screenshot of alpha.austin.gov homepage

alpha.austin.gov @ ATX Hack for Change 2018

Project Description

alpha.austin.gov is the new online interface for City of Austin services. It will replace the existing austintexas.gov.

Presentation Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-VQU23W3TbVlIo3S9gKyoNP1lUxAUC8lrnfQbP5vzQk/edit#slide=id.p

Project Links

Please come say hello if any of these things excite you!

design (interaction, css, html)
frontend (reactjs, a/b testing)
backend (python, nodejs, database, email)
bringing equity to digital services
helping all Austinites

Hackathon Tasks

At ATX Hack for Change, we worked on two subteams

Crowdsourced Content Editing

We've got a sweet new site for residents to use. We also want to empower Austinites to suggest changes directly.

Some example uses might include:

Pointing out incorrect content
Suggesting a better translation or adding untranslated content
Adding or removing content to make it more clear

There are some interesting challenges: What's a good workflow to allow residents to make suggestions on austin.gov? How can we show those changes to reviewers at the City of Austin? Can we make it easy to accept and publish those changes?

Open-source ReCollect Widget

ReCollect is a 3rd-party widget that allows residents to look up the day their trash or recycling will be picked up. You can see an example of it being used on the Trash & Recycling Lookup page.

The downside to using a 3rd-party app is that it doesn't provide all the functionality we'd like. An example of this is that the language can't be set programmatically (e.g. we'd like to show the widget in Spanish if the rest of the page is being shown in Spanish). Another issue is that the widget isn't translated into all the languages we need (it only has Spanish, but we also need Vietnamese and Arabic).

Thankfully, we can use the City of Austin's open data portal to recreate the same experience, but in the open so anyone can use or improve it!

After the Hackathon

Want more information or to keep working with us after the hackathon? Check out the list of all issues the city is tackling to create an amazing online experience.

Say hi anytime

Our office is located at the Faulk Building (the former central library). Please feel free to drop by anytime! We love talking to anyone, especially those interested in making better online experiences for Austinites!

If digital communication is more your jam