Legal design projects in a specific domain: lessons learned and contributions from different disciplines

Presentazione dell'articolo selezionato per il Legal Design Roundtable 2020 "Legal Design Methodology: A Blueprint" [Bruxelles-Moved online], 1-2 Aprile 2020. Conferenza promossa nell'ambito del Jean Monnet Module "European IT Law by Design dall'Università di Bruxelles http://eitlab.eu/legal-design-virtualtable-2020/ In recent years, as part of the development of the PAeSI Web Portal, an Italian institutional Web site on immigration procedures and norms, we have developed several projects that can be defined "legal design" projects, given that they have been carried out according to an " human centered" approach, thus trying to apply the methods and the mindsets of the design "to deliver services that were usable, useful and engaging" for specific audience in a specific legal domain. In particular, these projects fall within the domain of access and comprehensibility of legal and administrative texts for citizens (especially the ones published on institutional web sites). The intended audience of the projects was migrants who live in Italy. However, these users have also been considered "extreme users". Accessing legal information is vital for all citizens but often when conveyed by Public authority websites it is hardly accessible and understandable even by native citizens. Setting up the design process for the most vulnerable users in this context, newcomers, was therefore useful for drawing general guidelines for the design in this domain and in a multicultural and multilingual society. With this contribution we would like to: - take stock of the methodologies and tools that have made the development of the process critical and those that have made it effective, therefore, understand the "design mechanics" (Hagan) in this domain and how these findings can be applied to legal design projects in general; - analyze the contribution given by other disciplines involved, in addition to the "human centered design" that guided the processes; - reflect on how these considerations can contribute to the development of Legal design studies.