National Mediation Board Visual Mediator (prototype)

What Problem Does It Solve: Helps to overcomes bottlenecks in face-to-face mediation and make the process more effective and efficient.

How Does It Do That: The Visual Mediator is designed around three unique design principles, namely that the ability to:

• see the group of which one is a part and to understand one’s role in the group leads to more informed, deliberative behavior.
• visualize the problem helps to foster a shared understanding of the problem.
• build the structure of the discussion into the code will produce more effective communication and drafting.

Why Is It Different: The Visual Mediator provides a set of graphical tools to help parties involved in mediation visualize their goals, interests and possible solutions. Unlike other brainstorming tools, it eschews lists in favor of interfaces that put information in context and make it more relevant.

Who Will Use It: Mediators and parties involved in dispute resolution

More Details: Download Powerpoint Presentation.

Team: David Johnson, Beth Noveck with Ethan Katsh

Sponsors Institute for Information Law and Policy, New York Law School, University of Massachusetts, Legal Studies Department, National Mediation Board, Washington