Boston forms and digital applications

Project overview

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the 92 departments in the City of Boston moved their public-facing services online. Each department made their own decisions on how to make services digitally available to constituents. This led to inconsistency about what platforms were used for what purpose. In 2024, SDC partnered with the Boston Digital Service to assess over 150 public-facing digital forms and applications across more than 20 platforms. Together, we developed a strategy to streamline city operations while maintaining human-centered, online public services.

Our approach

We leveraged existing research done by the city of Boston along with our own supplemental research to assess the current digital landscape. We then created an analysis that outlined how many forms were currently available to the public, what platforms those forms were hosted on, what kind of information they ingested, and what type of service or benefit they provided. We conducted more than 20 individual research sessions and several design workshops with a variety of Boston city departments and four other cities about their approach to forms and digital applications.

Outcomes

The City of Boston used our recommendations to consolidate the number of platforms and licenses the city relies on and prioritize which applications to work on first. Based on our recommendations, the Boston Digital Service hired two new roles, a Design Director and a Service Designer, to continue the strategy we co-created. Together with the cities San Francisco, Austin, and Philadelphia, Boston presented their approach for better digital service delivery at FormFest 2024.

Deliverables

• Research plan
• Digital applications assessment matrix
• Current systems map
• Future Roadmap
• Final Report with recommendations
• Hiring support