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Challenges
Interoperability with legacy systems – the current back-office case management software cannot accept the granular, structured data submissions, as they were designed for documents, not data, and suppliers have little incentive to adapt their systems.
Legal compliance – planning information must meet all compliance requirements for planning submissions, regardless of its format, and this will be tested during the alpha phase.
Usability / navigability – it is very likely that conventional web-page forms or even dynamic form interfaces may become overwhelming or disorientating for users. Mitigation of this will be one of the main design challenges of the alpha.
Approach
Early sessions included stakeholder mapping workshops. This helped understand the different types of stakeholders and the priorities for engagement also showed that there was more to learn than we realised – and that some of our assumptions may not necessarily have been accurate.
Even though they were the experts working in a planning environment – they didn’t necessarily know what users really needed or wanted. This led them to realise they needed to engage a professional user researcher to give added insight.
Design principles used for digital planning services:
Accessible and transparent
- Make it easy to navigate and easy to understand, for everyone.
- Make it clear as early on as possible in the design and application process.
Don’t require users to be experts
- Don’t ask applicants for information that they have already provided or is already known. In fact, allow users to learn from the service.
Auditable
- Always allow users to see the reasons behind a decision, linked to a legal source. Leave an audit trail.
Relevant
- Only show / ask users information that is relevant to what they are doing, so everyone can focus on what matters.
Put planners in control
- Planning services (rules, information requirements, data etc) should be controlled by the planning authorities who own them, not suppliers or AI.
Outcomes and benefits
Apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness
Built a service that allows users to apply for a certificate confirming that existing or proposed changes are lawful without planning permission.
Find out if you need planning permission
We have also developed and improved a ‘Find out if you need planning permission’ service that allows users to self-serve and find out if they need planning permission within a few minutes, instead of over hours and days.
Shared services across multiple planning authorities
The same common services are shared across the partner councils, with ability to customise non-shared elements.
View original case study article at localdigital.gov.uk [PDF]