Dana Chisnell

Dana Chisnell is an American public interest technologist, civic designer, adjunct lecturer and Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Career Chisnell began her career in 1987, working with banks, insurance companies, and tech companies as a designer and usability researcher. In 2001, Chisnell began consulting as UsabilityWorks.

In 2013, Chisnell co-founded the Center for Civic Design, a non-profit focused on voter intent through design. Chisnell served as co-executive director with Whitney Quesenbery until January 2020. As part of the center, Chisnell led research on what became the Anywhere Ballot and was the originator and managing editor of the Field Guides to Ensuring Voter Intent. The Field Guides are featured in a collection on Design and Democracy hosted by the Cooper Hewitt Museum and Smithsonian Design Museum.

In 2014, Chisnell was a founding member of the United States Digital Service in the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

Chisnell taught a course on Designing Government as an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School from 2017 to 2020.

Chisnell is the co-author of the Handbook of Usability Testing Second Edition (Wiley 2008).

Achievements and awards In 2019, Chisnell was named by Apolitical as one of the world's most influential people in digital government.