The Background
Delivering a range of services to one of the largest and most diverse communities in Victoria, Darebin City Council has made a commitment to better engagement through online services and digital footprint. The suite of digital tools has been prioritised as the platform to create highly engaging and visible experiences for a truly connected community.
The Challenge
Citizens need to feel like they belong in Darebin and be confident to engage with the Council. The expectations of connected experiences have changed the way councils need to operate – the challenge is how to blend organisational structure with the needs of the community to deliver services seamlessly to citizens where they are looking. Darebin City Council wanted to centralise the delivery platform of their brand websites while promoting relevant services that were not obviously available.
The Solution
Darebin and NOW Digital stepped into the shoes of the community to understand their wants and translate them into needs. As a blended team, we defined what it means to deal with your local council and removed the barriers stopping citizens from discovering exactly how big a part their local council plays in their daily lives.
Prototyping smarter digital experiences, tailored to the needs of the community.
The goal is to bring the needs of a diverse set of stakeholders to create a shared vision on how to deliver council services to the community. The discovery phase produced interactive prototyping of the experience Darebin is delivering to the community – a tangible, engaging, and clear feasibility of the solution.
Centralised digital experience platform to manage council services
Harnessing the power of the digital experience can only truly be realised in a connected state. We needed a deeper understanding of the requirements of each Council brand and ensure adequate representation in the solution. While striving for a centralised management solution and reusable components, we also wanted to ensure that each Council brand had an identity and voice of its own.
Tracking progress and increasing citizen engagement
Empowering Darebin to own the engagement from initial interaction through to advocacy means that the problems that are solved are the problems that are important to the community. With progress comes confidence and the willingness to ‘get involved’ and builds the continuous improvement culture that underpins the strategic direction of Darebin Council.
