Civic technology
FixMyStreet
Leading the design and implementation of the nation’s favourite problem reporting website, FixMyStreet
Role: Design Lead Date: 2013-2021 Visit: FixMyStreet
The problem
Reporting a problem to your local council is often unnecessarily difficult. FixMyStreet set out to simplify the process, making it accessible, understandable, and equitable for all users.
What I did
As the Design Lead, I was responsible for:
Implementing the brand identity and visual design across all websites and digital interfaces.
Designing and conducting user research and usability testing with FixMyStreet users.
Improving user interfaces based on real-time support requests, analytics, and research findings.
Developing flexible and extensible HTML and CSS frameworks to support a scalable design hierarchy, enabling sub-branding and customization for Local Authority implementations.
Collaborating with the technical team to support the development of new features and functionality.
Ensuring high front-end performance to deliver a modern user experience, even on legacy devices.
A Free Product So Good They Paid for It
FixMyStreet quickly became the preferred method for citizens to report issues—outperforming many councils’ own websites. Its popularity and public demand led to the creation of a commercial version, known as FixMyStreet Pro, that allowed councils to integrate FixMyStreet into their existing systems.
FixMyStreet Pro provided an enhanced user experience with features like real-time problem updates, asset mapping (e.g., selecting a specific streetlight directly from a map), and report de-duplication. It demonstrated how a well-designed digital service could meet both citizen needs and council requirements.
Mobile first
We took the decision to stop pursuing native mobile apps in favour of a fully mobile website, delivered with Progressive Web Apps (PWA). This removed the need for expensive maintenance, keeping three or more apps up to date and in feature sync, as well as ensuring our commitment to support older devices, and devices outside of the typical Apple or Android ecosystem.
As part of this, FixMyStreet is mobile-first, with all features and functionality accessible on the smallest screen versions, taking full advantage of native hardware and API functionality available, such as multi-touch gestures, camera integration and location services.
Making room for sub-brands
As part of the commercial service, Local Authorities could customise the look and feel of the site to match their brand, as well as integrate with their systems to provide a log-in service or extra information when making a report. To support this I implemented the FixMyStreet look and feel to be flexible and extensible, from simple customisations, such as colours and a logo, to much more ambitious changes.
The interface was able to support this while maintaining strict performance and accessibility standards, and enabling new functionality to be added with little or no impact to the Council.
Key moments
FixMyStreet Shropshire
I’d worked with many Councils to implement FixMyStreet, including some big London Boroughs with some of the highest demands of their residents, but when my own Council approached us to become a client I was beyond thrilled. I ran the project to implement the service, as well as a discovery project to work with residents and council employees to ensure their needs would be met, and implementation would be smooth and painless.
Keeping anonymity
We were under constant pressure from councils to collect more and more information from residents, something we resisted . Collecting the least amount of information necessary was a key part of the goal of making reporting accessible and equitable. Anonymous reporting was something we never backed down on, and remains a key part of the site to date, thanks to the evidence we’d gathered through user research and analysis.
The results
My time working on FixMyStreet was massively rewarding, and I’m proud of my contribution to the project, which is ongoing today, continuing to serve the public and onboarding multiple councils on to the commercial service. It continues to operate as an independent reporting route, built on user-centred design principles and driven by evidence. FixMyStreet has proven to be far better than most council built, or third party supplier offerings, costing less money to run, requiring fewer manual interventions and being preferred by the users worldwide.