United States Census Bureau
- Information Design Projects
- Visioning Projects
Mandated by the Constitution of the United States, the census takes place every ten years and is intended to gather information on every person—citizen and non-citizen—living in the country. It is the federal government’s largest and most complex peacetime operation, and the collected data determines funding for education, emergency services, public works projects, and other services at every level of government. Census figures also determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1990, response to the census had reached an all-time historical low: 65% of US residents responded to the direct government mailing, compared to 75% in 1980 and 78% in 1970. Of that 65%, many respondents missed questions or provided inaccurate answers. As a result, the U.S. Census Bureau had to send field workers out on house calls to collect missing information. Non-response follow-up and related activities ultimately accounted for 54% of total 1990 census costs.
Through internal investigation, the Bureau determined that one of the reasons for the poor results was poor graphic design: its forms were confusing, resembled junk mail, and were structured with back-end data processing in mind rather than the user experience.
In 1991 the Bureau initiated a review process in partnership with survey research specialist Dr. Don A. Dillman from Washington State University. At the same time, information designer Sylvia Harris had independently assigned census redesign as an assignment to her class of graduate students at Yale University. The Census Bureau’s internal review process dovetailed with the work of the students. When Harris presented these demonstration projects to Census staff, they immediately perceived the value of a professional redesign and used the demonstrations to persuade decision-makers to allocate a design budget.
In 1995, Harris and Two Twelve Associates, formally contracted for the 2000 Census design project, convened a multi-disciplinary team including information and graphic designers, language and usability experts, and data processing professionals. Prototypes of both short and long census response forms were developed, evaluated, tested, and refined, with the goal of delivering rigorously informed products for review by the Congressional committee overseeing the census process.
The final design and production of over 75 separate pieces required acute attention to detail and commitment to the highest level of design quality. Two Twelve delivered easy-to-use public information materials as well as a comprehensive Standards Manual with electronic templates adaptable to the Bureau’s changing needs.
Two Twelve's design helped to reverse the 30-year decline in response rates. According to then-Commerce Department Secretary Norman Mineta, 8,837 municipal governments, 42 counties, and 32 tribal governments raised their response rate by at least five percentage points over 1990.
In 1999, a jury of distinguished design experts selected the Census 2000 for a Federal Design Achievement Award, the highest award for design excellence given by the National Endowment for the Arts.
