Nottinghamshire County Council - MyNotts App - Digital Agency Manchester & London UK

Future-proofing Nottinghamshire’s digital services

4,500

Installations in the first 5 months

80%

of respondents reported a positive experience via in-app survey

750

hrs of user engagement in the first 5 months

Categories

Councils, Apps

View Project

Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Nottinghamshire. The council provides a plethora of services to its constituents including education, social care, transport, and waste management.

The council provide a wide range of digital services on their existing website but was eager to ensure its digital estate remained future-proof. Two-thirds of constituents said they would be likely to download an app to access council services, so the council decided that a mobile app solution would enable them to better engage with constituents and be the most convenient platform to utilise.

They wanted to provide an experience beyond what is possible within a mobile web browser – a one-stop-shop for constituents that would deliver a better user experience (UX) and increase engagement all-round.

An additional goal for the council is to support the legislative goals of elected officials. In particular, there was an appetite to improve the process for reporting highway issues. The council approached Cantarus to build a digital solution that met these requirements. We built the MyNotts app on the MemConnect platform to provide extraordinary results for the council and their constituents alike.

THE CHALLENGE.

EXCEEDING ENGAGEMENT.

Given the wide range of services that the council provides, it was unrealistic to aim for feature parity with the existing website for an initial release. We used an MVP approach to focus on the highest value features, while laying the foundations that the council could iterate on in the future, with the overall goal of moving toward parity over time.

In order to determine which features were the most valuable we examined 3 main criteria:

Which features were most used on the website?
Which areas generated the most support calls?
Finally, we utilised the experience of the project team at the council and what they felt were the most valuable features.

The MyNotts app was built to complement the existing website, but with a more unified UX. The app allows users to engage more purposely within the community – staying on top of the latest news and events with the What’s On feature or utilising the in-built MemConnect surveys functionality to give constituents a voice on local issues.

Report It!

Allowing the public to report highways maintenance issues was a top priority because it’s a heavily used area of the website, generating a large number of support calls but providing a sub-optimal experience on mobile devices. The ‘Report It!’ section of the app is focused on convenience, allowing users to report issues easily. This is supported by utilising device features such as GPS and the device camera – providing a smoother experience than would be possible via the web.

Nottinghamshire residents can make the most of council services wherever and whenever, effortlessly available in the palm of their hands.

COVID-19 Hub

Launching in early 2020, the app also provided a key channel of communication during the coronavirus pandemic. The council acted swiftly to establish a COVID-19 hub within the app to provide the latest advice & guidance. The hub also allowed residents to sign up as volunteers to support vulnerable residents or request a range of support including everything from food deliveries to social and physical wellbeing support.

THE RESULTS.

The council is delighted with the results from the app so far, as are its residents who are actively using it. “For someone who can never remember when school holidays are, this is brilliant!” – Apple App Store