The key observations are listed here:

a). Visitors

Apart from single visitors, many of the people were accompanied by their friends and relatives. Especially in the case of elderly, pregnant women, migrants. It was observed that the dutch migrants often came with their family for example a Turkish family of 9 members were observed to come to the municipality for a marriage registration of one of their family members. It was observed that parents often get younger children, to the municipality especially when schools have off or a half day.

b). Waiting time

The waiting time was found to be 5 to 10 minutes if an appointment had been booked via internet or phone. Otherwise, without an appointment people waited for approximately 15 to 20 minutes. The frequency of visit to the town hall varies between people, but on an average once in 4 to 6 months.

c). Accessibility

People suggested that extended opening times especially after office hours, and multiple locations for service would increase the accessibility of the town hall services. Open service desks on weekends was cited as another preference.

d). Planning a visit to the town hall

60% of the people plan their visit in advance, most of them take an appointment on the phone and a lesser number on the internet. The remaining drop by spontaneously and take an appointment at the reception counter. Some respondents stated that they ask their friends who have gone there for similar reasons or check blogs (e.g. expatica.com) for other people’s suggestions before a visit. Not everyone is aware of what could be done online and for what services you are required to visit the municipality. People who do not know dutch, elderly, computer illiterate people prefer to use the public counter at the town hall or the telephone in comparison to the web service.

e). Behavior

The tendency for people is to sit opposite the display screens waiting for their turn. Some of the people engage themselves with newspapers, a crossword, arranging their papers or with their mobile phones, there is minimal talking between the visitors. The announcement of the queue number on the display screen makes people stop all their activities and check if its their turn (the unpredictability of it is often stressful in itself).The waiting room contains a bookshelf with literature, which is rarely referenced by anyone as most of the information is available online. People are there for permits and other more serious issues like deaths, thus they want to be done with their work as soon as possible, as one of the respondents remarked -

“i don’t like to ask friends to accompany me to the town hall, as it is not exactly a fun experience for them!”.

f). Physical environment

The current environment has seating that faces outward, thus people do not face each other but the display screens. The waiting room is small and closed, with few windows. The colors used in the furnishings is mostly blue and white (going with the municipality logo), this creates a very clinical atmosphere (similar to a hospital).

g). Service satisfaction

80% of the respondents were satisfied with the service (although it is seen that satisfaction differs with the intent & seriousness of the visit). Some recommendations like confirmation information for a successful transaction or a constant progress update on your application were put forward. Other suggestions included- to be made aware of alternate procedures to do a task and if there was a delay in their application, a reasoning be given. A problem pointed out was the heavy authentication procedure (via DigiD) for simple services like getting the Delftpas.

h). Information

Most people prefer to get the information via the internet apart from the special groups mentioned before (non-dutch speaking, new migrants, illiterate, elderly). For city events, festivals and activities people prefer to ask other people and friends or check miscellaneous web sites. Some people state that they are not sure what information they should be aware of, as one correspondent quoted -

“ The problem for me is what is it that i should know, and what information i should have”.

A suggestion by a respondent identified a wish for a more personal interaction, in her own words -

“More than the intelligence its the emotional quotient which the city lacks. I am sure any other kind of information can be very much available from various other sources but the city lack this emotional bonding”.

i). Participation

On asking people how would they like to participate, and if there was any information that they would want to communicate at the municipality for others a wide variety of responses were given, few quotes are given below -

“ I could contribute information about unsafe places and other issues related to safety”

“ Professional information/ skills to civilians. Maybe a kid needs help on doing a presentation for elementary school, and on one way or another he would know that I am able to help him, because I am skilled and could teach him a couple of things.”

“Yes, where to get your bike repaired for cheap….How to get started in Delft as a foreign student, cheap places to eat, weekly events etc.”

“it would be nice to have an interactive map. i’d love to point out my favorite book shop, cafe, park, etc and I’d like to discover places that other people find interesting.”

If asked whether they would like to contribute to the governance and developments in the city, the majority said they would leave it as a job for the authorities.

It confirms out assumption of providing the service during the waiting time before an appointment.

Major questions addressed were:
who are these special need people? what problems do they face?, how do they currently cope with them?, what (and when) do people find themselves in a need?, what are possible aid solutions?

By special needs citizen we imply people in poverty, immigrant population,
newcomer population, lone-parent families, people with home language not Dutch, visible minority status, unemployed, youth unemployment, less than high school education, households in core housing need. The most important need for them is to not feel different than others, this can be achieved community support. For example by helping migrants to adjust to dutch culture, students to learn the dutch language, helping an elderly woman with household chores or participating in shared activities.

Other special needs like lack of education, technology challenged would also need special consideration when offered civil services, most importantly by keeping alive traditional channels of communication like letters, face to face contact, telephone.

The information to create the personas was collected through literature, interviews from social NGO and voluntary organisations in Delft which including Buren hulp central, Bedrijf en samen leving Delft and Wat eten wij vandaag. Additional to that a creative facilitation session was conducted with students of the TUDelft having experience working with special need groups on academic projects.

And the personas that came out of it:

A Pattern Language is a book about architecture that was written in the 1970s  (christopher alexander), before the Web as we know it was even conceived. But the book provides hundreds of valuable patterns for community planning and architectural design, many of which can easily be applied to online communities and social networking websites.

Niche social networks are popping up online all the time, with many designers and developers taking advantage of pre-built social network platforms and making little modification. It makes sense, after all: why reinvent the wheel when perfectly good ones are available?

But if you step back and really consider how your social network or online community is set up, you might be able to improve the user experience and overall user satisfaction by leaps and bounds. Looking to other fields, such as architecture and civil engineering, is one way to gain new ideas without having to reinvent the wheel.

C. Alexander on Local Town Halls

In the real world, a town hall is where citizens go to voice their opinions on matters of public concern and to interact with their government. Online communities should have similar forums for their members to give suggestions, ask questions and interact with those who govern the website. On some websites, this could be an official support forum, while on others it could just be an open support form. Open forums are especially effective in large communities because fellow members can often answer questions faster than official community leaders. In any case, support forums should always be moderated and monitored to ensure that questions are answered correctly.

Source:

smashing magazine

A pattern langauge

OD2010 aims to bring together researchers, developers and practitioners from a wide range of academic and applied backgrounds to provide a unique opportunity to better understand the notion of deliberation in a virtual environment and to discuss specific advances in online deliberation from a number of different disciplinary perspectives.

The conference is aimed at those who wish to update themselves on recent developments in online deliberation, understand how other groups are applying the tools and techniques and exchange ideas with leading international experts.

link to their website:  http://www.od2010.dico.unimi.it/index.php?pgid=8

Listed below are projects conducted in the UK by the young foundation for social cohesion and community development.

Projects:

• Future Communities – Bringing together local and national actors to develop fresh thinking about how new housing developments can become socially as well as economically and environmentally sustainable (supported by HCA and IDeA). There blog can be found – here.
• Civility – We are working with the ESRC on a project exploring whether civility matters in contemporary Britain, building on the work of our book Civility: Lost and Found.
• Cohesion – the Young Foundation has conducted extensive work on community cohesion, from a project focussed on how voluntary and community sector can best work for cohesion, to a contribution to the Commission on Integration and Cohesion
• Neighbourhood Action Network – We worked with 12 local authorities, the HCA, IDeA and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on a project on how local authorities could accelerate and develop their community empowerment and neighbourhood working activity
• Transforming Neighbourhoods – a two-year programme of research, innovation and practical action designed to encourage devolution of power to neighbourhoods and communities in England. It ran from April 2005 to March 2007
• Neighbourhood Futures – a focused network bringing together six local authorities (Camden, Hackney, Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, Knowley, Lewisham, and Suffolk) to talk about key issues in taking forward neighbourhood working against a backdrop of recession and spending cuts
• Local 2.0 – Funded by CLG’s Community Empowerment Fund, we are working with three councils (Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, Kirklees and Kensington and Chelsea) to find out how new digital technologies can be used by councils and other local agencies to communicate with and involve their residents
• Neighbourhood Taskforces’ model draws on a combination of familiar approaches: research into local people’s views, fast-paced meetings, mediation techniques and action planning, which when used together can help build the capacity of the community to work together.

Read their neighbourhoods policy papers here.

Customer journey mapping

Customer journey mapping is the process of tracking and describing all the experiences that customers have as they encounter a service or set of services, taking into account not only what happens to them, but also their responses to their experiences. Used well, it can reveal opportunities for improvement and innovation in that experience, acting as a strategic tool to ensure every interaction with the customer is as positive as it can be.

The government context

A key aim of the Transformational Government Strategy is better customer focus in the design and delivery of public services. As David Varney put it:

“Deep insight into customer needs, behaviours and motivations, plus the ability for citizens and businesses to have better information on the services on offer, are all important for the design of public services that support the Government’s desired policy outcomes..“
(Service Transformation: A better service for citizens and businesses, a better deal for the taxpayer by Sir David Varney, Dec 2006)

Journey mapping approaches

In putting the guidance together, we have identified three types of journey mapping.

Customer experience mapping is a qualitative approach, focused on emotional insights about a customer, in order to tell his or her story with passion and narrative. It’s a powerful way of engaging both staff and customers.

Mapping the system, or process mapping maps the steps in a process and identifies where to act to make the experience as easy, pleasant and efficient as possible.

Measuring the experience is a form of mapping that allows us to determine how well an experience is delivered. It can quantify the effect of changes and contribute to business cases.

The approaches work best of all in combination. Mapping the experience brings the story to life and engages your audience. Comparing this with current processes helps identify priority actions. Adding quantification to this tells you how many people are affected, at what cost. Building these layers of understanding maximises the value of the approach.

In terms of customer understanding, journey mapping helps:

• See things from the customer’s point of view
• Deliver information, messages and services at the most appropriate time
• Deliver a seamless, streamlined experience that cuts across silos by recognising where and when it makes sense to join things up for the customer
• Get it right when it really matters e.g. when emotions are highest or need greatest
• Look at the current situation and the ‘ideal’ side-by-side, giving a chance to genuinely redraw the customer journey

In terms of building efficiency, journey mapping helps:

• Bring about change across government in a way that cuts across silos
• Target limited resource for maximum impact
• Plan the most efficient and effective experience by reducing duplication and shortening the length of processes
• Identify ‘baton-change’ points where service or communication breakdown is most likely
• Identify problems and issues without attributing blame
• Identify cheapest ‘cost to serve’
• Set performance indicators and standards so that progress can be tracked and measured over time

Some key points from the Taskforce’s report include:

• Government 2.0 or the use of the new collaborative tools and approaches of Web 2.0 offers an unprecedented opportunity to achieve more open, accountable, responsive and efficient government.
• Though it involves new technology, Government 2.0 is really about a new approach to organising and governing. It will draw people into a closer and more collaborative relationship with their government. Australia has an opportunity to resume its leadership in seizing these opportunities and capturing the resulting social and economic benefits.
• Leadership, and policy and governance changes are needed to shift public sector culture and practice to make government information more accessible and usable, make government more consultative, participatory and transparent, build a culture of online innovation within Government, and to promote collaboration across agencies.

The report included 13 recommendations which are addressed in the Government Response.

Further reading, Sources:

Information management office (govt.)

Egimo blog (ICT related blog)

The citizen service- library practice is happening in Denmark, the overview of the models and their geographical spread is given below.  Excuse any english language errors, the below text is g-translated from danish to english.

Model 1:

Citizens Tasks carried out by citizens’ public in libraries (Local Community)

Model 2:

Expert Tasks performed by specially trained in a fixed period of libraries. (Event Rating)

Model 3:

Selected tasks down into the library and performed by library people. There are differences in the breadth and range of tasks
performed by library people.

#Model 3: Selected tasks down into library and performed by library people
Examples of services in Lystrup, Mode & Harlev:
• Health insurance
• Passports
• Relocation of registered address
• Taxation
• Medical Change
• Housing
• Holiday pay
• submit bills from chiropodist

#Model 3: Selected tasks down into
library and performed by library people
Examples of services Brønderslev Bookmobile:
• Building permits
• Family allowance
• Children
• Day-care facilities
• Move Reviews
• Joining the youth club
• Driving Distance
• Medical Appointment
• Television license
• Passports
• Pension
• Maintenance
• Heating Supplement
•. And supply of batteries for hearing aids

Model 5:

Citizens Tasks performed by different categories of staff in combination with other extroverted citizen related activities eg. tourism, cultural functions, SSP, childminders and welcome to foreign immigrants.

Other models (6):
Less common academic initiatives. For example. of local IT solutions teaching Borger.dk and other digital citizen-oriented activities.