A Public Service Should Give You a Receipt
A digital submission is not complete when a button turns green. A useful public-service receipt proves what was received, when it arrived and how the record can be corrected.
Human-centred technology—from everyday life to deep engineering.
Human-centred technology in government, democracy, cities, institutions and public services.
A digital submission is not complete when a button turns green. A useful public-service receipt proves what was received, when it arrived and how the record can be corrected.
Structured legislation helps people and machines find the right law, version and source—without turning technical formats into legal authority or interpretation.
Human oversight fails when reviewers lack time, evidence or authority. Meaningful review requires independence, manageable workloads and measurable disagreement.
Automated triage distributes waiting time, attention and risk. Fair queues require defensible priorities, ageing, human overrides and monitoring beyond average speed.
Decision-support tools should show caseworkers evidence, provenance, gaps, uncertainty and lawful options—not compress a person into a recommendation score.
Remote hearings can widen access, but cases involving liberty, family life, confidential advice, coercion or vulnerable participation may still require a physical courtroom.
Automated court transcripts can improve speed and access, but only certification, traceable corrections and human responsibility can turn probabilistic text into an authoritative record.
Legal self-help succeeds only when it transfers consented context and deadlines to the right human professional—not when it merely generates a form or referral link.
Machine translation can widen access to courts, but testimony, consent and authoritative legal texts still need accountable human interpretation and a clear path to correction.
Guided legal forms can make justice easier to enter, but they must recognise uncertainty, urgency and vulnerability—and know when to transfer control to a person.