Haags WebGIS
2024
The Municipality of The Hague uses an old system displaying geographical information. In 2025 the municipality will move to state of the art ArcGIS Enterprise. For this project I had the role of a project manager with freedom to contribute to the UX research and design. As a result me and my team developed, prototyped and tested a viewer experience that will serve over 5000 public servants in working with geospatial data. The new viewer experience will be implemented over the course of 2025.
Process
From idea to design
The design process for the viewer involved several key stages. Firstly, I conducted user research to understand the needs of public servants that use GIS programs for decision making and identify pain points. For this I interviewed 25 professionals from different domains.
From design to real-world use
Based on this research, I developed user personas and created wireframes to map out the app’s functionality and structure. From there, I created a high-fidelity prototype and organized usability testing sessions to refine the design and improve the user experience. The final design is now used by various teams across the organization and supports various tasks people need in order to support decision making.
Change management
Above all I was a project manager while I did the UX part of this project. Since the viewer entails a big change it was my responsibility to manage expectations of the stakeholders. For this I collaborated with the team and external experts for early acknowledgement of possible technical challenges. This was well communicated to the management team and other stakeholders.
Result
The final outcome of the Haags WebGIS was a user-friendly and engaging experience that exceeded the the team's and user's expectations.
Users were able to easily view geo spatial information, import own projects, and use it for decision making, all within a seamless and intuitive app experience.
As a result, Haags WebGIS sets out an framework that allows for growth of collaboration and innovation with tools like 3D, and the viewer has become an important part of the geo capabilities of the municipality.
