MySB

MySB helps Santa Barbara Residents be more in touch and involved with their government! Report issues/requests, learn about upcoming events, and find local news with just a click of a button.

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The disconnection that most youth feel from local government is often rooted in confusion about finding the right resources and the task of learning an overwhelming amount of new information. In our research gathered through Google Forms, we saw that many people have not attended city meetings or reported any issues because they didn't know how or where to find that information.

Thus, a gap that we see within youth involvement in the government is young people simply not knowing or having access to information that allows them to directly be in contact or face-to-face with such leaders. Often, information about county-wide hearings or meetings is hard to find, and agendas are hidden within pages of county websites, making them hard to access. Based on a study about "Promoting Youth Participation in Decision-Making and Public Service Delivery through Harnessing Digital Technologies" by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, young people prefer “easily accessible, friendly and innovative content” when sourcing their information.

As a result of this, we designed our app in a way that was friendlier and more intuitive to find those resources and present them in a more digestible way. We listed the primary issues of accessing local government on the homepage to help the user navigate the information. Creating a simpler way to record issues that the user sees also helps encourage them to do so more often, and adding the city meetings as one function with any information they need helps them to get more involved as well. We also added a profile page where the user can save any event they would like to attend to make it easier to keep track of. Overall, we focused on making our app more intuitive, getting rid of any extra fluff county websites may have to make information more clear and direct.

In lieu of just staying aware of updates and any new information, it is also important that young people know how to contribute as well, so we included information about submitting public comments as well as about contacting the county directly. This app strives to keep youth connected and includes access to local news.

With making the app, both being beginners, the main part we struggled with was creating the prototype with the scrolling features on the report and meeting pages. However, we were able to eventually figure this out after a lot of trial and error. Working on this app really helped us expand our skills as designers.

Built With

  • figma
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