TIG 16017 - Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut - Mobile-First Website Redesign

Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut sought to make the self-help information and triage systems on its statewide website, CTLawHelp.org, more functional and accessible to an ever-increasing population of mobile-dependent users. To accomplish this, the program developed a more modern and efficient design that prioritized easy paths to self-help resources and triage, while also lightening the load on users data plans. The new site utilized many of the user experience enhancements outlined in the Ford Foundation-funded LSC Website Enhancement project, including use of a mobile-first design approach and extensive user testing with the site's target audience. Much of the underlying technology used for this site is open source and available through GitHub.

Final Report: TIG 16017 Connecticut Mobile First Website Redesign

TIG 14035 - Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut - Educational Game Project

This TIG funded the development of RePresent, the first online educational game specifically designed to provide self-represented persons (SRPs) with an understanding of how to self-advocate in court. Many good resources exist to help SRPs create, complete, and file the necessary documents to get their day in court. Once that day comes, however, most SRPs lack experience advocating for themselves in a formal setting, and they find themselves carrying out these tasks for the very first time in a real-life hearing environment with a lot at stake. This project incorporated user-centered design principles to develop and implement an interactive online game to provide SRPs with a basic, retainable understanding of how to prepare for and self-advocate in court. Since its launch in late-2015, Connecticut residents have used the game regularly, and the project team has also begun expanding the game to new jurisdictions and legal issues.  

Final Report: TIG 14035: Connecticut Educational Game Project

TIG 14051 - LAF Chicago - Illinois Legal Aid Online Enhancements

This project set out to advance the quality and responsiveness of Illinois’ statewide website, Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO), by implementing improvements discovered through a business process analysis of the site’s content management procedures. Prior to the TIG project’s launch, staff from LAF Chicago and ILAO participated in a business process analysis (BPA) of how website content is created, updated and evaluated. The BPA resulted in a set of recommendations that were then largely implemented as part of this TIG-funded initiative, with focus on improvements that made it easier for volunteer editors to contribute to the website. Thanks to this work, ILAO could show a 43% reduction in time it takes volunteer editors to review and update legal information on IllinoisLegalAid.org and nearly a 600% increase in the number of volunteer assignments completed over the course of this project.

Final Report: TIG 14051: Illinois Website Enhancements BPA Project

TIG 11065 - Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York - LawHelp.org/Espanol

Under Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York's 2011 TIG, the project team successfully developed and launched LawHelp.org/espanol, a national Spanish-language gateway to the LSC-funded statewide website network that had more than 10,000 visits, 5,000 unique visitors and 16,000 page views in its first 18 months after launching in January 2013. LawHelp.org/espanol features a series of plain language legal education guides on common legal issues and questions. The guides were accessed more than 5,500 times during this period, and Spanish language video versions of two guides were viewed 240 times. As a result of this project and additional in-kind resources secured by project partners, the legal education guides are available in English, Spanish, simplified Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese for any program to use and adapt for their own website. Visit the Pro Bono Net Translation Bank to access them.  

The project partners also developed and launched a Spanish-language LiveHelp service for LawHelp.org/espanol and expanded Spanish-language LiveHelp assistance available to LawHelpNY.org users. Six Spanish-speaking volunteer navigators were recruited and trained to participate in the program, which had served 155 users as of June 2014.

Final Report: TIG 11065: Northeastern New York LawHelp Espanol