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Like most city governments, the City of Cincinnati serves a broad and diverse constituency - from businesses and developers who shape our community to residents who simply want to pay thier water bill. The city’s goverment provides 52 neighborhoods with hundreds of services every day. At the same time, the City must position and promote Cincinnati’s assets to investors and businesses in and outside of the region.
challenge
The City of Cincinnati contacted metaphor for help with an initiative within the Department of Transportation. The challenge was to allow residents to view construction alternatives for road improvement projects on the City’s Web site. In the past, the City relied upon community meetings to present alternatives and gather input. As the City Manager, Milton Dahoney, strives for more robust digital communications, the City turned to metaphor for an online solution.
solution
metaphor took technical engineering maps and created a graphical user interface that was easy and fun for the resident. Web visitors can now compare current streetscapes with up to ten proposed alternatives for each spot improvement. They can vote and comment on the alternative they prefer.
metaphor tested the experience from the visitor’s perspective and enhanced the maps with directional references and environmental keys. Maps zoom and change perspective allowing residents to explore geograhic context. metaphor employed information architecture, copywriting, design, programming and an understanding of the city’s CMS to get the job done right.
In addition, metaphor scripted a video for the City Manager that speaks to the entire neighborhood improvement program, not just the road improvement projects at hand. The video is an evergreen marketing piece that promotes the city’s commitment to enhancing city neighborhoods and communicating with residents.
What began as a project for the Department of Transportation, resulted in the creation of a complete Neighborhood Projects Web interface. metaphor developed a solution that allows visitors to always learn about three key city projects. The interface uses a very friendly design approach, large imagery and a “portal” strategy. The Neighborhood Projects landing page routes visitors to specific data and feedback forms that are fully managed by the City.
