human-centered-design
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Ambush and the art of making complicated things work
Behind the AI promises sits a less glamorous job: making data, software, hardware, and people agree. Ambush has built its business around that difficult meeting.
NuAxis Innovations and the art of making government less trying
Twenty-two agencies. One service desk. NuAxis Innovations built its federal IT business around a deceptively difficult task: making technology work for the people obliged to use it.
The Agency That Made Chicken Hygiene Watchable
Public-health information usually arrives wearing sensible shoes. Banyan Communications gives it a plot, a punchline, and a reason to be remembered.
Oak Lane and the Four-Letter Test for Strategy
Most strategy firms sell answers. Oak Lane sells the harder thing: a way for leaders, staff, funders, and communities to arrive at the same answer - then do something with it.
DC Design asks who your plan forgot
A college asked for a strategy. DC Design gave it a workbook. Inside the consulting firm that lets the people living a problem change the assignment.
Uptown Studios sells the next step
A Sacramento creative agency makes complicated causes easier to act on. Its most revealing work starts before the logo, the camera or the first line of code.
Femto designs for the person who has to make it work
A classroom game, a payment terminal and a mining cost program have more in common than they seem. The Brazilian consultancy works on the decisions and processes that make an idea usable.
CivicActions
CivicActions is a fully remote digital services firm that helps U.S. federal, state, and local government agencies modernize the technology behind public services. Founded in 2004 by Henry Poole and Aaron Pava, the company pairs free and open-source software - especially Drupal - with agile delivery, DevSecOps, human-centered design, and accessibility expertise to rebuild legacy government websites and platforms. Guided by the values of Balance, Openness, and Care, CivicActions has served agencies including Veterans Affairs, the FCC, the National Science Foundation, and the State of Georgia while contributing heavily back to the open-source communities its work depends on.
Hopelab
Hopelab is a San Francisco social innovation lab and impact investor founded in 2001 by Pam Omidyar. It works at the intersection of technology and adolescent mental health, combining behavioral science, youth co-design, and research to advance the well-being of young people ages 10-25, with a focus on BIPOC and LGBTQ+ youth. Best known for the cancer video game Re-Mission, Hopelab now runs research programs, youth fellowships, and Hopelab Ventures, which has invested more than $12 million across roughly 20 youth mental health startups.
Oddball
Oddball is a McLean, Virginia-based digital services agency that modernizes how the U.S. government talks to its citizens. It builds and maintains some of the federal government's busiest websites - notably VA.gov for the Department of Veterans Affairs and Medicare.gov for CMS - using human-centered design, agile engineering, and modern cloud infrastructure. Founded in 2016 and led by CEO Travis Sorensen and CTO Rob Wilkinson, the remote-first firm calls itself 'a strangely human digital agency,' and grew to roughly 340-366 employees and ~$117M in annual prime contract revenue before taking a 2025 growth investment from private equity firm Falfurrias Management Partners.
Eight Inc.
Eight Inc. is a globally recognized strategic design firm founded in 1989 by Tim Kobe. Best known for designing the original Apple Store with Steve Jobs, the firm now operates across San Francisco, New York, London, Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai and Dubai, helping brands like Nike, Virgin Atlantic, Citibank, Dolby, McLaren, Lincoln and Nissan turn ideas into human experiences across architecture, retail, products, identity and digital.