Citizen Collaboration

It has been about a year since the City of Raleigh launched their redesigned website. While the redesign made improvements upon the previous site, it was not without its share of flaws. The team here has been working hard to add various changes since the launch with limited citizen input.

My name is Chris Geyer and I recently relocated to Raleigh to become an Experience Designer for the City, with the goal of enhancing the experience on the raleighnc.gov website. I want to let all of you know how we are planning to change the site for the better and that we want to invite you along for the ride. From now on, we plan on listening to citizen feedback during the design process. This represents a change in culture for the city that will only work if citizen involvement can educate employees about why this is a better approach.

So take a good look at the current site as it is, because it won’t be staying that way for long. I am bringing a change in perspective, innovative processes and above all passion for creating the best experiences for citizens to the City of Raleigh. We have a small team that manages the website, so don’t expect a huge change right away. Our goal is to treat the site as a living thing, changing and updating things slightly over time. Hopefully this will start to change the public perception of local government here in Raleigh, by listening to our citizens to ensure your experience on the web is a great one.

How are we going to accomplish all of this? Well, we have a long journey ahead of us, and while some things are already underway, the best way this can work is if we get citizens like you involved. We have already heard from a small number of you through our recent website survey that was up in June. While designing new pages for Parks & Rec, we have done some usability testing with a small group of citizens. These usability testing sessions allow us to hear what isn’t working on the current site, identify missing information and learn about how citizens want to find the information they are looking for. We plan to implement a feedback system in place on the website. We are going to interact with groups like CityCamp Raleigh to hear what you have to say and turn the tide against current elements on the site which don’t work.

To me design is about solving problems, and to do that to the best of my ability, I prefer collaboration so ideas can thrive and solutions can be much better for it. I am not some designer here to save the day. I am just someone who gets that working together can produce a much better result versus the traditional way of going at it alone.

So what we are doing is starting a call to arms, if you are a citizen in Raleigh and want to get involved in changing raleighnc.gov please let us know. You can volunteer for usability testing, so that we can understand what you need and are looking for on the web. Don’t be shy and feel free to drop me a line, by email or through twitter. I look forward to sharing more of the new directions we are heading in when the time comes and cultivating a relationship with as many of our citizens as I can.

The first step in the new open process being championed by the City is to meet up with citizens at the next CityCamp Raleigh group meeting this Wednesday night 6:30pm at Cafe Cattura in Cameron Village. Come join us and see what we have been working on and give us feedback.