Ann Arbor City Hall User Resesarch

 Ann Arbor City Hall User Research

User Research

Survey

Our team used a survey as a cost-effective way to gather large amounts of data. 

We received 383 survey responses.

Here are some of the biggest findings:

Interviews

Next, we conducted interviews to get a more in depth understanding of Ann Arbor residents’ experiences engaging with city hall. 

My subteam conducted 3 interviews. Engagement, building rapport, and follow ups were key in getting the most out of the interviews. We encouraged users to generate their own responses by asking open-ended questions and asking interviewees to elaborate. Our goal was to have the interviewees guide the conversation in order to get the most authentic responses.

Insights

Our research helped us understand how City Hall might use technology to reach its citizens during the pandemic. We approached this by familiarizing ourselves with the current transactional and informational services that City Hall provides to its citizens and understanding citizens’ past experiences with these services.

Based on data collected from the survey and interviews, we recognized these key insights:

1. Residents without much prior interaction with or stake in City Hall don't have a complete understanding of its services. 

• Indifference to Local Government

  • We learned that many users felt indifferent to Ann Arbor government. This sentiment was especially present in students.

  • “As a student, i’m not a real Ann Arbor resident.”

  • “My concerns are more at the University level.”

• Government Efforts Not Visible to Ann Arbor Residents

  • Residents also felt that City Hall was not doing anything significant during the crisis.

  • “You can be visible at a time when you normally wouldn't be visible. Like people who aren't caring about what's going on might just have time and attention to care now or hear a message... So I feel like the city is missing out on the opportunity to build relationships with citizens.”

• Unclear Understanding of City Hall’s Function / Responsibilities

  • We learned that there is a lot of confusion about the function of City Hall. Many residents are unsure what one does or what one would bring to City Hall.

  • Residents related City Hall with the “court system” and “Ann Arbor politics”, but weren’t completely knowledgeable on the related services.

2. Many residents believe that online services are more efficient than in person.

• Efficiency is crucial for interactions between residents and City Hall, with 70% of survey respondents citing efficiency in completing their business as the most important aspect of their visits.

• Amongst survey respondents, 80% have been to City Hall for a transactional service, such as applying for permits, paying bills, or registering to vote.

• Putting these two findings together, it becomes apparent that it is crucial for transactional services provided by City Hall are efficient for residents.

• How might we make these services more efficient?

  • Our research revealed that a majority of surveyed residents prefer online methods when it comes to interacting with City Hall, and find them more convenient and efficient.

  • “Technology is key because you can, you know, get on my phone. Now that's just old technology, but they have so many things online now and everybody's working remotely...I go online on a regular basis.”

  • “They've made it [paying bills online] pretty easy, you know, to deal with them without having to

    drive downtown and park and risk getting tickets from that parking lot, which is all metered.”

3. Residents value online engagement, but are unaware of where these communities exist. 

• Many residents rely on social media for updates regarding Ann Arbor and City Hall, but there is also a notable portion of residents who are either unaware that that these online communities exist, or simply don’t know where to find them or which ones have the most credible information.

• Amongst the residents who are already aware of these online communities, some find it hard to navigate all of the different communities because there are so many.

• These findings present an opportunity for the City to raise awareness about these online communities but also perhaps create a centralized, go-to engagement platform that residents can rely on.

Next Steps

We made the following recommendations to City Hall based on the insights from our research:

• Focus on online engagement for completing simple tasks. The City currently accommodates paying bills and parking tickets online; adding other transaction services to this list (such as applying for permits) can help drive in more engagement.

• Create a single engagement platform for updates and press releases from City Hall. Having this central platform for information addresses residents’ concerns about navigating the several online communities that currently exist.

Research Limitations

It is important to recognize inherent biases in our research process.

1. Due to restrictions on physical gatherings, we relied heavily on online tools for our research. Our survey was promoted online and we used Zoom to conduct user interviews. Therefore, residents without internet access are almost completely unrepresented in our research.

2. Despite that a large age range was represented in both our survey and interviewee pool, the mean age was lower than the mean for Ann Arbor in general.

3. The survey and interviews did not screen for previous experience with City Hall, which is why a notable portion of responses indicated a lack of interaction with City Hall. Given more time and resources, we would have liked to focus our research on those with previous experience with City Hall.

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