21 de January de 2025

Viladecans Town Council and Science For Change are promoting a participatory process to improve the municipality’s digital tools.

The Viladecans Testers join a testing and co-design project led by the City Council and coordinated by Science For Change, contributing with proposals to optimise the Viladecans&Tu app, the municipal website and the electronic office, reinforcing its accessibility and usability.

Over the last few months, Viladecans Town Council has taken a decisive step in improving its digital tools through a testing and co-design service provided by Science For Change. This process, which involved volunteer testers, made it possible to analyse and improve three key tools: the Viladecans&Tu app, the municipal website and the electronic office.

The co-design sessions allow citizens to collaboratively explore the possibilities offered by the City Council's services in order to align them with the needs of the participants. For this reason, it is essential that the heterogeneity of the population is represented, in order to draw conclusions that fit all profiles.

Òscar Larraga

Project Manager of the project and specialist in social and cultural anthropology of SFC

The sessions, developed within the framework of a commitment to citizen participation, brought together Viladecans residents of different ages, educational levels and digital skills. These activities were organised with the aim of gathering proposals and optimising the design, content and functionality of the municipal digital tools.

In the session on the Viladecans&Tu app, the testers highlighted its usability and usefulness for communicating incidents through the ‘Viladecans Soluciona’ functionality. Among the most relevant proposals was the need to provide updates on cultural and recreational activities, as well as an exhaustive and customisable monitoring of the mobility options offered by the municipality.

For its part, the revision of the City Council’s website focused on improving navigation, reducing the excess of information and reorganising the structure of the homepage. Citizens proposed incorporating a visual search engine and simplifying the less relevant sections, prioritising a more intuitive and functional design.

With regard to the electronic office, the participants stressed the need for clearer and more accessible navigation, suggesting the creation of a virtual support to guide users through the most complex procedures. In addition, a reorganisation of the main accesses was proposed to facilitate the search for relevant information.

These sessions demonstrate that collaboration between citizens and administration is essential to build digital services that respond to the real needs of the community.

Anna Font

Communication Specialist at SFC

Thanks to this participatory process, the City Council now has a set of concrete proposals to optimise its digital tools. These improvements aim not only to simplify the user experience, but also to strengthen transparency and the connection between citizens and the local administration. In the coming months, Viladecans Town Council will implement the first improvements to these platforms.