CITIES Platform Evolution
A ground up re-work 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 through honesty, and direct, actionable feedback.
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 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 release.
27% upgrade rate to the complete enterprise package, breaking all projections.
The History
We developed the initial CITIES platform back in 2018 through the lens of empowering municipalities with direct citizen communication and giving their businesses and associations a way of reaching local audiences.
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The old CITIES platform
While working on the first version of the platform we had the classic agile startup spirit in our hearts, launching to market fast while learning and improving our products as we went.
Problems Surfacing
About 2 years into operating the platform certain recurring issues started popping up in usage numbers and user feedback. We take our users extremely seriously, so we took a deep, thorough look.
Input & Feedback
These are the main channels of input we considered during our research:
App & Play Store Feedback
Sales Field Team Insights
Platform Usage Data
Support Emails & Calls
Internal Heuristic Evaluation
The Pain Points
After a thorough heuristic evaluation and some product brainstorming sessions, key pain points were outlined: a severe feature bloat, a non-flexible architecture and an unintuitive CMS for adding content.
FEATURE BLOAT
RIGID STRUCTURE
UNINTUITIVE CMS
The Decision
We now had a massive choice to make - do we continue with incremental improvements or start from scratch. For us it was a no-brainer, we chose the CITIES way and committed to a full platform re-work.
Guiding Principles
Some core tenets were established that would serve as a true north follow in every day work and decision making.
95% USE CASES
Diverting from the “see what sticks” philosophy of our 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 was prioritized in both our tech stack as well as the rituals and workflows.
WYSIWYG
Intentionally directing the user’s focus while offering direct editing and live previews at every touch point of the product was a core philosophy.
The New Platform
Flexible Web Client
The V1 platform restricted users to the native iOS and Android apps. In contrast, content and core features, such as waste management, can now be freely shared and accessed on any device, without an account.
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Desktop web client
Exponentially higher content reach.
Device specific responsiveness & interactions.
Now available on tablets and even kiosk screens.
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Responsive web clients
Hands-on Editing
Unlike the old platform, the profile editing and content creation now happen directly within the end product, creating a stronger connection.
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Editing options
What you see is what you get.
Organizational features moved to admin console.
Admin Console
Control over organizational settings, such as billing and permissions, with advanced service tools available in focused, tailored environments.
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Console web client.
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. Core experiences, such as onboarding, feeds, and city services, were thoroughly refined.
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iOS & Android Apps
Familiar, system specific experiences.
Elimination of accumulated technical and design debt.
Waste Management
A unified waste management setup across all partner cities powered by CSV spreadsheet upload. Full after-the-fact control of calendars, waste types, collection dates and exceptions on the service dashboard.
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Waste management setup
Most used feature upgraded.
Gradual roll-out allowed by new backend.
Useful AI
The platform is peppered with helpful AI features that focus not on buzzwords, but on optimizing the user experience. Among them are automatic post categorization, image alt text, intelligent SEO, and more.
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AI supercharged workflows
Time saving automation.
Increasing accessibility and structure.
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 city website with deep customization options.
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Platform to website link
Automation & Personalization
This concept makes use of the best of both worlds, interconnecting key content sources so you only have to make changes one, while offering full customization in terms of theming, layout and content.
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Municipality website preview
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.
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1-Click website generation
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 old and new products.
250,000+ Registered Platform Users
With a 61% higher registration rate than before the re-work.
300+ Partner Municipalities
With a 33% faster growth rate following the release.
80+ Municipal Websites
Breaking all projections with a 27% upgrade rate.
With international success
Expanding across Austria, Germany & Switzerland.
Sparkasse
Wolfsberg
Spar
Villach
McDonald's
Fürstenfeld
Raiffeisen
Now serving over 14,000 businesses & clubs.
Making It Happen
At the start of the project, I laid out a set of pragmatic principles to guide daily work and decision-making.
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 hones in on removing all the pain points and bottlenecks that stand between me and high quality design 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 leadership 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, creating space for the team to step in 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 major kudos to all the departments that keep our company and product operating smoothly while bringing it in front of our customers and users.
