City of
Brooklyn Center
Reimagining public safety
Summary:
The city of Brooklyn Center is located just four miles north of Minneapolis, MN. Over the past few years, it has been at the center of several high-profile cases related to police violence. Brooklyn Center has worked to pass a resolution that reimagines public safety by reducing the role of armed police officers when responding to low-violence calls including mental health crises, non-moving traffic violations and other low level offenses. City officials asked us to develop a website that would live separately from the city website to address and inform of these policy changes.
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Methodologies
Competitive Audit | User Interviews |
Card Sorting | Low Fidelity Wireframes | Information Architecture | Usability Testing |
Content Strategy | Design System | High Fidelity Wireframes | Interactive Prototyping -
Tools
FigJam | Google Sheets | Figma | Powerpoint | Zoom |
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Team
Justin Daleidan | Annie Kaune | Natalie Lindquist | Kelsey Vierow
The Problem:
If you’re reading this, you’ve likely lived through the past two and a half years with an awareness that policing and public safety approaches in America have been under scrutiny. It is widely agreed that there are problems with our systems when black Americans being three times more likely than white Americans to be killed during police encounters despite crime rates between the two groups being approximately the same. The majority of Americans support either major changes or a complete redesign of how we approach public safety. However, America seems to be gridlocked when it comes to deciding how to approach those changes and actually getting legislation passed.
Brooklyn Center, MN is a city of 30,000 located just 4 miles north of Minneapolis and is Minnesota’s most racially diverse city. It has been at the forefront of several high profile cases involving police violence within the last two years.
Timeline depicting the events that lead to the Daunte Wright and Kobe Dimock-Heisler Community Safety and Violence Prevention Resolution.
In response to these cases, Brooklyn Center passed legislation through the Daunte Wright and Kobe Dimock-Heisler Community Safety and Violence Prevention Resolution. This resolution created two new departments that would work to redistribute emergency responses that were traditionally handled by armed police officers and includes Traffic Enforcement and Community Response. It also brings on two committees, The Community Safety and Violence Prevention Committee and an Implementation Committee that both ideally work closely with the community of Brooklyn Center in order to maintain a two way street between ideas and structure. This type of systemic change in legislature is incredibly unique and poses an opportunity to be a model for other cities around the country.
The implementation committee and Mayor Mike Elliott sought out ways to convey these changes and receive community input and engagement. They asked for the help of my team to create a website that will house all information pertaining to this resolution as well as ways to engage and communicate the process among the community.
The Process
Research
Research was arguably one of the most crucial steps in understanding the problem and the space we were working in. This project called for the utmost empathy and awareness, as well as education on the policies that were currently being implemented throughout the country. Brooklyn Center is the most diverse city in Minnesota, and in order to successfully achieve the goal of the city, we needed to gain a better understanding of its residents and what currently exists in this space.
There was a lot to learn about similar reforms and the distribution of information pertaining to the processes in which they were enacted. In order to do so, my team began with secondary research by completing a competitive analysis, looking into both cities and policy websites that were initiating similar reforms. While addressing this space, we noted the following:
What other work cities are doing
The work of partnering organizations
What already exists in the space
Competitive Audit completed in Google Sheets
My team moved into primary research, where we interviewed residents and community members of Brooklyn Center to learn more about their experiences and stories. These interviews were held through phone calls as well as in person. Through these interviews, community members were asked to share what they knew of the resolution, how they found the information, and how they desired that information be presented to them. Three key themes arose from these interviews:
Data: Residents were interested in the data that is informing the resolution. Presenting relevant evidence in easy to read formats is desirable.
Transparency: It is important for Brooklyn Center residents to clearly understand the changes being made, how they will be implemented, and when any changes will officially take place. Residents desire clarity throughout the site.
Communication: Brooklyn Center residents shared a desire for open pathways of communication. Several residents mentioned wanting a variety of avenues to receive information from the city (ie. newsletters, emails, texts). Those same people also shared how they also would like their own voices to be heard as public safety continues to transform. Building pathways within the site for residents to participate in communication was paramount.
Synthesis
Users desired a wealth of knowledge be presented to them in a scannable, digestible manner. We synthesized our interview findings even further through a card sort, low fidelity wireframes and a second round of usability testing. In order to present this information in an organized, logical fashion, an informational architecture diagram was created in order to address all desires of the users.
Design
The results we uncovered from our research synthesis helped inform our design decisions from organization to content strategy. I took on the role of design lead for this project and built up a color scheme and component set that could be replicated and consistent throughout the wireframing process.
Samples from the style guide created for the site.
One of the biggest challenges faced through the design process of this project was ensuring the content was written in plain text in order to make sure the resolution was understandable. This involved reading the 4 page document and eliminating all legalese. This process also involved developing progress timelines and diagrams that could clearly communicate the new structures and departments that were being implemented into Brooklyn Center’s safety reform.
I also took on developing the landing page, which went through several iterations in order to make sure the presentation of information was most effectively represented.
Prototype
Once the other pages were built out, I put all the functionality into play through an interactive prototype which you can experience below.
Next Steps
Determine where the website will be hosted, so progress and process can easily be updated and communicated as development occurs.
Include more photos of the community members to be more representative of the people who are involved.
Focus on translation of several languages to ensure the content is readable across various cultures.
Conclusion
This was an incredibly rewarding project to work on. Working with the city of Brooklyn Center on such a unique reform during times of necessary change was inspiring. Our team constructed and executed every step of the research process and journey while facing several challenges. This included content strategy and striking a specific tone with regards to incredibly impactful yet sensitive subject matter. We had to think critically and carefully of word choice in order to address all opinions on the matter.