Hacking civic engagement through design: Cyd Harrell at TEDxSacramento TEDxCity2.0

Cyd is a passionate advocate for the citizen experience. She's an accomplished user experience (UX) researcher and currently serves as Code for America's UX Evangelist. She's also a brilliant Twitter haikuist. Cyd wants to redesign interaction between government and its citizens to create a virtuous cycle of trust. She envisions a world where civic interactions are just as inviting and rewarding as commercial ones.

For Cyd, there was a "conversion moment" -- an excellent interaction with the San Francisco city government when her own very strong civic feelings made her realize how design in government matters and just how few designers are working in the space.

At Code for America, Cyd works with fellows, city officials, and community volunteers to help create inventive and cost-effective civic technology that serves the needs of real people. She uses her unique background in sociolinguistics and poetry to apply metaphorical thinking to human-centered design.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)