I just finished reading Forms that Work -Designing Web Forms for Usability by Caroline Jarrett and Gerry Gaffney. Wow! I’ve been thinking a lot about forms over the last 5 or so years. Typically, I take court forms (many of which are challenging to use on paper) and try to Read more…
When Jonathan Pyle created Docassemble, he chose to use the YAML file format as the main way to represent the contents of an interview. When writing a Docassemble interview, it can be helpful to understand what YAML is, which conventions are Docassemble standards that overlay YAML, and how the different Read more…
Periodically, I go into the analytics of MADE and see where people get stuck. As of December 2019, the pages that our users most commonly stop at include the expected: the various intro screens, where someone who is just curious about MADE is likely to stop before entering any real Read more…
So, you want to create your first interactive legal application (sometimes also called guided interview or wizard). Congratulations! Whether your app is the next TurboTax for drafting wills or an access to justice app for pro se debtors, it helps to understand the components of your app. That’s true whether Read more…
MADE is a wizard-like online interview that helps tenants who are being evicted. It can be completed on a smartphone or desktop computer completely without the help of a lawyer. It covers 300 questions and it educates tenants about their rights, helps tenants file paperwork, and sends tenants automated text-message Read more…
Updated 4/1/2019 Do you have a legal tech hackathon coming up? Here’s something that might help you get started. Four small (under 200 lines) Docassemble skeleton projects that you can adapt for your use. A simple chatbot with branching logic that gives advice to the user. Run this interview A demonstration Read more…
If you work in legal aid, something that you have no control over and you may not even be aware of is impacting both the quality of advice your client base receives and the reputation of your organization. It has the innocuous name “Questions” and for most local businesses, it’s Read more…
Updated August 2, 2019 Are you a legal aid user who was inspired by the great Docassemble projects on display at the Legal Services Corporation’s Innovations in Technology Conference? Florida Justice Technology Center, Community.Lawyer, HelpSelf Legal, myself, and Upsolve all participated in the conference and showed off some great projects, Read more…
Although I understood the underlying datastructures, Docassemble groups are a concept that took me some time to wrap my head around. I hope you can use this as a guide that will help you understand the why and how of groups and get started using them in practice. I hope Read more…
A common computer science concept, the Class, is a key benefit of Docassemble over other document assembly platforms. But when I work with a new Docassemble learner, or evangelize Docassemble to users of other platforms, Classes and Objects are the concept most likely to draw a blank look or create Read more…