clear, accessible interfaces, many people struggle to access their rights, avoid penalties, or take full advantage of available benefits.

The Challenge of Navigating Complex Systems

Many critical life events—buying a home, securing healthcare, managing debt, resolving a legal dispute—require individuals to navigate dense bureaucratic systems. Yet most people lack the “system capability” to do this effectively. Existing legal and financial services often require prior knowledge, precise procedural steps, and a level of strategic thinking that many users are unprepared for. In the legal system, for example, millions of people must represent themselves in civil court, handling cases related to family disputes, eviction, and employment issues—all without expert guidance.

Rather than requiring every individual to master the nuances of legal or financial systems, our research explored how better-designed interfaces, services, and tools can reduce this cognitive and procedural burden. By focusing on user-centered design, we sought to create interventions that help people understand their options, make informed decisions, and successfully complete complex processes.

Designing for Self-Help and System Capability

Our work outlined a design space for creating scalable, system-wide improvements to accessibility, usability, and decision-making in high-stakes domains. Through exploratory workshops, literature reviews, and prototype testing, we identified patterns and strategies that enable better system navigation, more informed decision-making, and higher engagement from users.

Some key design interventions included:

• Decision Support Interfaces: AI-powered guides, checklists, and interactive tools that help users understand legal and financial processes step by step.
• Behavioral Design Techniques: Using nudges, reminders, and progressive disclosures to make complex decisions easier to navigate.
• Pattern Libraries for System Capability: Standardized design frameworks that help institutions create scalable, intuitive, and research-backed solutions across multiple industries.
• Adaptive Information Design: Tailoring content dynamically to users' expertise level, emotional state, and decision-making stage to reduce friction and increase engagement.

Beyond Legal: A Cross-Industry Design Space

While our initial research focused on access to justice, the principles we developed apply far beyond the legal system. Similar design challenges exist in healthcare, finance, insurance, and government services, where people must make high-stakes decisions with incomplete knowledge.

By connecting with researchers and practitioners across disciplines, we outlined a scalable, cross-industry approach to system capability design—allowing lessons from legal self-help to inform financial literacy tools, medical decision-making interfaces, and more.

The Future of Scalable, Ethical Innovation

Designers, technologists, and policymakers have an opportunity to proactively shape systems that empower users rather than overwhelm them. Our work highlights how human-centered, research-driven design can create more equitable, efficient, and transparent digital experiences—ultimately improving trust, engagement, and long-term outcomes.

This research continues to influence my work on enterprise design systems, AI-powered decision-making tools, and scalable service innovation. By embedding design principles into large-scale systems, we can build solutions that increase user capability, simplify complexity, and drive meaningful change across industries.

See the Design Issues edition featuring this article here.