Abstract
Against the backdrop of rapid digital development, legal aid services are undergoing a profound transformation from a system-oriented approach to a people-centered approach. While emerging digital legal aid platforms have shown initial success in resource matching, service efficiency, and diverse access, over reliance on institutional logic and technological layering has left vulnerable groups facingissuessuchasalackofinclusivityandtrustinactualuse. This paper introduces the concept of Legal Design, emphasizing the critical role of human-centered design thinking in enhancing the in clu siv it yand trustworthiness of legal aid services. Through literature reviews, process analysis, and co-creation workshops and thematic analysis, this study identifies and proposes four optimization strategies: context-guided and emotional design, diverse pathways and procedural transparency, moderate public empowerment mechanisms, and embedded co-decision-making frameworks. The study concludes that legal design not only enhances service efficiency but also reshapes the interactive structure of legal aid relationships, providing a practical pathway for building a more equitable, sustainable, and trustworthy public legal aid service system.
Keywords
Legal Design; Legal Aid; Design Thinking; Inclusivity; Senseof Trust
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.228
Citation
Liang, L., Jiang, L.,and Linghao, Z.(2025) Legal Design for Legal Aid: Rethinking Inclusivity and Trust in the Digital Age, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.228
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 7 - Service Design for Public Services and Policies
Legal Design for Legal Aid: Rethinking Inclusivity and Trust in the Digital Age
Against the backdrop of rapid digital development, legal aid services are undergoing a profound transformation from a system-oriented approach to a people-centered approach. While emerging digital legal aid platforms have shown initial success in resource matching, service efficiency, and diverse access, over reliance on institutional logic and technological layering has left vulnerable groups facingissuessuchasalackofinclusivityandtrustinactualuse. This paper introduces the concept of Legal Design, emphasizing the critical role of human-centered design thinking in enhancing the in clu siv it yand trustworthiness of legal aid services. Through literature reviews, process analysis, and co-creation workshops and thematic analysis, this study identifies and proposes four optimization strategies: context-guided and emotional design, diverse pathways and procedural transparency, moderate public empowerment mechanisms, and embedded co-decision-making frameworks. The study concludes that legal design not only enhances service efficiency but also reshapes the interactive structure of legal aid relationships, providing a practical pathway for building a more equitable, sustainable, and trustworthy public legal aid service system.