A not-for-profit initiative building design capability for the public good. We take on projects with government, non-profits and communities; run design cohorts and university fellowships; train public and non-profit teams; and convene the field through workshops and UX Pakistan. And we celebrate good design in Pakistan.
جو نظام لوگوں کو سمجھ کر بنایا جائے، وہی لوگوں کے کام آتا ہے۔
“A system built by understanding people is the one that serves people.”
We work in contexts where people live and interact in languages they speak. Research in Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto and Punjabi is not a translation step at the end — it is where the design starts.
Five ways we work: with organisations on live problems, with people who want to build this practice, and with the wider field.
Service design and research with non-profits, government departments and social enterprises.
Projects →Mixed teams on a social impact problem for twelve weeks, plus university fellowships.
Cohorts →Training public and non-profit teams so the capability stays in-house.
Training →Workshops, Design Baithaks and UX Pakistan, where the field meets.
UX Pakistan →Highlighting great work across Pakistan, and naming the people behind it.
Tell us →Services rarely fail at the centre. They fail at the seams — where a policy meets a form, a form meets a counter clerk, and a counter clerk meets a family that has already travelled two hours.
We work in the tradition of service design and participatory design as practised in public institutions, adapted for thin budgets, high staff turnover and real accountability to the public.
Read our approach in fullCitizens, frontline staff and decision-makers in one room. The disagreement there is the finding.
Fieldwork where the service is used, sampled deliberately for the users a system already fails.
Front stage and back stage together: forms, letters, wording and staff tooling, not just an interface.
Lowest-cost tests that produce real evidence, with operational measures beside user ones.
Playbooks, repositories and trained staff a partner owns. Success is the project we are not needed for.
Our mark carries almost every Sustainable Development Goal, because the problems arrive tangled. These are the clusters we take briefs in.
Primary care journeys, maternal health outreach, water access at the union-council level.
Enrolment and retention journeys, teacher tools, learning materials that survive real classrooms.
Safety, mobility and access to services for women, people with disabilities and informal workers.
Flood preparedness, heat resilience, waste and transport services in dense neighbourhoods.
Fisheries and farming livelihoods, food systems, and the ecosystems they depend on.
Digital services, grievance redress, and the design capability inside public bodies.
Measuring in Lahore how footpaths, lighting and the last-mile walk shape how far women travel and how often they are harassed — with recommendations for the Punjab Mass Transit Authority.
Read the projectA VR training system built with the Rescue 1122 Academy, recreating the fire academy and Lahore's Hafeez Center so instructors can run scenarios a live burn cannot stage.
Read the projectAn AR guide for the National Museum of Science and Technology, evaluated on site with 30 students from the SOS Children's Village.
Read the projectOur design cohorts bring together designers, researchers, technologists and domain experts to work on social impact problems in teams. Fellowships run in collaboration with universities, pairing students and early-career practitioners with partner organisations.
The country’s gathering for people who design digital and public services — talks, workshops and a hallway worth the ticket. Run by Design for Pakistan.
Designers, researchers, writers, developers and facilitators support projects, review work and mentor cohort teams. Tell us what you can offer and we’ll match you to a live need.
Join the networkWe are a not-for-profit initiative. Donations and grants pay for field research, cohort stipends and the tools partners keep after we leave.
DonateTell us about your service, your users and where it breaks. We’ll tell you honestly whether design is the right next step.
Partner with us