Problem Statement

The Citizen Project, a platform connecting 12,000+ Roosevelt Island residents to community and government resources, may not effectively cater to the diverse needs of its user base, particularly overlooking the requirements and challenges faced by elderly and disabled community members, leading to potential gaps in accessibility and usability.

Team Structure

• Product Owner: Kaushal Shah

• UX/UI Designers: Eunsil Kim and Torin Fields

• UX Researchers: Eileen Calub and Leah Ellis

Process

1. Stakeholder Interview: Spoke with product owner to understand project goals, constraints, and expectations.

2. Project Requirements: Collected and synthesized project requirements to guide the research and design process.

3. Preliminary Research:

   • Roosevelt Island Demographics: Researched Roosevelt Island’s demographics to better understand the community’s composition and needs.

   • Roosevelt Island Existing Government/Community Services: Analyzed existing government and community services on Roosevelt Island to identify current offerings and potential service gaps.

4. Interview Recruitment: Recruited participants representing diverse user groups, including elderly and disabled residents, for user interviews.

5. User Interviews: Conducted user interviews to uncover pain points, accessibility challenges, and unmet needs in accessing civic resources.

6. Interview Analysis: Analyzed interview data to extract key themes, user needs, and usability issues.

7. Competitive Analysis: Performed a competitive analysis of similar civic platforms to identify best practices and opportunities for improvement.

Project Goals

• Improve the inclusivity of The Citizen Project platform by addressing the unique needs and challenges faced by elderly and disabled community members.

• Enhance the overall user experience on The Citizen Project platform by leveraging insights gained from user discovery and competitive analysis.

• Strengthen the platform's role as a one-stop solution by improving its connection to community and government resources for all users.

Brainstorming goals for user discovery in Miro with designers and co-researcher

Findings

• Demographics Analysis:

  • Source: U.S. Census Bureau data as of 2023

  • Finding: Many non-U.S. citizens, majority white collar, high income and education level, half/half family households, mixed transportation methods

• Interview Insights:

  • Pain Points:

    1. There is no one place listing all resources on the Island.

    2. There are kiosk where flyers and posters are placed but removed every two weeks.

    3. A newspaper was used in the past to promote resources but is no longer operational.

  • Desirable functions for The Citizen Project:

    1. Change website name to Roosevelt Island Citizens

       • Less generic, more personalized towards the residents

    2. Promote vendors, organizations, restaurants, and schools on the website platform

    3. Announcements and calendar for upcoming events

    4. Form to submit complaints regarding public safety

    5. A place where youth can go to see their own work where they can post whether it is art, poetry, journalism and more

       • Community building, youth engagement

    6. Strong marketing plan to promote the website

• Competitive Analysis: Compared with City of Waterloo, Hoboken Community Center, and City of Beverly Hills

  • Weaknesses:

    • Content overload

    • Upcoming events

    • Menus and Navigation

  • Opportunities:

    • Consistent visual design

    • Calendar Page or Google Calendar

    • Donation button

These insights were delivered to the product owner and designers and informed design decisions and strategy moving forward.