Small Wins, Big Impact: Leveraging and Elevating User Engagement
Summary
Through Open Cities, Granicus was able to expand on our ability to provide resident-centered digital experiences in local governments around the world. Our platform is the public sector's leading digital customer journey platform that has helped thousands of local governments transform their websites, digital forms, and service delivery experiences. Join Irina Tikhonova and Kari Dietrich in this session focused on the importance of starting small when elevating user experiences. We discuss how to focus on user journeys, involve the right stakeholders, and push for data-driven and human-centered policy changes.
Key Insights
-
•
Starting with small targeted digital pilots can generate large savings and efficiency gains in local government services.
-
•
Grand Rapids’ 311 service redesign reduced walk-ins by 79% and saved $200,000 in staff costs within six weeks.
-
•
Granicus platform offers a modular, ‘Lego-block’ approach allowing government clients to build tailored user experiences.
-
•
Combining technology with consulting services around data, personas, and user journeys improves digital transformation outcomes.
-
•
Real user testing with diverse populations reveals deeper insights than relying solely on personas or anecdotal data.
-
•
In Wyandotte County, policies created services that were not equitable, especially for those without legal representation.
-
•
Iterative, user-centered design processes with hybrid content management help improve government website content consistency.
-
•
Resistance to change inside government is common and requires persistent champions like Becky Joglover to overcome.
-
•
Digital services designed for the most marginalized users tend to improve usability for the entire resident population.
-
•
Government websites should act as online government itself, not just provide information about government.
Notable Quotes
"Big projects tend to get out of hand and scare stakeholders, so starting small is key to scaling impact."
"Granicus is like Lego blocks — you can create any type of engagement and experience you want."
"Majority of users relied heavily on Google to find government services rather than navigating the site itself."
"84% of website contributors didn’t know their own top pages or important analytics."
"Digital transformation can be slowed down by leadership resistance and a desire for gradual change."
"If you fix the problems for marginalized communities, you really fix them for everyone."
"People just wanted to get in, get what they needed, and get out without figuring out government operations."
"Websites and digital spaces should be government, not just provide information about government."
"You never get all your usability testers to respond, you always need to recruit more than you think."
"Employees creating content improved rapidly when centralized guidelines and editing were applied."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Everybody does better when everybody does better."
Deanna ZandtThe Unspoken Complexity of “Self-Care” with Deanna Zandt
July 21, 2022
"If you feel uncomfortable or bullied, it is so important that you know you can reach out for help."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
October 4, 2023
"It’s not enough to just see inputs at the altitude you’re working at; you need visibility into the inputs around you for proper context."
Ellie Krysl Jon FukudaPlanned Right. Managed Right. Designed Right.
June 6, 2023
"This conference felt like a professional bootcamp that helped me grow profoundly as a speaker and thinker."
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW Victor Udoewa Jennifer StricklandEverything You Need to Know about the Civic Design 2022 Call for Presentations
May 17, 2022
"Involving partners means tell me and I forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand."
Anat Fintzi Rachel MinnicksDelivering at Scale: Making Traction with Resistant Partners
June 9, 2022
"One of the best places to start is just learning about assistive technologies: what exists and how they work."
Kate KalcevichIntegrating Accessibility in DesignOps
September 23, 2024
"You wanna capture all the mess, but you cannot operate in the mess. Leave a path back to the mess so details and signals remain available."
John CutlerThe Alignment Trap
November 29, 2023
"Mixed methodologies illustrate the richness of our profession, showing the value of different types of research."
Steve Portigal Susan Simon-Daniels Tamara Hale Randolph Duke IIWar Stories LIVE! Q&A-Discussion
March 30, 2020
"The only time you get to build design ops at the same time as the organization structure is like in startups, but they’re so chaotic you don’t get to enjoy it."
Dan WillisFilling the Void
November 7, 2018
