Publi*City
Better Places Through Participation
Overview
Inviting Collaboration
There often exists a low grade, simmering distrust of local government and the bureaucratic process in general. Every citizen's quality of life is affected by local decisions, big and small, yet while many citizens have have important insight to add to the conversation, more often than not the process is too opaque and the information too, well, bureaucratic to be meaningful. For this project, I set about in my local community to ask how might we might go about changing that.
My role:
Research, strategy, ideation, prototyping, concept validation
Timeline:
Six week self-generated project (in progress)
The Challenge
Improve Participation Experience
Develop a platform to improve the experience of individual and community participation in local governance.
The Solution
Make it Accessible and Inviting
An engagement tool that makes relevant information accessible and invites residents to generate their own solutions.
User Research
Designing For Everyone
Civic decisions impact everyone in a community, whether its how one gets to school, the color of the streetlights, or how late the library is open. I used a combination of semi-structured interviews and existing engagement research to identify common issues across a broad range of civic stakeholders.
Participants
I interviewed three users, each with different stakeholder perspectives: a resident, an advocate, and a former council member
Discussion Guide
Questions focused on recent experience of civic participation, what successes, and what frustrations they encoiuntered
Engagement Research
I was able to gain further insight from a broader range of stakeholders through a public study commissioned by a local advocacy organization
Affinity Mapping
Improve Participation Experience
Develop a platform to improve the experience of individual and community participation in local governance.
Research Insights
Primary Findings
Information is key
Most people don't know where to start to find informtion about somethign in their commiunity
Low-level of participation
Almost 84% of local residents say they do not regularly participate in local government
Feeling Powerless
Residents feel their input isn't valued and their participation in meetings is unwelcome
Inconvenient and unwelcome
Many residents find the opportunities to participate are scheduled when they can't attend
Design Goals
Develop a platform to improve the experience of individual and community participation in local governance.
Personas
Understanding the user
Up Next...
Ideation, Prototyping, and User Testing
There's more to come soon. I'll be posting more from this project in the coming weeks as I develop a working prototype and validate with users. Stay tuned!