Citizen-Centric State Government Portal
State government portal seeks to facilitate access to public information,
increase transparency, and ultimately regain citizen trust.
Adam is getting on in age — he won’t say how old, but he’s in his 50s. Adam spent his entire life working a 9-to-5 office job, but an accident cut his career short. Since, he has been working as a handyman to make ends meet. Throughout the years, he gained clients, one by one, and is now thinking about starting a company to hire help and grow his business. Finding conflicting and fragmented information about how to start a business online, Adam gave up as the amount of time and effort to look for this information took away from his actual job.
Adam’s story is that of hundreds of citizens around the State. It is the story of the citizen in need to find open shelters, or that of the investigative journalist requiring the salaries and financial records of elected officials. These citizens have the right to use public information to improve their own lives, but the frustration they feel in trying to access this information strains the relationship they have with the government figures supposed to provide it to them.
It is no secret that many government websites not offer the best experience for their users, and this State government was no exception. With over 90 agencies, each with their own mandates and divergent digital presence, publicly available information was outdated and scattered, making it extremely difficult to provide the right content to the right people, resulting in declining citizen trust and engagement.
THE PROBLEM
HOW WE APPROACHED
Consolidated Data
Information is pulled in from different data sources and consolidated into one location where users can filter and compare variables as needed.
Increased Transparency
State government budget figures can be benchmarked across agencies and over time for increased transparency and accountability.
Meaningful Data Visualizations
Each State government agency’s data is presented through simple and minimalistic visualizations that allow to track its performance against its KPIs.
Personalized Content
Using machine learning technology, the content of the portal is tailored to the user and presented in a simple and easily accessible way.
In an effort to address the frustration felt by citizens, the SAP DCC team (Design & Co-Innovation Center) approached this project in a highly consultative process, developing relationships with representatives from various user groups as well as State government staff and officials. The portal was designed while listening to their inputs and using them to test, iterate, and improve the final solution through various participatory design workshops. As a result, it was the users who determined what information the portal would include, and what navigating the portal would look like.
WHAT WE DELIVERED
In partnership with the State government, the SAP DCC team designed a portal to help change the existing state of affairs, by providing citizens like Adam with a one-stop-shop that makes it easier for them to find and use public information, and ultimately restore their trust in their government through increased transparency.
