CITIES Platform Evolution
A ground up rework of a live urban networking platform now providing services to over 300 cities and 14,000 businesses.
MY ROLE
UI/UX Lead – establishing a culture of autonomy and trust based on the principles of honesty and vulnerability.
Super IC – high fidelity web, iOS, and Android screen design, visual assets, custom animations, and prototyping.
Full team credits at the end.
THE CHALLENGES
I was a part of the team that launched the V1 CITIES platform back in 2019, in the classic fast-to-market style.
Over time, critical problems began surfacing: product ambiguity, workflow rigidity, and scaling limitations.
The decision to follow user feedback and market indicators was unanimous. A ground‑up platform rework followed. 🤯
THE RESULTS
A sharp product portfolio with the flexibility of a web client, the power of native apps, and a perfect market fit.
A set of practical features, such as the website builder and AI post categorization, that speed up daily workflows.
A trust-based team atmosphere and amazing feedback from the team about my style of leadership.
IMPACT IN NUMBERS
61% increase in user sign-up rate compared to the equivalent time frame before the rework.
33% faster municipality partner growth velocity in the year and a half following the release.
27% upgrade rate to the complete enterprise package, breaking all projections.
The History
The initial CITIES platform was developed back in 2018 with the goal of empowering municipalities through direct citizen communication and giving their businesses and associations a way of reaching local audiences.
While working on the first version of the platform, the classic agile startup spirit and fail-fast mentality were present everywhere. This enabled a rapid market launch but had consequences that only became apparent later.
Problems Surfacing
About two years into operating the platform, certain recurring issues started popping up in usage data and user feedback. I take our users extremely seriously, so a thorough look into the issues was needed.
Input & Feedback
These were the main input channels I considered during the research:
App & Play Store Feedback
Sales Field Team Insights
Platform Usage Data
Support Emails & Calls
Internal Heuristic Evaluation
The Pain Points
After an in-depth heuristic evaluation and data analysis of core input funnels, key pain points were identified: severe feature bloat, an inflexible architecture, and an unintuitive CMS.
The Decision
There was now a massive decision ahead: do we continue with incremental improvements or start with a clean slate? For us, it was a no-brainer; we chose the CITIES way and committed to a full platform rework.
Guiding Principles
In close collaboration with the CTO, I established a set of steering principles for the development team that served as a true north in everyday work.
95% USE CASES
Diverting from the “see what sticks” philosophy of the original platform, the new platform would precisely target the most in-demand workflows.
AGILITY & VELOCITY
Agility, velocity, and the ability for teams to work in parallel were prioritized in both the rituals and the internal frameworks.
WYSIWYG
Offering direct editing, tactile feedback, and live previews at every touchpoint of the product was a must-have.
The New Platform
As the founding designer, I brought intention and perspective to every aspect of the new platform. From early pioneering concepts to the final screens, component interactions, and polished visual deliverables.
I’m incredibly proud to share the result of those efforts.
Flexible Web Client
The V1 platform restricted users to the native iOS and Android apps. In contrast, content and core services, such as waste management, can now be freely shared and accessed without a registered account, on any device.
Exponentially higher content reach.
Device specific responsiveness & interactions.
Now available on desktop, tablet and even kiosk screens.
Hands-on Editing
Unlike the old platform, the profile editing and content creation now happen directly within the end product, in line with the industry standards.
What you see is what you get.
Advanced features moved to admin console.
Admin Console
Control over organizational settings, such as billing and permissions, with specialized service tools available in focused, tailored environments.
Structured service architecture.
Flexibility of adding future functionality.
Native Apps
The old native iOS and Android apps were completely redesigned and rebuilt to better align with the updated feature set. The design debt was cleaned up by re-building the design systems and layout files from the ground up.
Familiar, system specific experiences.
Elimination of accumulated technical and design debt.
Waste Management
The V1 waste management administration was fractured, with each municipality using its own process. The update streamlined it with a unified CSV register upload, saving our support staff up to 3 months of work each year.
The product's most used feature streamlined.
A set of Midjourney generated month images for added delight.
Useful AI
The platform is intertwined with helpful AI features that focus on speeding up mundane, everyday workflows. Among them are automatic post categorization, image alt text generation, intelligent SEO, and more.
Time saving automation.
Increased accessibility and order.
Plus So, So Much More...
Oh, And Two More Things...
Integrated Website Builder
A modular website builder which converts the municipality ecosystem on the CITIES platform into an official, standalone municipal website with synced content and deep customization options.
Automation & Personalization
This concept makes use of the best of both worlds, interconnecting key content sources so you only have to make changes once, while offering full customization in terms of theming and layout.
Scalable for any amount of inhabitants and pages.
Automatic content propagation.
1-Click Business Websites
There was a massive market gap in terms of standalone web presence for small businesses with zero tech skills. Consider the gap filled.
Your page is now a website.
Modern, responsive, set up with a single click.
Massive Payoffs
The real world consequences of the re-work have been nothing short of spectacular, with rapid growth within both existing and new products.
250,000+ Registered Platform Users
With a 61% higher registration rate than before the rework.
300+ Partner Municipalities
Via a 33% faster growth rate after the release.
80+ Municipal Websites
Breaking all projections with a 27% upgrade rate.
With International Success
Expanding across Austria, Germany & Switzerland.
Now serving over 14,000 businesses & clubs.
Melk
Sparkasse
Wolfsberg
Spar
Villach
McDonald's
Fürstenfeld
Raiffeisen
Leibnitz
Making It Happen
At the start of the project, I laid out a set of principles to guide daily work. I didn’t want them to become a corporate wish list, so I kept them pragmatic and down-to-earth.
Common Sense & Pragmatism
Due to the sheer volume of work planned, I set up the department to prioritize agility and high-impact results while grounding it with a feasible amount of research and validation.
CUTTING THE RED TAPE
My approach to UX design focuses on identifying and removing all the bottlenecks that stand between me and high quality final output.
SWIFT DECISION MAKING
Borrowing from Amazon, the decision making was rooted in the 2-way-door and 70% principles, which kept things moving while allowing for iterations later on.
Growth Mindset
The team’s commitment to learning and trying new things was one of they keys to our success. As a leader I felt responsible for expanding my own competencies and taking care of my team’s growth.
UNLOCKING, NOT EXTRACTING
On my journey of learning, I deeply connected with Dr. Mike Gervais’s principles of building trust-based relationships, unlocking your colleagues’ potential, and always having their backs.
HONESTY & VULNERABILITY
The bedrock of my professional ethos is honest, constructive feedback and acknowledging my weaknesses to create space for the team to step up and forge a sense of ownership and contribution.
Bold Meeting Culture
Meetings get a bad rap in tech and yet communication is the single most important aspect of any team project. I lean heavily into modern collaborative options to transform meetings instead of shying away from them.
STRUCTURED & MODERATED
At the core of my approach to meetings is the requirement for a moderator and a clear agenda, along with defined goals and guided discussions. Offshoot topics are tabled for later.
DIPLOMATIC INNOVATION
I found that by using digital white-boarding tools our teams can conduct and simultaneously document meetings while giving everyone the time and space to express their views.
Huge Shoutouts
Huge thanks to the entire CITIES development team who put their blood sweat and tears into this project and went above and beyond to make it happen.
Ahmed (Web)
Alex (Backend)
Chris (Backend, Product)
Denijel Jarak (UI/UX)
Emina (Web)
Jakob (Web)
Julian (Web)
Lovro (Backend)
Manfred (Web)
Marvin (Backend)
Max (Backend)
Mike (Product, Web)
Mohammed (Web)
Trevor (Android)
And big props to all the departments that keep our company and product operating smoothly while bringing it in front of our customers and users.
