Google.org Fellowship with City of Boulder
Information Architecture, Interaction Design, & Visual Design
Summary
10% of Boulder residents are below the poverty line, and more than a quarter of the population doesn’t earn enough to cover basic needs (1). The City of Boulder government is invested in the wellbeing of its residents, and identified a serious gap: residents with low income are not benefiting from the many city services for which they’re eligible.
During my Google.org Fellowship, I designed a two-part solution that increased residents’ awareness and utilization of services for which they’re eligible: Boulder for Me, a mobile-optimized service eligibility calculator for residents, and a desktop-optimized service data management platform for City of Boulder staff.
(1) Boulder County Trends Report, Oct 2019
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Background
Google.org combines funding, innovation, and technical expertise to support underserved communities and provide opportunity for everyone. In addition, it organizes Google.org Fellowships to partner pro bono teams of full-time Googlers with nonprofits and governments worldwide.
City of Boulder staff worked with our team of Google Fellows to develop Boulder for Me. Fellows worked alongside city staff for six months to research, design and build a scalable and easy-to-use solution to improve access to city services across multiple departments.
Outcome
During the Fellowship, I designed a two-product solution that increases residents’ awareness and utilization of services for which they’re eligible. To do so, I created 8 distinct prototypes during the 1-month design phase and, through rapid iterative testing & evaluation, evolved the solution so it thoughtfully fit into residents’ lives.
This two-product solution was comprised of Boulder for Me, a mobile-optimized service eligibility calculator for residents, and a desktop-optimized service data management platform for City of Boulder staff.
I served as the sole designer, and led:
Strategy & design workshops
Workshop with City staff and Google.org Fellows to unpack research and co-design
Feature discovery with City staff
Educational talks (UX 101, Interviewing 101, Design Thinking 101)
Design for two products
Information architecture
Interaction & visual design
Interactive prototypes
Print magazine outlining research & design outcomes
Selected screens depicting visual design
Print Magazine for Google.org Open House
Print Magazine for Google.org Open House
Print Magazine for Google.org Open House
Print Magazine for Google.org Open House
Shared with permission from Google.org and City of Boulder
Illustrations: Humaaans by Pablo Stanley | Iconography: Streamline HQ