Peggy Liao

Context

The Language Access Program is a citywide program within the City of Seattle that aims to provide meaningful and equitable access for residents regardless of their language preference. Upon starting as the Language Access Program Manager, I discovered the translation process was decentralized, leading to poor quality and inconsistent terminology. Additionally, staff members perceived the translation process as lengthy and challenging with little value.

Challenge

I see a need to design a centralized system that supports city staff in translating and communicating in languages other than English.

Approach

To further understand the challenge, I initiated a comprehensive stakeholder engagement process and took a human-centered design approach to identify solutions. I spoke with Department Directors, City front-line staff, industry experts, and translation vendors to understand their perspectives and pain points.

• Interview and Survey. I surveyed and interviewed staffers, the system’s main users, to map out existing processes and identify pain points.

• Participatory Workshop. I hosted a workshop with department directors to align needs and priorities.

• Vendor and Expert Engagement. I interviewed and learned from translation companies and other cities.

• Budget and Expense Data. I partnered with the City Budget Office and Finance team to assess existing translation-related budgets and expenses.

Key findings

I synthesized research results and responses into these findings:

• Writing in plain language is a challenge. The existing English content is not simple enough. It is full of technical terms and jargon. With overly complex language, it’s challenging for translators to translate accurately.

• City staffers have limited time and resources when handling translation projects.

• Being relevant to our local immigrant community is critical. Translation projects were usually outsourced to translation vendors that worked with international translators. As a result, translations were often incorrect given that the translators did not have local knowledge about Seattle’s government.

Design

Based on the findings, I identified solutions and developed key features for the new system.

• Embedded content review. I embedded a step in the new workflow for project managers to review English content for simplicity and clarity. This way, the system also improves access for English readers.

• Easy to Use. I found a cloud-based translation management tool as a one-stop shop, from project submission to payment. All city employees now can submit a project request using this portal.

• Economical. The translation tool also incorporates an online database to store and recycle translations to save time and money.

• Relevant to local immigrant communities. I developed a translation workflow where the city can work with local translators and invest in the local immigrant workforce.

Implementation

• Cross-departmental partnership. I invited staffers to test different tools before making final decisions to ensure that the tool is user-friendly. I partnered with IT experts to help evaluate the tool’s privacy and security standards and worked directly with the procurement team to establish a city blanket contract with the software vendor.

• Leadership buy-in. I presented my recommendations to our office Director and the Mayor's Office, successfully convincing them to adopt the new system and securing permanent funding for its implementation and ongoing administrative costs.

• New system promotion and adoption. Collaborating with other departments, I developed training materials and conducted sessions to ensure city staff were comfortable using the new system. Engaging marketing materials, such as this video, were created to spread awareness and adoption.

• Community translator team. I successfully onboarded and trained over 40 translators covering 20 languages – all from the local community.

Result

More than 25 departments have embraced the new system and it continues to expand: total translated words grew 10% in the second year, compared to the first. The system earned a remarkable user satisfaction score of 4.9 out of 5 according to a user survey. I am immensely proud of our progress in making the City of Seattle's language access program one of the most community-centered and technology-driven initiatives in the US. Through strong stakeholder support and innovation, the city has significantly improved communication and services for our immigrant community members. These efforts have been recognized in a Migration Policy Institute blog post.

How might we communicate the importance of recycling and composting in a culturally-relevant way?

• Client

  Seattle Public Utilities

• Project Goals

  • Identify key motivators and barriers to recycling, composting and food waste behaviors for Chinese- and Spanish-speaking communities in Seattle.

  • Determine design opportunities for communication materials in both languages.

• My Role: Project lead and Chinese-speaking researcher

• Approach

  • Intercepts: Meeting people where they are, I tabled and conducted surveys at local Asian grocery stores and community centers. When designing the survey, variables that might influence behaviors, such as years of residency in the city, age, household size, and housing type (single family home or multifamily unit) were being considered. My team members and I surveyed over 60 Chinese-speaking people and selected eight survey participants for in-depth interviews based on their existing behaviors.

  • In-home interviews: Visiting people in their home, I observed how people set up their solid waste disposal systems first-hand, how they recycle and compost, and how food is prepared, consumed and disposed of. I also asked interviewees to review existing communication materials and provide feedback.

• Key findings

  • The target audience had a better understanding of and behavior toward recycling compared to composting.

  • New immigrants tend to not recycle or recycle incorrectly compared to immigrants who’ve lived in Seattle for years. The team suggested creating materials in simplified-Chinese, which is the preferred language of the majority of the new Chinese immigrants in Seattle.

  • Recycling was perceived as more environmentally friendly than composting.

  • The value of compost was not understood and has not been communicated to people who

    just moved to the U.S.

  • For many people, staying healthy and slim was more important than saving food and

    money. (And people viewed these two things as being at odds with one another.)

  • People wanted materials in their preferred language and clear images with culturally relevant items.

• Design

  Based on the findings, I created key messaging and images that will work better for the Chinese speaking audience. In partnership with the client’s in-house designer, we designed four materials to communicate with and educate community members about recycling, composting and food waste prevention.

  • Solid waste disposal guide

    • Combine composting, recycling, and garbage together on a flyer and highlight items that are most confusing to people.

  • Food storage guide (below are English and Chinese versions)

    • Share tips on how to properly store produce, cooked food and takeout leftovers.

  • Composting tips

    • Include tips for setting up the compost system at home and reducing smells.

  • Meal planner/shopping list

    • Combine a meal planner with a shopping list that people can use to plan

      a healthy meal and buy ingredients they need accordingly.

    • Brand the material as a tool for a healthy lifestyle.

How might we create GOTV communication materials that are relevant to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders?

• Challenge

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) are the fastest-growing racial group in the United States. While the AAPI community is growing at a rapid rate, the community is under-engaged in our democracy. In 2014, 50% of eligible AAPI voters were not registered to vote. Out of the 50% of eligible and registered AAPI voters, only 50% voted in 2014, leaving 90,000 AAPIs who had the opportunity to vote but did not. 

• Task

In order to promote voting, the Asian Counseling and Referral Service's civic engagement team is tasked with creating communication materials for the 2016 general election.

• Strategies

Based on a 2015 post-election survey and my community outreach observation, I developed the following three strategies for the design.

1. Be culturally-competent - highlighting community and family values, and showing familiar faces; using different languages (English, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean)
2. Focus on newspapers - reading newspapers is a very common way for AAPIs to get information
3. Think of the whole visual experience - using the white space to make my design pop out on a cramped ad page!

Read the whole report here

Hearing loss is so common among older adults, but hearing aid use is not.