Design Thinking improves the online services of the Municipality of Groningen.

Concept7 & Gemeente Groningen

Case Gemeente Groningen prototype melding

How do you maintain (a sense of)connection in a digital age? Like all other governments, the Municipality of Groningen faces the challenge of staying connected with its residents.

Applying for permits, reporting nuisances, renewing a driver’s license, or requesting a new passport—these are things that can only be arranged through the municipality, yet often come with a deep sigh from citizens. The Municipality of Groningen aims to improve its online services.

The customer Gemeente Groningen
Cases
UX design Strategie Gebruikersonderzoek
Results gemeente.groningen.nl/

Request to Concept7

We were asked to involve residents, entrepreneurs, and municipal employees in designing two key processes: reporting nuisances and applying for parking permits.

A key requirement: apply Design Thinking! The ultimate goal: a user-friendly, thoroughly tested, and fully functional prototype to serve as a blueprint for improving the Municipality of Groningen’s online services.

Areas for improvement in online services

Gemeente Groningen is working hard, through multiple projects, to improve its online services via the website. To better understand the needs of residents and entrepreneurs, the municipality brought us in.

Our assignment: create a tested and validated prototype of the new municipal online services. This included researching the wishes, needs, and expectations of Groningen’s residents and entrepreneurs. The goal: to ensure the prototype serves as a source of inspiration and a practical starting point that supports the municipality in taking the next steps toward realizing these improved services.

Gemeente Groningen customer journey parkeren

Voorbeeld van een customer journey voor de gemeente

User research: parking and nuisance reporting

Parking permits and nuisance reports are the processes we set out to redesign and reshape. We brought together two focus groups, one with residents and one with entrepreneurs. By talking with them, we gained insights into their experiences, needs, and expectations.

We also started with a baseline measurement of the existing processes, using eye-tracking research. Participants were asked to either apply for a parking permit or report a nuisance. From start to finish, we tracked every eye movement and observed where users encountered difficulties.

The SUPR-Q score (a standard metric for evaluating usability) was 63 in this baseline measurement. Clearly, there’s room for improvement!

User uncertainty

From the focus groups, we learned that uncertainty played a key role in the parking process. Users wondered: what happens if I enter incorrect information? We also discovered that reporting nuisances can be an emotional experience.

In addition, the information flow and expectation management were not yet up to standard. Too much, too little, or poorly timed information reduced both the user experience and overall usability.

We discussed the focus group findings with the municipality, which formed the basis for a joint brainstorming session to identify solutions to key pain points in the customer journey.

These insights also formed the foundation for the customer journey and personas we created. Combined with the ideas from the brainstorming session, this became the starting point for the actual design process.

Interactive prototype

With all the insights gathered, we designed the first version of the prototype. We reviewed this prototype with the municipality’s process owners and then tested it again with users. Once more, we used eye tracking and applied the SUPR-Q to assess the usability of the prototype.

This time, the average score was 80, a very high score within the SUPR-Q framework.

Result

In addition to the high user score on the prototype, the greatest gain for us was the enthusiasm of residents, entrepreneurs, and municipal colleagues. All groups responded very positively to being involved in the project, and it provided us with valuable insights.

With this, the Municipality of Groningen is one step closer to its mission: improving online services. And what’s better than achieving that together?