Fortnightly EHQ Staff Pick: City of Sydney

This fortnight's staff pick is terrific! The City of Sydney has succeeded in breaking a broader masterplan consultation into smaller, specific and digestible components. In this instance, the City of Sydney is running a skate park design consultation through both online and offline engagement methods, which has captured a broad demographic, including youth, that are typically absent from larger consultations. 

Site: City of Sydney

Project: The Crescent Skate Space

Publish Date: 11 June 2015

Topic: Skate park consultation

Tools: Surveys & Forms

Widgets: Video, Photo Library, Key Dates, Document Library, Whos Listening, Life Cycle, Twitter Feed

What we like:

1. Frame the topic: A reminder this is a single component of a broader masterplan. Developing content for both your audience and the (online) medium is a true skill. The visuals, language and tools have been expertly paired for this consultation. The initial stage of the consultation was a design workshop, which was also captured using video and photos.
   
   
2. Choice of tools: Following the design workshop, the City of Sydney is still gathering feedback for the design of the skate park using the survey and forms tools. They have hit the nail on the head with making the survey visually engaging, and the language is also on point. 
   
   
3. Printable survey: The survey is provided as a PDF in the document library, which allows participants to obtain a hard copy version.
     
   
4. Results: We've seen a very high engagement rate for this project. It shows that a well-designed and properly laid out consultation does not require a separate call-to-action. In this case, the call-to-action is intuitive for participants and no separate hyperlinked buttons outlining further steps are required.  

For further consideration:

1. Twitter: Social media streams can add a level of dynamic content to online consultations. These feeds can either add context to the consultation or be a distraction (from the consultation). In this instance, the @SydneyYouSay Twitter stream does a great job of cross-promoting City of Sydney events and happenings but doesn't contain much skate park-related content.

2. Additional tool: Incorporating an ongoing Q&A tool with this project would be a great addition, which can include further information and start a dynamic conversation with the park's designers. 

OVERALL: This stellar project gets two thumbs up from us. Often clients want examples of a site that successfully engages with younger participants. The City of Sydney has done a great job in this regard, in addition to engaging middle-aged participants that contribute to and support the project. In a broader sense, the City of Sydney continues to successfully engage with a broad demographic interested in the design and building journey of the skate park project, and likely, will also be engaged with new online consultations in the future.

NOTE: The above is based on a visit to the site on 3 August 2015. Changes made to the project after that date may have altered the appearance of the project.