Our staff pick this fortnight comes from Canada and this project was picked for two reasons. First, it is in French and gives us the chance to highlight that EHQ is available in not just English, but also French (and in the future many more languages). Second, it is a great consultation and deserves to be showcased.
Client: Ville de Montréal, Québec, Canada
Template: Classic
Project: Plan local de déplacements de l’arrondissement de Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve local transport plan)
Publish Date: 25 May 2016
Topic: The city is seeking feedback on the current travel and public transport situation to develop a local transport plan.
Tools: 2x Survey, Mapper
Widgets: Registration Banner, 2x Photo widgets, FAQ, Document Library, Important Links
We love:
- Stage of engagement: The city is seeking feedback very early in the consultation process, even before the local transport plan is drafted. This is great practice and shows the commitment of the team in Montreal to listen to their community and involve them in every stage of the consultation.
- Mix of tools: Perfect combination of tools for this type of consultation. One survey is set up to analyse travel habits, while the mapping tool gives participants the chance to make specific suggestions and highlight areas of issues and possible improvements.
- Timeline: Instead of using EHQ's Lifecyle widget, the team decided to design their own timeline and upload this as an image. This is a great alternative to the Lifecycle widget and adds a bit of colour and design to the page.
- Supporting documents and information: Although the consultation is in its early stages, plenty of supporting documents and information (via FAQ and Important Links) are provided to guide the discussion and give the community some background information before they participate.
- Contact Us: We mentioned the first survey in point 2. However, there is a second 'survey' on this page, which is framed to work as a Contact Us form. This is great practice and a good alternative to just providing an email contact. The reason is that any contact enquiry the team receives via this form is kept and tracked in EHQ. Hence the reporting becomes the one place for all engagement that occurred via this project page.
For further consideration:
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Question types in survey: Some of the question types in the 'Questionnaire' are not used as intended. For example, a couple of questions ask for one specific response, yet the question type is 'Checkbox', which allows multiple choices. However, an already published survey should not be changed, so it is better to leave as it is and take a note for when it comes to analysis.
- Photo Captions: When uploading photos into the photo widget, EHQ automatically takes the file name and creates the photo caption. Sometimes, like it is the case here, the file name does not accurately reflect what is seen in the image and hence the caption should be edited manually afterwards.
OVERALL: Our first ever pick from a French EHQ. A great consultation and the Ville de Montréal does well in engaging with the community early with two simple tools and heaps of supporting information. If the next stages of the consultation are as good, the team will end up with plenty of good feedback and hopefully a satisfied community. We don't want to miss that and will keep an eye on it!
NOTE: The article above is based on a visit to the site on 03 June 2016. Changes made to the project after that date may have altered the appearance of the project.