BETAhood
BETAhood, is a service that enables individuals or groups within communities to draw down Dublin City Council services with ease. BETAhood replaces the existing model, that works on a ‘who you know’ basis, allowing residents to imagine, test and implement new ways to collectively make change and work towards a shared street vision. By creating necessary interventions along the user journey BETAhood enables simple engagement, stresses anonymity and provides a platform for community consultation.
Length Project Type Role
5 weeks Group Service, UX, UI
Currently in Dublin City there is a complexity to pulling in DCC services locally. Citizens are unsure of the best approach, who to ask or where to start. Change relies on ‘who you know’ and constant community pressure which is unfeasible for many individuals, resulting in an uneven spread of resources.
01
Preliminary Research
As a group we carried out secondary research in the areas of active citizenship, current community processes and existing innovative solutions. As well as numerous interviews with local residents, councillors and politicians in order to gain a rounded understanding and uncover the main problems that would inform our solution. These research methods allowed us to see how the existing DCC model works, who is involved and what the key issues are.
Assumed Service Flow
How we think the system currently works
Stakeholder Map
Who currently makes the decision
Problems
The challenges people currently face
02
Design Challenge
Once the root problems were identified we were able to frame a design challenge and identify some key ‘How Might We’ statements in order to guide the project and act as a continual point of reference.
It’s hard to make change locally when you
don’t have the time or know how. You still want to have your say but not be judged for it.
03
Concept Development
In order to devise a concept that addressed the various needs, multiple interventions along the user journey needed to be addressed. This lead to a brainstorming session around the three ‘How Might We’ statements in order to develop a solid concept.
04
Concept
After much discussion and brainstorming the concept of BETAhood was devised. BETAhood is a service that helps residents pull in, trial and implement new ways of making change in their area, while developing a shared street vision. BETAhood is a multi faceted service, consisting of a website, leaflets, signs and posters positioned at key points along the service journey. BETAhood aims to give control to residents, removing DCC from a large proportion of the process in the hope of speeding it up and encouraging communities to work together towards a shared vision.
05
Simplified Service Journey
The journey map below is a simplified service journey of BETAhood that highlights how the service works, when a user will interact with it and on what platform.
06
Key Service Touch points
The key touch points in the BETAhood service are creating, joining, suggesting and voting. These touch points take place predominantly on the BETAhood digital platform, however are aided by some paper assets used to spark action.
07
Low Fidelity Prototyping
Once a solid concept had been decided and a proposed service journey drawn up, rapid prototyping began. The initial prototype, which encompassed the website and various paper assets, was paper based in order to rapidly develop user flows, information structure and gain user feedback. The paper prototype was tested on six users in order to gather insights on functionality and information architecture.
Findings & Recommendations
08
Mid Fidelity Prototyping
Once the information architecture and user flows had been ironed out, Figma was utilised to create a mid fidelity prototype. This prototype was used in usability testing in order to gain feedback on alterations, content and the initial UI layouts.
Findings & Recommendations
09
Service Blueprint
This service blueprint outlines how the new BETAhood service will work and the key points of interaction.
10
Final Prototypes
The final prototype consists of a website, various leaflets and posters that are found throughout the service at the necessary touch-points in order to address the issues uncovered.
Creating a Betahood
Leaflets Encouraging Joining
Suggesting an Initiative
Trial Notification Posters
Voting on an Initiative
Buddy System Help Cards