A smooth transition to the new Environment Act, for you and your target group

Take advantage of well-integrated information too

Effective digital information for you and a user-friendly platform for your target group. That is paramount. Because our UX experts understand the exact challenges related to the new Environment Act. Also within your specific context.

• The Environment Act is seamlessly integrated into your current processes and has the least possible impact on your day-to-day work.

• Better user experience for your target audience thanks to structured and clearer information.

• Much less time spent on telephone enquiries during procedural applications.

Want to know more about the Environment Act and what it changes for you?

Read more about the Environment Act and how it will impact your work.

• The challenge of the Environment Act 2024

• The Digital System for the Environment Act

• Concept7 as a strategic digital partner

• Our partnership with the Municipality of Groningen

• Our partnership with the Department of Public Works

• Our partnership with the Municipality of Lelystad

The new Environment Act aims to simplify and speed up the rules for spatial development. That sounds positive, but at the same time it poses a hefty challenge for you as a municipality or government agency. Because all that required information about these regulations must of course be clear, readable and easy to find for everyone who needs it.

Does the new law directly affect you?

The short answer? Yes. The new law directly affects how you carry out your daily work. Instead of having to work with 26 different laws that are fragmented across different domains, you now have a single, integrated law. This law gives you more freedom to make efficient and more coherent decisions that better fit the needs of your specific local area.

What happens if this law is not integrated well enough?

Failure to properly integrate the Environment Act can lead to:

• Uncertainty in your decision-making process

• Extra workload due to unnecessary switching back and forth between different laws and systems

• Residents and other stakeholders may be faced with unclear or inconsistent information.

Away from multiple regulations and procedures

Suppose a resident wants to install a dormer window. Currently, as a citizen, you run up against several regulations and procedures, ranging from building regulations to neighbourhood requirements. This information is often scattered across different sources and websites, which means you spend a lot of time trying to find the right information.

The Digital System for the Environment Act (DSO) has been developed to support the implementation of the new Environment Act in the Netherlands. Think of it as an online centre where all information is made accessible. 

It provides a digital facility where citizens, businesses and public authorities, among others, can go for information around environmental law. Think of permits, spatial plans and policy rules that apply to a specific location.

What does this mean for municipalities and government agencies?

For municipalities and government bodies, this means that all information on the physical living environment must be easy to find digitally. Think of zoning plans, environmental plans and policy rules. It is also important that work processes link up with the DSO so that, for example, permit applications and notifications can be processed digitally. 

This provides citizens and businesses with at-a-glance answers to the question of what is and is not allowed in the physical living environment. For governments, this creates clarity, transparency and efficiency in implementing the law.

So, with the arrival of the national Environment Act 2024, this fragmented information landscape will be centralised and simplified. But, this new approach has not been implemented overnight. Presenting all that information clearly and building a logical information structure on your website, app or other digital product: that takes time, energy and the necessary research.

In fact, we can help municipalities and public bodies meet this challenge. How? By creating a clear, user-friendly digital environment where citizens can easily find their way around.

The result? The process for applying for environmental permits becomes simpler and more understandable for citizens. But you also end up with less work to do as a municipality or government organisation. 

The role of Concept7

• We understand the challenges that the changes in the national Environment Act bring to digital services. 

• As a digital strategy agency, we have 25 years of experience in setting up clear, user-friendly and easy-to-find digital environments. 

• We have knowledge of digital transformation and user experience. This ensures that we can transform complex Environment Act information into an understandable and accessible format. 

Concrete solutions for better information:

• Clear visualisations to present complex schemes in an understandable way

• Improving the findability of information through search engine optimisation (SEO)

• Developing intuitive navigation structures to allow users to quickly find the information and services they need. 

Cooperate with us to simplify information services and make them more user-friendly?

Read more:

• Our collaboration with Groningen Municipality

• Our collaboration with Rijkswaterstaat

• Our collaboration with Lelystad Municipality

For the Municipality of Groningen, we simplified several permit applications and made them more user-friendly. The wish from the municipality? To integrate the resident more into the creation process. 

Interviews in the form of focus groups 

With interviews, we found out how people experienced something in the past. Interviews are a perfect medium to surface needs, expectations and frustrations. We invited several citizens and held the sessions in the form of a focus group. 

Key insights from the focus group

Key insights that flowed from this: 

• Are you using jargon? Then explain its meaning. But rather make sure you keep your writing style at B1 level.

• Be clear and transparent about costs. What is inclusive and exclusive? Or what will be reimbursed or deducted afterwards? 

• Filling out an application form had a time limit of 15 minutes, while you have to gather a lot of documents together. That is a very tight time. So it is important that you give enough time and can save the process in between.

• Is an application made or a question asked on the website? Indicate in what time slot this person can expect a response, via mail or phone. And what actions should the person take if the response deadline is not met?

What did it achieve? 

A more user-friendly information service provided more peace of mind and a better connection to information needs for citizens. But it also meant fewer contact moments with the municipality. And that saves a lot of time and manpower

We are currently working hard with Rijkswaterstaat to build a user-friendly, secure and well-functioning Digital System for the Environment Act. Concept7's testing expertise has been deployed to monitor the quality of the software.

Recourse testing

For example, after an update or update, we check whether everything is still in place and working properly with each other. For example, we perform regression tests. 

During a regression test, we reenact certain functionalities and write out tests. For example, how do you log in, how do you look something up and how do you save something? We test the basic functionalities of a product. The goal? To maintain the quality of the product and prevent deterioration. 

The purpose of a tester

Our testers are there to validate and detect development errors. Especially during such a large and complex project as the Digital Environment Act system, on which as many as 150 software developers are working, testing is crucial. 

Very many government bodies are also involved in the Digital System for the Environment Act. Think of the government itself and the provinces, but also DigiD and Het Kadaster. 

Suppose: you apply for a licence.

When you want to apply for a permit, you log in to DigiD. That system looks up your address and takes you to a Kadaster component. We are testing whether that Kadaster component can be used without problems in cooperation with other components. So that everyone in the Netherlands can use the software without a hitch.

Also Gemeente Lelystad aims for a digital environment where you can easily navigate through the rules of the Environment Plan. We were asked to test the environmental plans for findability and readability. We do this by means of an eyetrack survey. 

What is an eyetrack survey?

A eyetrack survey tracks respondents' eye movements while navigating a website. This way, we spot bottlenecks and find out where improvement is needed. 

Respondents from this survey

A total of 6 respondents took part in this eyetrack survey. A mix of men and women with ages ranging from 37 to 74, varied levels of education and experience or no experience in applying for licences. 

The brief

We challenged respondents to perform 4 different, specific tasks on the digital platform:

• Finding the maximum building height of yard fences

• Finding the maximum height of a playground equipment in the backyard

• Finding the maximum area of a carport

• Finding the permit check for the extension of a piece of living room

The results of the eyetrack survey

What is the behaviour of respondents when they search for information? With an eyetrack survey, this becomes immediately clear.

• This makes it easy to see which elements in the digital environment stand out. And which information gets read and which does not. 

• Which route do participants choose to find certain information. 

• You can quickly ascertain whether participants understand and remember the information. For example, you can see whether certain information is read multiple times. 

One of the key findings from the study

• Men hesitate a lot. The observed behaviour shows that the reader is constantly looking for confirmation, because they want to get it right.

• The explanations and tooltips accompanying the questions in the permit check appear to be of great added value for the comprehensibility of the information.

• There is a lot of complex subject matter and jargon, with people automatically paying more attention to absorbing information

What's next?

Lelystad municipality now has insight into where the bottlenecks are in the permit check and the so-called "applicable rules" in the Omgevingsloket. The municipality is taking these insights into account when improving the texts and search terms. In this way, the digital product better matches the actual information needs of residents and errors in the application process can be avoided.

Do you have questions based on this article or would you like to spar with one of our colleagues? We can provide guidance in understandable language on improvements for your specific website. Or, of course, relieve you of all your worries.