Context
This challenge takes place within a larger project, which is the rebuilding of the City of Austin's website. Not only is the content getting re-written department by department, but we are also building a custom CMS to support the maintaining of the website going forward. The team looks to me to establish the content model, including page types, requirements, and the interaction design of the backend UI (based on the open-source Wagtail), as well as direct the visual designer on the corresponding public-facing site.
The City of Austin offers residents hundreds upon hundreds of services — everything from building permits to supplemental food assistance. Since people are increasingly reliant on mobile devices to accomplish their day-to-day tasks, the ability to access these services online has become imperative.
Challenge
There are a number of somewhat linear, complicated processes within the city that residents must learn in order to get something done at the city. Some examples are:
- Getting a mobile food truck permit
- Organizing and getting approved for a community garden
- Getting a permit for residential development
What's worse: the harder the process, the more inequitable it is.
The question was, then: how do we organize these processes into something that residents can more easily navigate? How do we make them more equitable?
Team
I'm part of a cross-disciplinary team. The team consists of:
• 3-5 content strategists
• UX designer (myself)
• Visual designer
• 3-5 developers
The design of the guide is an example of how we as a team are assessing the content on the current website and transforming it into a modern content delivery system that is mobile friendly, equitable, and accessible.