Legal information design and simplification with Rob Waller

Creating better contracts for clients with examples. Legal Design IRL: Episode 39

This week I’m talking with information architect and information design pioneer Rob Waller about how information design can transform your contracts. Rob walks us through various real-life examples of contract simplification and information design. They range from projects with Shell, Hasbro, and various government bodies. 

Rob will show you that you can improve the information value of your contracts.

Who is Rob Waller

Rob Waller is an information designer, researcher, and educator. His clients have included many well-known names in financial services, energy, government, and other sectors.

In recent years he has been focused on legal information design and, in particular, contract simplification. He is the current President of the International Institute for Information Design and organizer of the annual Information Design Summer School at the Simplification Centre.

A quick note about me. I’m Hannele Korhonen, founder of Lawyers Design School and host of Legal Design IRL. Each week I talk about legal design and contract simplification and how lawyers like you can innovate your legal documents and improve how you deliver your law.

Examples of legal information design with Rob Waller

Tune in and learn 

• Why Rob Waller is driven to empower people through language and information design
• The relationship between language and design and designing things that inform people
• How Rob designed the instructions for the Monopoly game using the customer journey – and how the same process applies to business contracts
• Why information design practices like layers, affordances, and graphic editing are essential to effective communication
• Why information design isn’t only about visualization – it’s about writing
• What Rob and his team did for Shell, Vodafone, Hasbro, local council fine documentation, and voter registration information
• How you can get started with the Information Design School at the Simplification Centre

Connect with Rob Waller

You can find Rob on LinkedIn and his website. Check out the Simplification Centre.

Legal design thinking: IRL. Episode 39

If you enjoyed the talk, you can join me live every Wednesday at 8 am ET on LinkedIn. The chat is open and you can ask questions. 

Lawyers Design School is a learning hub for lawyers and law firm owners who want to level up and innovate their work in law. Through courses, workshops, and the free weekly Legal Design IRL series, you’ll get actionable tips and real-life demonstrations of legal design thinking in action. The legal world is changing, are you being left behind? 

 Read more on legal design and contract design.

One last thing

If you’re feeling a little frustrated with life in the law – I understand. I was a misfit in law. But I’ve now realized I wasn’t a misfit, the legal system is broken. And clients do want my “mis-fitty” skills.

If you feel a little like a misfit, I’ve created one helpful resource for you. It’s a designerly lawyer superpower quiz to help you tap into the amazing skills you have. The things you hide in your work – like practicality, visuality, and creativity – are your superpowers. 

So I want you to discover your superpower and unleash that on the world. There’s so much change coming and you’re the perfect candidate to be part of the change. Let’s get unstuck together. 

You can catch a replay of episode 39  Legal Design Thinking: IRL or join me live next week and ask questions.

Want to chat about it?

Follow me at @lawyersdesignschool for more tips and tools.

Prefer email? Drop me an email at [email protected]. And while you’re here, take a peek at the Lawyers Design School and check out other ways to use legal design thinking to grow your law firm and thrive in your business.

Watch all the Legal Design IRL Episodes.