Technical Information Revitalization
Redesigning permit application documents for the City of Calgary
Research
Field Work
Usability
Layout Design
Technical Document Design
Technical Writing
Templating
I was brought on by the City of Calgary Planning and Development team to help overhaul the existing permit application checklist and associated documentation.
Background
The Planning and Development team at the City of Calgary handles all permit applications which require development, building and safety approvals.
Imagine you are applying to build a fence in your new backyard. You may know that you need a permit but may not know what documentation and information is required to complete the permit application process— this is where the checklist comes in.
Because the checklist is used both internally, by professionals, and by first-time applicants, it must wear many hats and be presented in a user-friendly way.
How precedent research, field work and interviews inform design decisions
To be literal, a CARL is a "Complete Application Requirement List", but that meant as little to me as it probably does to you. One of the key steps to this project was to begin with a holistic understanding of the document, how it is used, who is it used by, and why is it useful at all?
To begin I reviewed existing City of Calgary CARLS and application webpages, and collected design precedent from similar documentation from various municipalities across the world. This was then compiled into a recommendations report with actionable changes.
Designing from a user-centric approach I sat in on customer service phone calls and chat requests. These calls were from users seeking clarification about the application process which often resulted from a confusion with the CARL checklist. These frustrations and pain points were noted to make changes to streamline the content.
Shadowing other departments displayed both internal and external usage
Internal:
Results In less incomplete applications
Improved wayfinding
Improved user-experience
External:
Update tracking and management
Streamlined updating process
Templates were created with editability in mind to simplify future updates
The new template is more scannable and clear
The transition from the oldest document template to the current document template.
I developed a matrix containing all checklist requirements plotted against all current checklists-- this was an opportunity to cross reference and compare what documents needed what items. This ended up being quite the laborious process and didn't turn out to be the most useful tool due to its sheer size.
My hope is that this checklist can be used to reduce application requirements, reduce overall number of permit checklists and be a reference if a line item needs to be updated which CARL's are affected.
