Mapping Future Lenses of Tax through Design

Abstract: This project is an exploration of how design can help redefine our interactions and engagement with tax. By using a combination of design methodologies, it explores what tax is to people today, what it could be in future and what social technological and environmental elements might be important to consider in designing future tax systems. With a particular focus on the UK, I apply user-centred research methods to gain insights into how tax, technology and non human life entities currently fit into people's lives. Using a more life-centred framework, I then synthesised the results of this research into design principles. Alongside these, I create a range of speculative probes which serve to illustrate and develop the different lenses and frictions through which the topic of tax could be approached and mapped. The final result is a more refined proposal for one way in which we might engage with tax differently in society by making it possible for citizens to allocate taxes to things in their surroundings and then track their impact. While the conclusion of this project has focused into developing a more refined result, I believe the bulk of its value has been in beginning to map a space, which up until now might have felt too complex and difficult for many designers to tackle. Tax is indeed very complex, and while the scope of this project has only allowed me to dip my toe into it, I would like to argue that it should not be neglected by design. On the contrary, as the complexity of tax inevitably collides with increasing digital complexity of our connected world, it is perhaps more important than ever that the field design takes part in any future dialogue, so that it can advocate for both human and non human perspectives within the wider picture of systemic impact.