final cut group-5-chicago-worksforyou-report

CUTGroup 5 – ChicagoWorksforYou.com

Remote Test on November 25, 2013

Overview:

For our Civic User Testing session, we tested ChicagoWorksforYou.com. This was our first remote

CUTGroup test.

ChicagoWorksforYou.com provides citywide information about city service requests.

Target Group:

All members of CUTGroup as of 11/23/2013 – 565 total

No additional segmentation – we see this as a broadly useful tool that we want everyone to

use. Serves also as a marketing and public relations tool—we want all of these people

(since they are Chicagoans) to use this Web site

We also have a large amount of gift cards that were about to expire and wanted to reach a

large group of people

Test Type:

Remote test for 90 participants

Once users respond saying that they could do a remote test on November 25, we randomly

select 90 participants to send this e-mail with the test (via Wufoo form) and instructions.

We ask participants to visit the Web site for 20 uninterrupted minutes on one day

(November 25, 2013) and answer questions about the Web site

We created a Wufoo form which asked “yes” or “no” questions to gather quantitative

results. We also want to ask open-ended questions to see what users were interested in

when visiting the site. Finally, we will ask users to click on specific links of the Web site, and

discuss their experience

We want to conduct a screen share 5 people through Google Hangouts to monitor their

actions.

Due to technical problems, we were unable to do the screen share. In the future, we would

like to provide more technical instructions on how to screen share and give extra time

Questions:

Will regular Chicago residents find this Web site interesting?

How do users use the site? What do they have difficulties with?

Are users interested in the Web site’s content?

Do users want to share information from Web site through social media/e-mail?

http://chicagoworksforyou.com/#/

http://cutgroup.smartchicagoapps.org/



http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=085247dea37361c266002462c&id=5dab8e1f85&e=%5bUNIQID%5d



Results:

84 users tested the Web site and gave us feedback, below are some key highlights for each

question.

What browser are you using?

52% (44) of testers use Chrome

21% (18) of testers use Firefox

15% (13) of testers use Safari

11% (9) of testers use Internet Explorer

Have you ever made a service request through 311?

62% (52) - Yes

38% (32) - No

Care to explain [re: 311]?

Here are some responses:

“Phone Call: I called to report a pot hole that was not marked by the city and wanted to

make sure they knew it was there. About three months had gone by and it was getting

harder to navigate on my bike.” Tester #82, Uptown 365 Cycler

“I could not find my car and had to call to find out if it had been towed. (phone call). Have

called to report a traffic signal being out. Both were helpful, they told me where my car had

been towed. Not sure how quickly the light issue was resolved.” –Tester #18, Lifetime

student

“I have only tried it a few times to get in touch with a government office. Most times it was a

failure.” –Tester #15, WRPtester

“Not aware of the website before.” –Tester #20, IT lover

Do you attend any of these types of meetings?

67% (56) - Other

19% (16) - Aldermanic Ward Nights

15% (13) - Block Club

13% (11) - Local School Council

13% (11) - Neighborhood Watch

1% (1) - Safe Passage

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does?

Note: When we corresponded with our CUTGroup participants about the test, we did mention that

this was a city service delivery Web site that provides “citywide information about city services

requests.” This has impacted our responses.

Here are some reviews:

“From what I can tell so far, it gives a snapshot of what the city is doing to solve basic

residential problems. I am interested in it just because it's the first time I'm looking at it but

I don't think it's something I'd check once a week or on a regular basis. It would be a good


http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=085247dea37361c266002462c&id=3937c108a4&e=%5bUNIQID%5d



resource for people who are choosing what parts of the city to move to perhaps.” –Tester

#1, Srtap

“1) I think the site is a way to track 311 requests and city service requests in a "gee whiz"

way -- also a very slow and difficult way to view that data across the city. 2) I'm somewhat

interested in viewing 311 requests and improving response but this website has a very low

density of information and is not clearly focused on showing service request statuses. How

does this website do a better job of communicating information than a table with the same

information? You can't view by week or month. Don't you think tracking tree debris

complaints on a daily basis across a 300 square mile map is missing the forest for the tree

debris? 3) It also does not appear to have any way to submit a 311 request -- which is the

#1 priority of people who would give a damn about this kind of info. This looks like a way for

the Chicago pols to say, "look at me!", not a way to improve performance or make

submitting requests (and following up) easier.” –Tester #59, 46th Ward Pigeon

“It looks like it's a site to report "quality of life" type complaints around the city. With graphs

that i think show how many of those complains have been resolved? The graphs to be

honest on a few pages were a bit confusing to immediately know what I was looking at.” –

Tester #60, Just a normal guy

“This page reports on different services that the city responded to over a period of time by

neighborhood. It is something I'm interested in because it could show why I would want to

live in one neighborhood over another” –Tester #62, PlaysWithSquirrels

“Community alert website that notifies users of type and amount of crime/activity in your

neighborhood.” -Tester #67, I love red wine

“It initially seems to be a way for Ward leaders to compete against each other for the best

service rankings.” -Tester #24, Fairweather 311 Caller

Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

29% (24) – Service Type Listed Today

27% (23) – Area of the map

23% (19) – “Services”

8% (7) – “About”

7% (6) – “Wards”

4% (3) – Other

1% (1) – “Photos”

1% (1) – Chose the date

0% (0) – “Annotations”

Tell us more about the first thing you did.

A tester who selected a service type:

“It's cool that this information is available, but since it is broken down by ward, then I

immediately become interested in my own ward first, and the Chicago aggregate second.

Just by clicking through the requests, I didn't see the opportunity to filter down to my ward.

Also, the per day request seems strange. I'd like to get more of a trend of requests, not

necessarily things that happen today.” Tester #13, eggysmithers




A tester who selected an area on the map:

“I went right to my ward to see how my Alderman is doing and what my neighbors are

requesting from her.” –Tester #15, WRPtester

A tester who selected “Services”:

“I clicked on services and decided to explore each option. I reviewed all the data on alley

lights out, potholes, etc. It's really interesting to see how many requests are submitted on a

daily basis -- nice to see our Chicagoans looking out for our city! One thing I expect is being

able to submit an issue online -- I'm currently unsure if it's on another part of the site or if

this site is just a data-collection point.” –Tester #6, Part-Time Chicagoan Thanks to Work

Did this meet your expectations [re: first thing you did]?

76% (64) – “Yes”

20% (17) – “No”

4% (3) – No Response

Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience.

33% (28) of testers mentioned the Alderman’s links to their contact information, social

media, or Councilmatic. 17 of these 28 testers had a positive response to the Alderman’s

information, while 11 of these 28 testers thought more information needed to be added to

website or more prominent on the page.

46% (39) of testers mentioned their experience in finding their ward. 28 of these 39 testers

knew their ward of found the experience easy, while 11 of these 39 testers found it difficult

to find their ward.

Here are some responses to this question:

“I am in Ward 1. I couldn't find out which ward I was in on the website, but found it on the

city website. I then went to Ward 1 on this website to see what info was there. I'm not sure

I understand the Days with the most requests page. There are dates on some of the bars,

but not all of them, and some of the dates are old. I guess when I look again, it sort of

makes sense, but I don't understand the point of it...” –Tester #2, City dude

“I was able to find my ward easily. Was surprised to see all the social media links easily for

my alderman. The charts make sense, I understood how many were made and that the

check mark indicated how many were closed. I would like to be able to click the chart

information to find out more about the locations of the requests.” Tester #31, Rogers

Parker

“Again, I can't understand why data from 2008 and 2009 are relevant. These data are no

indication that the has become more responsive.” Tester #42, it’s 20 minutes

“Horrible. Just a map wish there were more pics to show us the severity of our ward” –

Tester #61, funny

“It's not a straight up no. It somewhat met my expectations. The site seems pretty polished

looks-wise. I'm just having trouble processing the information that is given to me through

this site. I also do like the color coordination. I assume that the darker the color the more

complaints in that area for that particular issue. Although it does seem strange to me that




there are only really 0-4 "requests". I'm also not quite sure how "request" is defined, or what

exactly a "request" is in this context. Also another question I have is who is submitting these

so called requests? I was able to find my ward, and I couldn't find the contact information,

but the charts make somewhat sense.” –Tester #46, 3rd Year Student

Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter,

Facebook, or Email?

48% (43) – “Yes”

51% (40) – “No”


Why or why not? [re: “Share this”]

Here are responses from people who said “No”:

“The autotweets are not specific, funny or cool enough. I guess I could editorialize.” –Tester

#4, Looking for justice

“I don't think the data is meaningful, it takes time to figure out and the average person

won't spend too much time deciphering.” –Tester #12, Website Tester

“I don't know many people on social media who live in my ward.” –Tester #22, Pasta Maker

“Don't use social media” –Tester #53, vthky6

Here are responses from people who said “Yes”:

“I think it would be useful for people living in the same ward.” –Tester #49, Nube Tester

“I have a decent number of friends who live in my hood who would find it interesting.” –

Tester #48, Feeling like an uninvolved Chicagoan.

“It's important that most of the idiots I'm connected to on facebook understand where they

live. Plus, it makes me look good by knowing where to find this info.” –Tester #62,

PlayswithSquirrels

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience.

Here are some responses:

“I picked graffiti removal. The picture is neat, and I actually read the blurb, which surprised

me (it look liked something I'd skip). It's the first place I've seen duplicates mentioned, and

it says there not in the system. This seems particularly thorny with graffiti — what if

somebody reports graffiti and before it's serviced, someone has added to it? Is that a dupe?

I could see how that would matter to a building owner, etc (many people participating

versus isolated incident). The Ward data is same as above. I don't know the wards. I can't

tell if the calendar is coded to show volume intensity or if it's just coded in descending order

for read-ability. I think it's the former, but after the color was used for different purposes on

the ward map, I dunno. It'd be clearer if it didn't go in exactly descending. I don't get the

checks. Ward 6 had one graffiti request this week and closed 102? Where did the 101

come from? Feels like someone batched processed — reading the description, I can't

imagine you could do 20 of these removals a day.” Tester #14, Long-distance Commuter




“Honestly, I clicked around the site and didn't find anything too useful for my needs. Or

maybe it's because I currently do not have a problem with potholes or lights. I would find it

really useful if the site had some information about landlord complaints in my ward. This

would definitely help me find a nice apartment. I did click on Rodent Bating Complaint and

I saw how many cases were opened. i will definitely contact 311. Maybe you should make

the box at the bottom of the brief information another color. I just realized that is where I

can access information and view city data.” Tester #19, Test Taker, Test 1

“So, now I realize this is not a tool to submit service requests, which dramatically lowers it's

usefulness. This reminds me of the "health options" site I tested which was essentially a

data aggregator with no value add per se. Unless you're an academician or statistician,

knowing this information is basically irrelevant. I clicked on graffiti and did see a way to link

to the city to report graffiti so that's good, but, unless the city itself used this site as a point

of entry to their services I see no use for it, again, unless I'm a researcher, reporter or some

other information gatherer....as a resident I don't really care about the minutiae of the data,

I just want it requests done as quickly as possible and I want to be able to communicate my

requests quickly and easily. I would say that if the citi of chicago used this as their entry

point, then a global snapshot of stats doesn't hurt, but, the primary feature I note is city

definitions of each service and links to deal with them.” –Tester #43, NWsider MACKro and

MIKEro

“I liked the graphic and I LOVED the text that describes and explains the purpose and goal

of that request category. I really like the additional links for other requests so it's

immediately useful. I really like the photo option as well. The charts are easy to

understand and compare. I would like a monthly and/or annual option as well.” –Tester

#81, Avowed rooster-hater

Do you like the service type page?

79% (66) - “Yes”

18% (15) - “No”


Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience.

“This was cooler than I thought it would be. This could also be interesting for reporters. Can

they use these photos (rights)? Alternately the photos could be organized on a map, like

Google maps does. The link to the service tracker is great.” –Tester #4, Looking for justice

“The photo feature is smart for the person submitting. HOWEVER, I think its a bit silly to

show everyone the photos. PLUS they aren't even sorted by ward, so it's pointless to try to

find them.. Isr anyone even monitoring the content. I could imagine stupid kids uploading

questionable/tasteless photos if there is no control on this.” –Tester #10, Leopard9983

“I LOVE THIS PAGE! Page is concise, clean, easy to navigate, and make the site feel active

and vibrant (people are helping to make the city better). I especially love the timeline that

appears after clicking a photo, it assured me that someone is taking actions toward these

request, and from the records those actions have been taken promptly. The details about

the place where the request is at great.” –Tester #20, IT Lover




“This is a really cool section. I assume the pictures came from the residents making the city

request. I would use it in the future.” –Tester #40, AllisonRae

“I found the photos section a little cluttered. There should be some separation between

photos, maybe organized by ward or something.” –Tester #83, Baller

Do you like the Photos page?

89% (75) – “Yes”

11% (9) – “No”

Will you use this website again, on your own?

82% (69) – “Yes”

18% (15) – “No”

More information:

32 out of 84 of testers said they never used 311 in a previous question, and 75% of those

32 testers said they would use this site again.

52 out of 84 of testers have used 311 in a previous question, and 87% of those 52 testers

would use the site again.

Do you like this website?

87% (73) – “Yes”

12% (10) – “No”

1% (1) of testers did not select an option

15 out of 84 of our testers would not use the website again on their own, but 6 of those people like

the website. Here is what they say:

“I like the website, but I don't know if I'll use it again. I've never reported any of these things

before. That being said, I never knew how to or really thought about it. I might be more

likely to know that I know this exists. Especially because I could actually see if my request

was followed up on and taken care of. That would be worth the effort. I do wish there was a

submit request button more prominently located. though. Those are kind of buried and I

didn't initially realize I could do that.” – Tester #63, Aspiring Batgirl

“I like the website, but it doesn't have much of a purpose for me, unfortunately. It's

collecting and displaying data, but as a resident, I am most interested in submitting issues

or seeing if an issue has already been submitted.” – Tester#56, Ketchup Ketchup

Tell us more. [re: Do you like the website?]

“I would like to see the source of the order. Example: 311, 311 online, Commissioner,

Mayor. It is important to note that in MOST ghetto neighborhoods there are fewer calls for

service because calling for service did not provide service, only frustration. How??? Will

services be ordered in neighborhoods where demoralized occupants don't call anymore?

That should fall under the ALDERMANS' scope and perhaps a RATE YOUR ALDERMAN

should be tallied on this site. You tally and RANK service. There should be a way for this

site to ZING aldermen and make it competitive for them to improve their numerical

Rankng! That would be fun to incite competition between aldermen to go from say rank 33

to rank 5 :-)” –Tester #34, Fanatic in ordering Service for East Garfield Park, or anywhere

else in the city




“I think it will be a good tool for neighborhood organizations who struggle with Aldermen

offices to get things done. It might also provide a monitoring tool for things such as

graffiti.” Tester #42, it's 20 minutes

“More data and more analysis would be great. But it's useful, and I can see myself coming

back if there's something I want to know more about, or if I were doing research on a

related topic. Also: the Annotations page was my favorite. I would follow it just as a blog,

honestly. The post on various angles of graffitti and the fact that street crews will repair all

potholes on a street they're responding to were both of interest to me.” –Tester #44,

Northside Transplant

“I don't see how it gives you any information that is useful as a citizen. You can't see trends

or individual requests very clearly. Data isn't information. Tree debris by ward daily tells me

what exactly? Can I watch the map light up after a windstorm? Yippee!” –Tester #59, 46th

Ward Pigeon

Do you like the CUTGroup?

99% (83) – “Yes”

1% (1) – “No”

Did you like this CUTGroup test?

99% (83) – “Yes”

1% (1) – “No”

Anything else you want to add?

“I do like the remote survey better than the one I had to go to the library for. The particular

public library I had to go to was in a very dangerous area and I didn't know before I went...

Other than that it has been a pretty good experience being a part of the CUTGroup thus far

and I'm definitely willing to give my input on multiple websites.” –Tester #46, 3rd Year

Student

“I liked this test because I learned quite a few new things today that I never knew about,

such as what specific services are offered by 311.” –Tester #54, Non-frequent 311 caller

“The CUTGroup is great! I feel like I'm contributing and it doesn't feel useless like voting

does.” Tester #62, PlaysWithSquirrels

“unsubscribe me” – Tester #37, logancircler

“An online test is a better form of testing a website or app. It is done within the comfort of

one's home, with flexible times. It allows more people to participate and allows for a more

natural environment.” –Tester #77, Elizabeth07




Conclusions

Initial Questions:

Will regular Chicago residents find this Web site interesting?

We learned that Chicago residents are interested in learning about the service requests in their own

ward, and see how their Alderman is doing. 82% of our 84 testers said they would use the website

again.

Our impression is that most testers are not focused on specific data points, and some find the data

difficult to understand. Even so, most testers are able to access information about requests and

equate that to how their ward and Alderman are doing. We learned that some testers want more of

a discrepancy in the graphs and gradients of the map, and generally how the data is displayed.

Other testers mentioned they only were concerned with requests happening now, not in the past.

This Web site features data from January 1, 2008.

How do users use the site? What do they have difficulties with?

A lot of testers do not know their ward, and had to search for other sites to find their ward or

double-check their ward number. Testers want to search by their address or neighborhood. We will

add this link to this Web site: http://boundaries.tribapps.com/ This will help users easily learn

about their own ward.

Github issue: https://github.com/smartchicago/chicagoworksforyou/issues/310

Are users interested in the Web site’s content?

Testers are interested in submitting 311 requests directly from this site. While we do have links to

submitting requests on each of the “Services” types, we want to make this a bigger feature, and

one of the first things people see when they visit a service type.

We received a lot of positive response to the Photos page. However, only 1 person clicked on

“Photos” first when they visited the site. When directed, 89% of people liked the “Photos” page. We

are considering these steps:

1. We are interested in making the “Photos” page more prominent and the first thing that

people look at.

Github: https://github.com/smartchicago/chicagoworksforyou/issues/312

2. We want to take advantage of our own social media sharing features, and tweet about

photos on a regular basis. Smart Chicago’s Twitter account: @SmartChicago

3. We want to give users the option to organize the photos by ward

Github: https://github.com/smartchicago/chicagoworksforyou/issues/311

4. Create a call to action to allow users to submit 311 requests.

Do users want to share information from Web site through social media/e-mail?


http://boundaries.tribapps.com/

https://github.com/smartchicago/chicagoworksforyou/issues/310


https://twitter.com/smartchicago




We learned that sharing information through social media is based a lot on a user’s general use of

social media, and not necessarily on the site’s content. Testers were more likely to share with

people in their own ward about their ward’s service request. We will not be changing this feature

on the site.


Tester #: 1

Tester Profile (given by tester): Srtap

What browser are you using? Chrome Have you ever made a service request through

311? Yes

Care to explain? I witnessed a hit and run on a bunch of cars recently. I called because I got a license plate number.

Do you attend any of these types of meetings? (check all that apply)

� Local school council

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? From what I can tell so far, it gives a snapshot of what the city is doing to solve basic residential problems. I am interested in it just because it's the first time I'm looking at it but I don't think it's something I'd check once a week or on a regular basis. It would be a good resource for people who are choosing what parts of the city to move to perhaps. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on restaurant reports because I dine out a lot. I wish that it reported where these reports were made. Same with graffiti, rat baiting etc. More specifics. Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I forgot which ward number I was, I knew I was in the 40's but I know James Cappleman is my alderman because he does a good job of staying visible so I was able to easily locate his name. Perhaps search could be cross-referenced with alderman name as well. What I mean is have a drop down that allows you to search by ward number or by alderman's name. The charts make sense. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I'd rather tell people about it in person.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose graffiti removal because I have called about this service before. The charts make sense. It took

me a minute to figure out the checks but I see that they're for completed cases. I find the information interesting but I'm not sure it's valuable. I can't tell if my particular street's graffiti has been handled or not. It's just raw data not disaggregated data. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I really like the photos page. This is the kind of detail I hoped for in the other pages. I get to see the address of where this is and the outcome. I clicked on a picture of an abandoned white car and I could see it was on Hoyne, that the issue was reported and that the tow report was completed on Nov 22. Hopefully this will be updated again when/if the car is actually towed. I would use this feature in the future to either track my own requests or to check up on things I've seen in my neighborhood. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I wish there was a choice of "maybe". I belong to a neighborhood book club and we always chat about neighborhood happenings. This is something I would mention at book club to see if others knew about the website and found it useful. I don't see a function where I can make a service request through this site so I assume this is a 3rd party working with the city to track their work. I just noticed the email update available to stay up to date with a certain request. I filled it out just to see if it's a functional update system. That is appealing to me.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? I hope you get good feedback because I think this could be a valuable site.

2013-11-25 07:12:25

Tester #: 2

Tester Profile (given by tester): City dude

What browser are you using? Internet Explorer Have you ever made a service request through

311? No

Care to explain? N/A


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? I think it allows users to ask for a city service and to see what problems are in different parts of the city Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on Tree Removal and looked at the results. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I am in Ward 1. I couldn't find out which ward I was in on the website, but found it on the city website. I then went to Ward 1 on this website to see what info was there. I'm not sure I understand the Days with the most requests page. There are dates on some of the bars, but not all of them, and some of the dates are old. I guess when I look again, it sort of makes sense, but I don't understand the point of it... Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? Is the site still being tested?

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Pothole. I found it. The chart makes sense. It took me a few seconds to see where to submit a request...way at the bottom. I was hoping I could click in to the date bar graph to see WHERE the potholes were and which ones were closed and which ones weren't. Do you like the service type page?

Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. pretty cool that you can click in to see the actual request and info. Are these all of the requests that had pics or just select ones? I clicked into the Service Tracker which is cool. I like the interface of this site. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I think you need to make it easier to submit a request. Make a big button that says "Submit City Service" or something like that...you sort of have to dig. I don't really care about the history of requests and numbers...if there's an issue, I want to report it and see it taken care of.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? nope

2013-11-25 07:38:28

Tester #: 3

Tester Profile (given by tester): Teri52

What browser are you using? Safari Have you ever made a service request through

311? Yes

Care to explain? Have made many requests over the years


� Block club

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Allows customer to submit requests and check on the services requested plus check stats on all requests made Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I made a request because that is what I current have done. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. 45th ward I just put on a request for a light out. Went smoothly. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? It was just a test request

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Everything was very smooth and logical Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience.

Loved the photos page. Liked that you could see duplicates Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

Looks like the site is getting friendlier Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add?

2013-11-25 07:49:26

Tester #: 4

Tester Profile (given by tester): Looking for justice


311? Yes

Care to explain? I've called 311 when 911 seemed like too much firepower. For example, one day a truck was blocking traffic on Wellington for over 1/2 hour.


� Local school council � Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? The site is a heatmap by ward of different types of service requests for each day. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked through different types of service requests to see how the heat map changed. I don't understand the symbols in the key for "above average" and "greatest change" Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Clicking through gets to a snapshot of the ward, where I clicked through Ward 44 and saw Alderman Tunney did not get a lot of service requests. When I tried to go back, the site did not go back to the big map immediately. It went through every click I had just made. I like that I can see "All Service Requests" here, which you cannot see on the big heatmap. Love the councilmatic! And the best part ironically is finally being able to see current and future boundaries of each ward. I don't so much get the "Days with the most requests" chart. I assume that's for the entire city, not the ward, and it seems unmoored from any context. I don't think there should be check marks when the level of response is "zero" - just omit the checkmark. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? The autotweets are not specific, funny or cool enough. I guess I could editorialize.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose Restaurant Complaint. I was surprised because it seemed like this goes to a whole new website (not really but perception). Could this info slide in and leave the homepage visible? I was confused as to how the numbers on the homepage align with the drill down page. 5 requests vs 7.1 average (is that average for the day? Is that unduplicated?) And 34 opened <checkmark> closed. I guess that should be a zero. I guess users are left to guess which restaurant got the complaint. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. This was cooler than I thought it would be. This could also be interesting for reporters. Can they use these photos (rights)? Alternately the photos could be organized on a map, like Google maps does. The link to the service tracker is great. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I haven't tested it out on mobile -- wondering what this looks like? The nosy neighbor in me wonders where all this complaint activity is happening within the Wards.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? I accidentally closed the tab with the survey and had to start all over again. Maybe use something more robust like Qualtrics?

2013-11-25 08:02:35

Tester #: 5

Tester Profile (given by tester): 311 user


311? Yes

Care to explain? I used it to get some non emergency information


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Its a map and as I start scrolling I see number Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on the type of services to see what they were Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I found my ward. Nothing seemed to be really going on Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? Because it is informative to others of what is going on in the area

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Building violations. I was trying to see if there were any issues in the area and there were not any Do you like the service type page? No Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. What if a person doesn't know their ward is there a way to create a legend that will provide them with

the information that they need to find the ward in their area Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I think it is nice but if you would help those who are not informed about their ward in their area

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? N/a

2013-11-25 08:08:06

Tester #: 6

Tester Profile (given by tester): Part-Time Chicagoan Thanks to Work

What browser are you using? Firefox Have you ever made a service request through

311? No

Care to explain? Have never needed to contact.


� Neighborhood watch

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? This looks great. It seems like you can view if an issue you're aware of has already been reported, and if so what the status is on having that issue fixed! Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on services and decided to explore each option. I reviewed all the data on alley lights out, potholes, etc. It's really interesting to see how many requests are submitted on a daily basis -- nice to see our Chicagoans looking out for our city! One thing I expect is being able to submit an issue online -- I'm currently unsure if it's on another part of the site or if this site is just a data-collection point. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. My ward seems to be very active! There have been many requests. I also like being able to see exactly who my alderman is (I know Joe, but it's useful for others) and seeing the actual boundary of my ward. Everything on the page seems straightforward and well laid out. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? This page seems very useful so I would definitely want to share with civic minded friends.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose graffiti removal requests. The information for my ward is absolutely compelling -- it gives an average time for closing the issue (ie, average time for removal) and shows how my ward compares to

other wards in the city. It's great seeing this information because I feel like it gives supporting evidence at what sort of job my alderman is doing. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. This is a fantastic feature. User submitted photos show issues in the city. If you click on the photo, it will actually show a timeline of the situation from report day to close date, and gives all of the information of the steps taken to handle the request. This is really really cool and probably my favorite thing on the website. This page also made me aware of the Open311 system which I now want to look into and learn more about. This is really fascinating. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

This is a great website and the only thing I'd like to see if some sort of access to the city open 311 system so that you can directly report something by accessing this website. I think it would tie the whole thing together and this website has a lot of potential to be an absolutely fantastic thing. Great work!

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add?

2013-11-25 08:29:19

Tester #: 7

Tester Profile (given by tester): purple


311? Yes

Care to explain? No heat in my apartment


� Local school council � Safe passage

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Provides information on different service requests and photos like city problems in any form Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. You choose the type of service needed. I did this first because it stated to choose a service type Did this meet your expectations? Select one Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I click on wards but nothing came up Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Select on

Why or why not? Twitter because its more live with a lot of people and you can tweet and retweet

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Building violation but could not see the charts. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience.

The photo feature is a great attribute because you can attach your photos regarding your service type Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I believe I could like it if I could be able to view everything because I ran into some difficulties where I couldn't view when I click on certain options like the ward page


2013-11-25 08:56:05

Tester #: 8

Tester Profile (given by tester): javama


311? Yes

Care to explain? potholes, tree trimming


� Aldermanic ward night � Neighborhood watch � Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? gives info about 311 requests Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. interesting and best map I've seen esp about ward changes Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. surprised there weren't more requests Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? gives info that is easy to see

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. graffiti liked the graph that shows ward and resolution charts were clear and good inforamtion Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience.

good visual of problems Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

very good site, lots of info to use for how the ward is and to tell when problems start, like gang graffetti

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? keep up the excellent work!!

2013-11-25 09:02:36

Tester #: 9

Tester Profile (given by tester): athlete and active commuter


311? No

Care to explain? no necessity yet


� Block club

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It provides a lot of information on the city, infrastructure, security. yes, i am highly interested in this because I am an active part of my city, my ward, my neighborhood. I want to know more about the challenges of a city, both from a micro and macro perspective. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "About" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I wanted to know more about the site's mission and exact purpose other than giving data. I chose it to get context for the map that I was seeing, because the first impression of the homepage was "interested, but what is this about?" Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Yes, I found my ward easily because I know its number. The contact info wasn't necessarily obvious, as my first view was distracted by the big graphs. maybe a side bar with contact info would be better. The charts make sense and give a nice (historic) overview of what the main issues in the ward are. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? If I know friends are interested in this, absolutely.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I looked at the restaurant complaint data. While the charts made sense, they didn't provide a lot of information on why complaints were filed ect. But I could learn more about that through clicking the

link to the city's website. So that works. However, I think the repsective bars should probably be linked to the specific complaints to provide more meaning to the graph. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I could find it easily and I like the photo feature. While I provides a good overview over which complaints have already been filed I don't know if it is a very helpful way to work on the issue at hand. i like it predominantly as it gives me more context about the sorts of complaints the website is about. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I like the website and might use it every now and then to see what is happening not only in my ward, but also beyond. However, I don't think i would frequent it very often, e.g. multiple times a week. maybe it would be nice to have the aldermen say something about how they want to use this data to give visitors a better context as to what the website does for them in the end.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? I think it's great you have users give you direct feedback on your work! keep it up!

2013-11-25 09:06:41

Tester #: 10

Tester Profile (given by tester): Leopard9983


311? Yes

Care to explain? Potholes and rodents


� Aldermanic ward night � Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? This site allows you to log and track statistics for 311 chicago calls, gives you access to your alderman and check stats of other ward Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on my area, since that is all I care about at this point.. later if I want I can click on other wards. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. It was nice. I really liked the fact that if I didnt know my Alderman ( i did though) that I was able to get his name, his email, his facebook etc. to connect to him instatntly. The charts make sense although the scale of them (1 incident of 1) is too huge! scale it back. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? To send to my friends who live in my ward

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I picked pothole. I really liked to avg day to close metric.. It puts crediibility on the city to action them. Do you like the service type page? Yes

Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. The photo feature is smart for the person submitting. HOWEVER, I think its a bit silly to show everyone the photos. PLUS they aren't even sorted by ward, so it's pointless to try to find them.. Isr anyone even monitoring the content. I could imagine stupid kids uploading questionable/tasteless photos if there is no control on this. Do you like the Photos page? No Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I really like it. It's sleek and gives the city transparency and clear cut metrics on how it's working.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? More tests please! this was fun

2013-11-25 09:29:32

Tester #: 11

Tester Profile (given by tester): committtedtoneighborhoodimprovement


311? Yes

Care to explain? Called to report graffiti in neighborhood and request it be removed.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? At first glance, I would say this site is meant to inform and promote the work the city is doing, so people know city services are happening in their areas. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. Looked at graffiti complaints; read how they were measured. Was a little confused about the chart and how it displayed both reports and actions taken. Seems like actions taken might merit its own graph. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Interesting to see the map and the ward changes. The graphs make sense, though certainly are concerning as time to close complaints in my ward is pretty high! Suggestions; not everyone has their ward memorized; give people a find your ward option. Also, the councilmatic link is not descriptive and likely will not get clicked on except by those who are exceptionally curious. Maybe just call it alderman website, or something like that? Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? I would share with neighbors who are impassioned to improve our neighborhood. Would love if it I could share individual graphs or content.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. This area is set up well, easy to navigate, and provides helpful information. Again, the check mark for closed inquiries is a little confusing. Say 10 were closed - is that 10 of the inquiries from that particular

timeframe, or predating the timeframe you're on? And why the different colors on the graph? I couldn't find a key. Do you like the service type page? Select one Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Photos were not what I expected. Thought I would see photos of the wards and parks - more like tourism photos - then issues photos. I like what's being done, but also am concerned that the graffiti photos I may have submitted have some marker that would allow gangbangers, etc., to track me down to my house. Makes me think twice about submitting photos. If it's not possible for folks to track based on the way you post the photos, perhaps add in a nice, loud disclaimer stating that? Love that you can click on to the photos and subscribe to receive updates. Might be nice to be able to click on the ward number and see all the submissions from your area, as well. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I will definitely look to see if others have submitted requests that are similar to or duplicates of mine; share with neighbors to encourage them to post; and review for ares of concern in our ward.


2013-11-25 09:36:43

Tester #: 12

Tester Profile (given by tester): Website Tester


311? No



� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Provides an overview of the services requested on a given day per ward. It also shows whether the request remains open or closed. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on the service type and noticed that the map changed. I then took note of what the shades of blue signify. I then clicked on "About" to understand more of the website's objective. It's a bit confusing, when I click on the map ward 31 for abandoned vehicles it showed 0 requested, however on the map it when I hover the mouse over it, it says 3. Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Because I recently emailed my ward about a rodent sighting I checked my ward and service for the date I emailed my ward. I was a bit disappointed not to find it listed. However I didn't call 311 and I do not know what procedures my ward takes. Maybe only the 311 calls are logged on this website. The graph showing days doesn't not show dates. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I don't think the data is meaningful, it takes time to figure out and the average person won't spend too much time deciphering.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. It seem helpful, however when requests show closed that week. There isn't an indication of which

requests from which week were closed. How many are remaining in total? How many have closed in total? Do you like the service type page? No Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I think these are great, however I would like to be able to see them by ward as well. This gives a better indication of when the request was made and the procedure that was followed bu the city. I would definetly use this in the future. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

Some features need work, but this is a good site where residents can track (if provided a photo) their service request. I would to see a better way of tracking a request that does not include a photo. In the past I have emailed my ward directly to request a service, if I had the option to do it online I would use it as well.


2013-11-25 09:40:57

Tester #: 13

Tester Profile (given by tester): eggysmithers


311? No

Care to explain? I have never called 311.


� Block club

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It seems to give statistical information about the different types of requests Chicagoans make to their city. This might be something I'd be interested in. I don't know how often I'd visit, since there aren't that many times when I'm curious to know how many times Chicagoans requested particular services. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. It's cool that this information is available, but since it is broken down by ward, then I immediately become interested in my own ward first, and the Chicago aggregate second. Just by clicking through the requests, I didn't see the opportunity to filter down to my ward. Also, the per day request seems strange. I'd like to get more of a trend of requests, not necessarily things that happen today. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. The annotations section doesn't have a clear way to return to the home page. I liked the about page. I thought the information was clear and helped me understand the rest of the pages. I didn't like the charts because they represent only a small sample of data. It would be more helpful to me to start out with a larger set of data to get a better trend, and allow me to drill down to a particular date range to find information. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? The page still seems like a work in progress, not fully ready for Chicagoans to take advantage of yet.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose the Traffic signal out service. I live in Ward 41, so I am most concerned with that. I looked at the data for traffic signals which are out in my ward, and the data presented looks cool, but I'm trying to get more information from it. I'd like to know which lights were out, and which ones were fixed. I would like to be able to click each service request and see more details about it. Also, when I hover over each request, it seems like each box represents a day that the request was made, and the checkbox represents the number of requests closed. When I hover across the data from left to right, it is not clear what each hover cloud means. (The requests per day and requests closed kind of run into each other) Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Please provide a photos by Ward, not by service type. I don't know where ward 11 is in regards to ward 41, so I don't understand how to find it. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

As soon as chicagoworksforyou.com is centered towards my Ward, and gives me aggregate data for my ward which I can then choose to narrow down to a date range, then I think it will be much more helpful to me. Right now, it is presented as 'here's all the data for each ward, please click anywhere you would like'. I'd like to be able to narrow it down so its focused more on the ward I'm interested in.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Hopefully you appreciate my feedback. I tried to be as critical as possible, knowing that my feedback will improve the site, or give you a different perspective. Keep up the great work! With a few tweaks, this could be very helpful to all Chicago citizens!

2013-11-25 09:41:06

Tester #: 14

Tester Profile (given by tester): Long-Distance Commuter


311? No

Care to explain? Probably what everyone says — don't really know what 311 is responsible for, assume that other people have made requests I would notice, etc. The urgency I'd feel around, like, a pothole does not match my perception of the work/reward it'd take to make a 311 request. That probably sounds terrible, but I'm trying to be honest. It's probably influenced by the fact that I don't live near street level (high-rise), not responsible for a lawn/curb, so things like street debris or abandoned cars aren't as much on my radar for being eyesores, pains, etc. Also, I commute to California most weeks, leaving M and returning F. When I return, 311 requests aren't high on the priority list versus being with family, friends, pressing errands, etc On the question after this one, my answer is "none", but I had to select "other."


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It's a map that allows me to see the volume and types of calls concerning a given request type (i.e. "Come clear this tree from the road") for a given ward. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked abandoned vehicle, b/c it's the first thing under the short summary I read. I saw that Ward 25 has the most, but I have a lot of trouble telling if the rest of the city is all at 0, all at 1, or all at 0 or 1. I'm pretty decent with Chicago (I've lived here 7 years and been in nearly every neighborhood), but the ward system confuses me. As a result, I could kind of tell what Ward 25 is — maybe Pilsen? LV? My best guess as to why it might have had an abandoned car surfeit is that the interstate runs through it. Then I realized — is this the number of abandoned cars, or the number of requests to remove one? I think it's the latter, which means this could be a number of people calling about one car. So, this map is really telling me which Ward leads the city for a given day in prominently placed abandoned cars. Or maybe this Ward leads the city in people who like to call 311 on Sundays? I guess that's interesting, but I'd have to think about what that means. I clicked on Ward 25 to figure out exactly where it was. I was basically right (I figured that was Danny Solis), but the next map confused me — Initially, I thought, "So this is where the calls came from within ward 25?" I read more and realized that the same colors were being used to indicate a new, non-311-request, type of information. Now it was showing me how the ward was going to change in future. I couldn't figure out what that meant vis a vis 311 request. What does the ward boundary in 2015 tell me about 311 requests from last week? The trendline is stuck at 0 for "week in review." I don't know what's being reviewed — I thought it'd be abandoned car incidents,

but the first map said there were 3 on Sunday, and this Sunday has it at 0. I also can't figure out the time-to-close chart — It's using a scale that goes all the way to 15, with some data being plotted to there. The only number on the first page was 3, and the line above it only has 0, so I don't know what the 15 is. No labels on any axes on this page. The title for the chart seems to say it has to do with the "time-to-close" ranking as in the number of days it takes to close an abandoned vehicle request. But the two bars, one is at 1, one is at 15. I don't know what this is — is this the two incidents? If one was made over 15 days ago, was it even on the previous map (which said 3)? I've got no idea what the horizontal axis is. The third chart is clearer, but I don't know what to do with it. It's sort of neat that I know 10 abandoned vehicle requests were made in october of 2008, but it's not contextualized in any way. The raw data is probably interesting — could see long-term cyclical trends, etc. The single day highs, though — there's not enough in these six data points for me to figure out what's interesting. Maybe if I lived in the neighborhood, I could remember what happened in October 2008? I guess my expectations were that this would be about service requests; instead, there's a lot of data about geographic boundaries, as well as some additional charts Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. It's always hard to find my ward because the shapes are so unnatural and the number doesn't mean anything (unrelated to street number grid, for instance, which is the only Chicago "numbers" that really exist in context for me). I did it in one shot, though (probably because I've been reading about the police districts within my ward, so had some vague idea of the number). It defaulted me to "all requests", and some of the chart language makes some more sense now. I see that the checks and the circles are different icons now, and I can mouse over them. It's still not super data rich, as I can't tell what the gaps mean — if 13 were opened and 12 closed, what's the open one? Is it a downed tree I should be avoiding? I also see that the time-to-close ranking is a cross-ward chart. But, the metrics seem silly — my Ward is 17th because it took 0.06 days to close a request? So it took an hour and half to close requests, on average? That seems small enough to be influenced by things like traffic, confusing by the caller, availability of city workers, etc — it doesn't feel like a measure of 311 efficiency. Also — why do I care? Is this so I can realize how badly my ward is being served vs another? I'm more interested in my ward — it doesn't mean anything to me to know that Ward 21 had 6 requests. Like I wrote above, the Ward system is pretty confusing for me, so I don't even know where that is. Same thought about the historic highs. No idea what to do with this. I'd rather see the same chart for recent data so I had some idea of what had happened over the last month. Also, I have the same thought about "requests" vs "events" — let's take Street Cut Complaints. First off, I don't know what this means — I don't know what a street cut is. And why is it a "complaint" while others are more objective "Traffic Light Out." Do we have a greater assurance that "traffic light out" is being reported correctly, while "street cut" is a complaint, something that may be fine? Like a noise complaint — ear of the beholder, right? Anyway, I learn that the most street cut complaints was in December 2008. OK. What I'd rather know is the data affecting me now — were there more street cut complaints than graffiti complaints last week? Do I have a ward where I should be aware of street cuts more than traffic light outages? Knowing what was going on six years ago doesn't let me consider my own behavior. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or

Why or why not? It's possible. If I saw something really neat I might email it to a few friends, or maybe even tweet it. I don't have FB. Mostly, though, I'd probably send my friends the general link and tell them to explore.

Email? Nah Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I picked graffiti removal. The picture is neat, and I actually read the blurb, which surprised me (it look liked something I'd skip). It's the first place I've seen duplicates mentioned, and it says there not in the system. This seems particularly thorny with graffiti — what if somebody reports graffiti and before it's serviced, someone has added to it? Is that a dupe? I could see how that would matter to a building owner, etc (many people participating versus isolated incident). The Ward data is same as above. I don't know the wards. I can't tell if the calendar is coded to show volume intensity or if it's just coded in descending order for read-ability. I think it's the former, but after the color was used for different purposes on the ward map, I dunno. It'd be clearer if it didn't go in exactly descending. I don't get the checks. Ward 6 had one graffiti request this week and closed 102? Where did the 101 come from? Feels like someone batched processed — reading the description, I can't imagine you could do 20 of these removals a day. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Oh, this is cool. And I get it. I wish I could just see my ward, though. Again, I don't know where the wards are — if it were my ward, I could probably know if I'd walked by it, etc, which is fun (in a weird sort of way). Maybe if I could hover over and see address? I don't want to click through. I was able to ctrl—F for Ward 44, but there was only one photo. I guess the other requests didn't have photos? It was tree debris on Clifton, which was pretty dull. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

"Like" is a really difficult word, y'all. I'm not really sure what that means. I do think it's cool, and if Ward 44 had had, like, a dozen photos from last week, I might've bookmarked. Seeing what's going on in my neighborhood like that would be interesting. The photos are much more interesting than the data, which is decontextualized and hard for me to get much from. I guess I like the photos b/c I'd find them inherently interesting. The rest of it — I'm not sure what to do with it. Complain to an alderman? Figure out if a request I might make has already been made? I don't know — neither of those feel like real use cases. If I am compelled to make a request, I doubt I'm going to check this site first. As for complaining to an Alderman — complain that he speed up the service? I don't really understand what power Alderman have, but their access to city workers, cops, etc is part of a larger budget picture (as I understand it), and I'm not sure the Alderman can (or should) be held accountable for the city cutting back on graffiti blasters.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? This was interesting, thanks. Sorry if I was a bit long.

2013-11-25 09:48:17

Tester #: 15

Tester Profile (given by tester): WRPtester


311? No

Care to explain? I have only tried it a few times to get in touch with a government office. Most times it was a failure.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? The site allows people to track 311 service requests. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I went right to my ward to see how my Alderman is doing and what my neighbors are requesting from her. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. The map was a little hard to read. The shading made it hard to read the streets to make sure I was in the correct ward. But more importantly I wanted to make sure that I was not being drawn out of my ward. I then went through the list of services my neighbors are requesting. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? I like to share!

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Graffiti -- It was great to see how many photos are taken and submitted with their requests. Some look more artsy than graffiti and it makes me wonder if we need space (or if there already is!) where street artists can work. Do you like the service type page?

Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I liked to see what services are being requested, not just in my ward, but around the city. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

Those are soft yeses. I still think that more can be done. I can't quite verbalize what is needed, but there is more to go. Good start though.


2013-11-25 09:53:35

Tester #: 16

Tester Profile (given by tester): Mom Involved


311? Yes

Care to explain? I've called 311 by phone for city info or non emergency issues.



Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Provide aldermanic, community news and info to residents in the city if chicago. The happenings, upcoming events, how to report issues, etc. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. To further educate myself on what this site actually does, so I can share with others like myself who are unaware how to get this type of info. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I find that there were quite a few requests and reports made weekly, and outweigh the percentage of how many were actually resolved. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? To help those in my ward or ither wards get information.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Yes, to all questions. Do you like the service type page? Yes

Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Yes...very displeasing, the photos. I saw one in my ward where trash was on the griubd around the bins in the alley. A huge issue...the others were full of graffiti. yes...i would use it. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.


2013-11-25 09:56:22

Tester #: 17

Tester Profile (given by tester): Yoonie


311? No



� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Displays most current status on issues reported by ward. I'm interested in finding out more, since many of these issues (safety, traffic, construction) impact my daily commute and quality of life in my neighborhood. I hope that this could also be an easy way to make 311 reports, and hope this can also work on my mobile device (iPhone 5). Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Wards" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I hovered over each ward to find my ward (26). I expected to be able to zoom in, like you can on Google Maps, but this feature does not seem available. I found my ward and clicked on it to be taken to my ward page. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Zooming in to the map was useful for me to better understand the potential changes to my ward boundaries. I clicked on every item below the map. The social media links should not be so important on the page, especially the Facebook link. I expect that the other links provided that prominently on the page would lead to a direct action (like reporting an issue or to be taken to a contact form for my Alderman, not to a marketing page). I am unfamiliar with Councilmatic and how it functions. "Next Week" did not change the page. I expected it to take me to upcoming information. I think it should be grayed out so that it is clear that you cannot navigate to next week, since data is unavailable. The first chart helps me understand how active the ward was, but the terms "opened", "closed", and "Time-to-close ranking" seems more technical, than user-friendly. My expectation is also to be able to see a longer time range than weekly, so I can get a better understanding of overall trends. I'm not very likely to visit this page often unless I made a report, so I prefer to see the bigger picture, rather than a week to week synopsis. Also, the week to week charts start to all look the same. I think this is less useful to me than seeing a longer time range, and then zooming in to the detailed data. The "Time to close ranking" chart is less important to me than the third chart. I want to know more about my ward's activities before I compare to other neighborhoods. The last chart, "Days with the most requests" helps

show the trends over longer period of time and the comparison between types of issues acted upon. It makes the most immediate sense since it shows me the bigger picture. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I prefer to cut and paste the URL than be told to share the page. If the content is relevant to the user, i.e. a user can see themselves represented in that data, then people will feel compelled to share it.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose Twitter. The subject line "Ward 26 on Nov 10, 2013" is not interesting at all to read (so I would have to change it to show relevance). It should be a friendlier message that makes it interesting to learn more about the statistics about my Ward. One possibility is to convey my relationship or participation regarding issues in my ward. Bottom line: make it friendly and useful. Do you like the service type page? No Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I think it would be more useful if I could filter the images to see my ward's photos only. I think the big grid of photos showing all ward photos helps compel me to submit photos in the future. I especially like the feature to filter the photos by service type. This is very clear and useful information. Also, in general, imagery helps make everything more compelling to the user since the issue is shown in context. I would definitely come to this page to review issues in my ward. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I think this website has a lot of potential. I would like to see a friendlier tone/messaging to make users feel more interested in participating and following the data. I want to be able to report issues through this site, not just to track issues. Note: on the Services pages, the reading content is very congested in the right column. Maybe an introductory paragraph that can be expanded for complete view can be offered at the top of the page. The data charted can continue below, and since it is long, users will be okay with scrolling down to see all of it. I would prefer not to have to go to another website to see the actual data portal or to report an issue. I want to see more details and answer questions about the issues reported that are directly relevant to me (for example: what type of building code is violated down the street from me?)

Do you like the CUTGroup?

Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? I'm a member of two Facebook crime watch groups which are focused on my ward and neighboring wards (https://www.facebook.com/groups/EastHumboldtParkWatch/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/UKVillageWatch/). These groups have organically grown and provided real-time information, while fostering a greater sense of community and trust between neighbors. Users are often directed to 311 to report service-related issues from group conversations. I think there are good lessons to be learned about user participation from this group, to hopefully make data more relevant and useful. Accessing and understand data should be easy, humanized, and function as a tool for more engagement with one's community.

2013-11-25 10:19:03

Tester #: 18

Tester Profile (given by tester): Lifetime student


311? Yes

Care to explain? I could not find my car and had to call to find out if it had been towed. (phone call). Have called to report a traffic signal being out. Both were helpful, they told me where my car had been towed. Not sure how quickly the light issue was resolved.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It tells you where the most frequent 311 call types are and what they are for? I think it is interesting, but perhaps more telling of how people feel about their need to tell the city about these things or whether they think the city will actually do anything about it. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I wanted to see what the different service types looked like across the city so I clicked on several. I always have a problem with Ward maps since my brain just does not mentally layout the city in that fashion. I am much more familiar with neighborhood names and they are hard to read on this map. I was surprised to note that the data appears to be laid out by day, I would not have thought there were that many 311 calls/day. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I like that it tells you if the 311 call is open or closed. I assume closed means that it was addressed and taken care of? I found my ward, though I had to look it up again, I have lived in several neighborhoods in Chicago and can never remember what ward I am in. The charts make sense, but with the individual ward numbers being so low (mine is Ward 4) and there was only one event in the week which was graffiti removal, perhaps on the summary graph you could state what types of actions they were. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I'm not sure I would share it unless I had made the service request and saw it fulfilled.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I picked abandoned vehicles. This information I find very interesting, especially since there are so many open cases. Again though I don't know which wards are which so I think it would be interesting to perhaps include a rough neighborhood name. For example my ward (4) could say Ward 4 (Hyde Park/Kenwood) or something like that to orient people a little. I would be more likely to share this information on facebook since it would make a point perhaps about the efficiency of the city in general over my ward specific information. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I like that you can find out about an individual service and what has been done. This is very helpful, and you can sign up to get email updates about a particular service request. I would definitely use this in the future. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I think it is helpful to know when things are getting done and how timely so that we can try and improve things in the city when they are not being done efficiently. Like I said previously I think a ward name but also a general neighborhood name would be useful.


2013-11-25 10:21:59

Tester #: 19

Tester Profile (given by tester): Test Taker, Test 1


311? Yes

Care to explain? I used 311 to find out about social services one of my students might be interested in.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? I think the site warns people about any automobile problems on the road. And the site brings to light other issues civilians might find useful like " rodent complaints and sanitation complaints". Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. The first think i did was click on the traffic signals. however nothing really happened the map slowly disappeared. I clicked on the traffic signal out b/c i thought I hardly ever see traffic lights out I wonder where they happen most. I also thought, do you contact the police or 311 when a traffic light is out? Next I clicked on Street Light 1 out. Why is it titled 1? Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I couldn't remember what ward I lived in. I searched for an area when I could type my zip code and could not find one. I was pretty bummed out about that. I did a google search instead that took me over 10 MIN! I finally found this https://webapps3.cityofchicago.org/StickerOnlineWeb/getgeoWardLookup.do and also this http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/about/banners/WardsOverviewMap.pdf Again, really frustrating. Back to your map of the different districts, landmarks usually help me figure out where I am at in relation to the lake but the metro stops/ buses all blended in together with the blue/gray color. I was a little confused about the title at the bottom of the page. it stated the following "Ward 47 didn't close or more Street Cut Complaints requests this week, so it's not shown on this chart" I didn't really understand the charts. Who are people sending the requests into. How do i file a complaint? Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or

Why or why not? I'll share it b/c i'm sure some one might find it useful.

Email? Sure Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Honestly, I clicked around the site and didn't find anything too useful for my needs. Or maybe it's because I currently do not have a problem with potholes or lights. I would find it really useful if the site had some information about landlord complaints in my ward. This would definitely help me find a nice apartment. I did click on Rodent Bating Complaint and I saw how many cases were opened. i will definitely contact 311. Maybe you should make the box at the bottom of the brief information another color. I just realized that is where I can access information and view city data. Do you like the service type page? No Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I loved the photos I love that once you click on a photo it tells you when it was opened, reviewed and closed. This is simple and clear. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I think this website will probably be more useful for people who live in wards with many issues like poor roads, often light outage etc.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Overall I think it is a good website, I can tell you guys took a lot of time and thought into creating this website. I will share this link with my coworkers and friends.

2013-11-25 10:23:58

Tester #: 20

Tester Profile (given by tester): IT lover


311? No

Care to explain? Not aware of the website before.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Provide a tool for Chicago residents to report/view issues within wards and to request the city to address those issues. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Other Tell us more about the first thing you did. Interact with the map in the background. - Drag the map by holding left mouse button while cursor is on the map, and move the mouse (worked) - Tried to zoom in the map by rotating the mouse wheel (not worked) Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Not being able to zoom in the map to see the streets around the ward boundaries makes it very difficult for someone not knowing their ward number to find their ward. But since I knew my ward number before landing on the site, and I know the rough relative location of my ward to the city, I was able to find my ward (48) and clicked on it. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? It's not obvious to me that what I can share on the social network, and what positive changes I could help to make by sharing it.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. The stats data is not that helpful to me, and data itself seems to be very scarce, making the page feel like a lonely place.

Do you like the service type page? No Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I LOVE THIS PAGE! Page is concise, clean, easy to navigate, and make the site feel active and vibrant (people are helping to make the city better). I especially love the timeline that appears after clicking a photo, it assured me that someone is taking actions toward these request, and from the records those actions have been taken promptly. The details about the place where the request is at great. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I like the design and philosophy behind the site. The UI looks clean and modern even compared to the ad agencies' fancy marketing sites. Definitely a light year's leap from most of the current government sites (e.g. http://www.treasurer.il.gov/). I also like the community-driven aspect of the site, the Photos page is the best one I see. Looks like the site is built by someone that does know modern front-end techs (bootstrap, angular, html5 boilerplate). Suggestions: - use require to modularize and load the JS files - enable gzip - try to concatenate and minify more JS and CSS files - try to come up with a reasonable caching scheme for the static resources

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Sites like these can be very helpful if advertised properly and have a central location where people can easily access. Pages like http://www.smartchicagocollaborative.org/list-of-apps-for-metro-chicago-applicants/ is not that easy to find by people (long url and low SEO ranking), and the form of the list is not that user-friendly. A dedicated, well-designed, properly advertised site, with a good domain (e.g. chicagoapps.com or similar) could be very helpful and worthwhile to promote these great webapps. Thanks for the opportunity for me to be part of this survey!

2013-11-25 10:30:25

Tester #: 21

Tester Profile (given by tester): Ashley


311? Yes

Care to explain? No water pressure in my apartment.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? gives you safety information by ward Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on the date Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on the date, because it was displaying the wrong date. After I clicked on the date, wanted to know what was going on in my ward, however I did not know my ward number so I clicked on different wards until I found my ward. I also zoomed into the map (looking for my cross streets), to ensure that I was viewing my ward. Then I looked at the bottom for the information. Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. The sites tells me that there were 13 cases, I would like to know what the 13 cases are (were). I scrolled down thinking that information would be there, but it just showed me the history. I also attempted to click on them, and saw that was not an option. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I don't know what I would be sharing, the history or the number of events. What is the purpose of sharing? To let people know what is going on in wards? If I were trying to get someone to live in a building in the neighborhood I may be more prone to share

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Pothole in street, I was able to see where the pothole incidents were called in. I honestly had no idea that you could call for potholes.

Do you like the service type page? No Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I would like the images to be in some kind of order, whether it was by ward or instance. It may also be an option to show a few pictures (by ward or instance) and click to see more, so that visitors are only seeing what they want and not scrolling through a bunch of pictures just because, Do you like the Photos page? No Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

No Tell us more.

The website is ok.. It does although give useful information. I would prefer if it were more user friendly.


2013-11-25 10:57:08

Tester #: 22

Tester Profile (given by tester): Pasta Maker


311? No



� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? This site connects neighborhoods and what's going on in them with residents. If I owned a business in Chicago I believe I would be interested in using this site. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked in the restaurant complaint section. I eat dinner away from home often so I wanted to see the complaint list. I was hoping it would give me insight on the restaurants that practiced cleanliness and those I should avoid. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I am in the 44th ward. Tom Tunney is the alderman. I found out that one of the biggest problems in my neighborhood is graffiti. I think the charts would be more helpful if there was more data to work with. They seem a little bare. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I don't know many people on social media who live in my ward.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose abandoned vehicles. I felt like I already knew a lot about that specific service. The information to me seems not very interesting.

Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. This was the best part of the website! I feel like with photos people can actually see what needs to be done and in what areas. I would use this part about once a week probably. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

For me I would look at the parts that pertained to me and my specific area of tr neighborhood.


2013-11-25 11:48:52

Tester #: 23

Tester Profile (given by tester): monideedustcoupons


311? Yes

Care to explain? I contacted 311 to request the street light be repaired and potholes.



Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? I think the site breaks down the city of Chicago and shows you what problems people are reporting in their neighborhoods. Yes, it will inform me of what is going on in my neighborhood. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. The first thing I did was click services, so that I could see exactly what this site was for. I then checked my ward to see the percentage of things that had been reported. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. yes, the contact information is very valuable. The. charts were easy to understand. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I don't want people knowing where I reside.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I like being able to see what's going on in my ward. Do you like the service type page? Yes

Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. The photos provide more detail and insight on what you are researching. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.


2013-11-25 11:54:00

Tester #: 24

Tester Profile (given by tester): Fairweather 311 Caller


311? Yes

Care to explain? I used it via phone to submit a request to have a tree trimmed. We had to call back a few times to actually have it done. The process was a little annoying.


� Block club � Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It initially seems to be a way for Ward leaders to compete against each other for the best service rankings. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "About" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on "About" because I wasn't sure what the site did. Although after clicking on that tab, I still didn't see a way it would be relevant/helpful to me. Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. At first I had a hard time locating my Ward (1) because I didn't see that there was a "Ward" tab at first and I was using the map. I don't think the Alderman's name and contact info should be in light gray, as it doesn't grab your eye as an active contact link. The charts made sense, but aren't that helpful to me unless I could see them up against, say, the Chicago average. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I only have one or two friends that live in my ward

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose Restaurant Complaints, but didn't really learn anything. the most recent date was in Sept 13, a while ago. Also, which restaurants actually had the complaints??

Do you like the service type page? No Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I still don't get why all the charts on the Services pages would be helpful to me. There's no who/what/when/where/why, etc. UNTIL you click the photos. That's the only tab that really held my interest as I could look up specific complaints with pics. Yes, I understood the photos came from 311 submissions. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

No Tell us more.

It would be nice to have a form on the site to contact your alderman directly, instead of having to go to their site to do it. I still don't know what audience would find it helpful "as is." I mean, I don't think people would use it as a tool to decide which Ward to live in based on the info given, or decide if their Alderman should be rehired, etc.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Nah. Thanks for letting me do the survey!

2013-11-25 11:55:44

Tester #: 25

Tester Profile (given by tester): Music editor, citizen of Chicago


311? Yes

Care to explain? A streetlight was out on my street.


� Block club

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Tells you what's being reported where. What neighborhoods have problems with streetlights, what neighborhoods have stop lights out, and so on. Or at least where that's being reported. I think it's a neat concept, but I don't know that I'd actually use it. If I report a stoplight being out, I don't know that I need to go "huh, there are a lot of stoplights being reported out in Edgewater," or whatever. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I immediately went to where I live. I thought it was interesting in my neighborhood to see what was being reported. As a member of my area's Facebook block group, I wasn't surprised to see it was graffiti, but I was pleased to know that there haven't been any restaurant complaints in the near future. I also liked seeing how many complaints were closed, though I'm not sure what that means. Does that mean that 24 graffiti complaints were made Wednesday and that the blasters came out and cleaned them all up the same day? That doesn't seem probable. But maybe I'm just pessimistic about city services. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. See above. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? It's kind of interesting, though I don't know that I'd share it more than once.


I chose "alley light out," and actually found the page really interesting and informative. It's interesting to know what wards to better than others, though I wonder whether that's related to what wards are full of busybodies/active citizens and what wards just somehow manage to keep their lights from burning out. It did make me want to call in the light near my building. Or be more vigilant about spotting problems in my neighborhood. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I could easily find them, and I love the photos. I imagine it makes it easier for those city workers who are out looking for the graffiti described in a phone call. I definitely understand where the pics came from, and I want to use this in the future. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I would definitely use the website. It's so easy and clean. I'm interested to see the immediate results. As in, if I report something there, will the city get to it immediately? I'd especially like to know about potholes in my neighborhood, as those are certainly problematic.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Thanks guys!

2013-11-25 12:05:26

Tester #: 26

Tester Profile (given by tester): Student?


311? No

Care to explain? Haven't used 311


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Find service requests in Chicago by ward Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Other Tell us more about the first thing you did. Read the left sidebar Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. The left sidebar should align to the far left. On my monitor it sits in the middle, which is aesthetically strange. Also, when I click on a ward, why not just have that info pop up on the same screen? That way I can click on adjacent wards too instead of having to navigate back and forth. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? Not interesting

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Alley light out. Overall it looks fine. The checkmark to indicate completed services is a bit odd. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience.

This page looks nice. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

No Tell us more.

Well it's not that I don't like it, it's that it just doesn't seem to stand out.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Can I change my mailing address? [address removed for privacy]

2013-11-25 12:15:20

Tester #: 27

Tester Profile (given by tester): JV10


311? No

Care to explain? I have not used 311 before.


� Aldermanic ward night

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It appears to contain 311 information, by ward, on a number of different types of service requests. It Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Photos" Tell us more about the first thing you did. Clicked on the photos button at the top of the page. Saw that most pictures were of graffiti, so sorted using the left column to see other pictures of what people were reporting. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Clicked 2 under the ward button at the top. The charts were easy to understand, and a nice brief narrative regarding how quickly items were closed and how that ranked with the other wards. I like that there are links to facebook, twitter, etc. for the alderman, so an easy way to contact them. Very surprised by the huge amount of time for rodent baiting/rat complaint. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? Maybe if there was something interesting I would share, but nothing seemed that important.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose "pothole in street". Interesting to see how many are open and closed. Also to see which areas have the most reported. The colors are a little too similar, and when you put your mouse over Thursday, it appeared to change color and be the same as Friday, so it was a little confusing. I don't know why the top would be listed with 2.5/5/7.5/etc. When is there a half reported pothole?

Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Already did this above. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.


2013-11-25 12:31:52

Tester #: 28

Tester Profile (given by tester): I LOVE CHICAGO


311? Yes

Care to explain? I called about the very bad potholes in the street in front of my house.


� Aldermanic ward night � Local school council � Block club � Neighborhood watch

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Personally it is for finding out information about what is going on in the Wards across the city. I love it if they had the address's of the restaurants that would be great. It it were available it is something that I would definitely use! Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. Went to the restaurant complaints. I was hoping that they would have listed the address but they had no restaurant complaints listed for the entire city. I find that hard to believe that I at least expected to see which restaurants had complaint so we would know which to avoid. Somewhat but with a little work it is fine. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. It is very informative and it was no problem finding my ward. The contact information is not available if they added that it would be very useful and the charts are very helpful it explains everything. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? Because people may not know about it!

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Restaurant complaints. Yes the charts are very informative but it does not tell you the name or location of the restaurant. Information is of no value because they only show you the numbers by ward more is needed. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I think that it is a very good idea because if people know that you can post photos of what you have a problem with in your ward it will encourage others to do so as well. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

After they fix a couple of things I would use it regularly to see what is going on. More information about the Restaurant Complaints. More information about the Restaurant Complaints!

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? No not at this time always will to help in anyway!

2013-11-25 13:17:35

Tester #: 29

Tester Profile (given by tester): South Shore 311 User


311? Yes

Care to explain? I called several times to report street lights being out


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It lets you know what requests were made through 311 in Chicago Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on Street Lights All/Out, then I clicked on my ward, the 7th ward. I can see how many requests are opened and closed. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I see that none of the request for my ward from the past week have been closed. In fact most of the requests for the city as a whole have not been closed (in terms of street lights) Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? It show how the city is functioning in terms of services

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I looked at the pot holes service page. Again I see how many open requests there are. There are only two in my ward. The chart makes sense. It it color coded by the day of the week. Do you like the service type page? Yes

Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Oh! That's nice that you can attach a photo to your service request. This is a great feature. It would be nice to be able to sort by ward. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I will definitely use this website again especially if I make a street lights out request. I can see how many requests are coming from my ward and if they are being closed.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Nothing more to add.

2013-11-25 13:33:34

Tester #: 30

Tester Profile (given by tester): Active parent


311? Yes

Care to explain? I reported a abandoned vehicle that was parked in front of my house for more then a month. I reported it thru the website.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? I think it helps Chicago residence to know the number of incidents that are reported in each ward, by different service category. Yes, it is interesting for me because I will know what is going on in my ward and what had been reported and if it has been solved. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Wards" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I went to see the things that has been reported in the ward I live and if it has been close or if its still open. I was thinking that people actually report the things that need to be fix in the city and I was happy to see this. I never thought people were actually reporting the the things needed in the city especially in the ward I live in. I thought when I clicked on my ward number I was not going to see a lot of things reported to the city to fix, I actually saw that people do report the things needed to the fix to the city. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Yes, I was able to find my ward. Yes, I like the contact information. The charts were a bit confusing but I tried my best to understand them. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I don't have any social media page

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Graffiti removal. I choose this one because in my ward their is always graffiti and I wanted to know if it

had gone down or up. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I saw the pictures and when I clicked on photos a lot of photos came up from different wards and saw all of them. Yes the pictures had the ward number on them. Yes I will be checking the pictures in the future. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I think it should be in other languages so all Chicago residence could also see it and understand it. I will use it as is, I understand it. It will help me know what is being reported more then less in my ward.


2013-11-25 14:26:15

Tester #: 31

Tester Profile (given by tester): Rogers Parker


311? No



� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It compiles and shows requests for minor infrastructure repairs made by residents of the city. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I scrolled up on the map to see the entirety of the city of Chicago. Then I clicked on the ward I live in. Then I looked at the legend and learned about the boundaries/what areas are going to be changing wards in the future. I wasn't expecting anything except a number of city requests made, instead I got information about ward boundaries. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I was able to find my ward easily. Was surprised to see all the social media links easily for my alderman. The charts make sense, I understood how many were made and that the check mark indicated how many were closed. I would like to be able to click the chart information to find out more about the locations of the requests. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? I think some Chicago friends would be interested in the information held on the site.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. The only service type available was the graffiti removal because no other requests were made in my ward. The charts make sense. The information is only valuable in that I can see how much the city is

fulfilling the requests overall. I don't know where they are being fulfilled however. And I don't know who is closing the requests; is it the requester? or the city? Are they closed only when the grafitti is removed? Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. This is a really cool section. I assume the pictures came from the residents making the city request. I would use it in the future. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I've made requests in the past and would use this site to make any requests in the future. It looks like the city responds to the site quickly and it's is easy to navigate.


2013-11-25 14:28:52

Tester #: 32

Tester Profile (given by tester): northside neighbor


311? No

Care to explain? I haven't called 311.



Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? This site gives me an overview of Chicago and various 311 requests. By viewing the map I can see which wards request maintenance. It took me a couple times going back to the homepage, but I realized that I could change the map by scrolling through the dates in the column on the left. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I first clicked on the map. It took me to the ward page and I looked through those stats for a bit. I tried to click on the graph thinking it might tell me more about the incidents it represented, but it didn't. At this point I started looking through the other links on the top nav bar. I scrolled through the pictures and took a look at one request page. At this point I decided to try to find my own ward, which, conveniently, is the next question. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I wanted to be able to type my address into a field and have it tell me my ward. I realized this was a bit silly when I when I went back to the homepage and remembered I could just click on the ward. However it took me a few clicks to find my ward. The map is pretty small and it cuts off the top wards. (I'm just now realizing I could have moved the map a bit). Once I found my ward I was again wishing that the graphs linked to the 311 requests. I'd be interested in checking into my ward every so often to see what kinds of requests have been made, and the status/images for each request. It would be great if all this information were linked from the ward page. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email?

Why or why not? If something big happened in my neighborhood I might want to link/talk about it on social media, but more than likely I'd just post my own picture of it if I was there.

Nah Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I look a look through the traffic signal out page because it was a request type that came up on my ward page. Again I found myself wishing that the page provided more information when I scrolled over the map. I'd love to be able to click to the incidents from that page and see if they have been closed or not. The information on the service type page was interesting, but I wasn't quite sure what use I'd have for it on its own as an everyday citizen. It was interesting to see how my ward stacked up against other wards on the incident, but I needed to have navigated to this page from my ward page for that comparison to hit home much. I liked the text to the side that explained what the service type meant, tho I found myself wishing it were written in less dense language. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. In terms of browsing, this was the best page. It was interesting to see the images of what Chicagoans think needs to be fixed around their city. I really wanted to be able to see these images on the Ward page when I scrolled over the incident graphs. I clicked on some of the images and liked being able to see if the ticket was closed or open. But I felt frustrated with some of the language on that page and it took me a little bit to realize that I'd navigated away from the ChicagoWorksForYou site. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I like to stay up to date on what is happening around my neighborhood. I read hyper local sites like Uptown Update and could see adding this one to my mix. I'd be looking to see what request types had been submitted and to see if those had been addressed. Perhaps it would prompt me to put in a 311 request myself if I see that something I noticed around the neighborhood hasn't yet been reported. However, if I did, my ward page would really be my dashboard for viewing the site. I like that the homepage shows me all of Chicago, but when I click on my ward, I'd love that ward page to have a little more functionality than it does.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? I hope my comments have been helpful. I'm happy to answer any additional questions you may have.

2013-11-25 14:31:25

Tester #: 33

Tester Profile (given by tester): LSC APMA


311? Yes

Care to explain? Graffiti removal from our building. Website.


� Aldermanic ward night � Local school council � Block club

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Amalgamates complaints to 311 by type. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Wards" Tell us more about the first thing you did. Used the map to find MY ward. Are there any places I need to watch out for or avoid. I expected to see the TYPES of complaints instead of the NUMBER. I had to click on individual types to find out what they were (all graffiti). Also, it seems that not all the requests were closed - which makes me wonder how the "time to close" can be 0.14 days with so many still opened. Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I was able to find my ward. There is no contact information, just links to other media outlets. It would be better if the number and address were there. As per the above, I expected to see the TYPES of complaints instead of the NUMBER. I had to click on individual types to find out what they were (all graffiti). Also, it seems that not all the requests were closed - which makes me wonder how the "time to close" can be 0.14 days with so many still opened. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? This is not info that is useful to me plus there are other sites that provide it.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Sanitation code violation. It was interesting to find out there were no complaints in my ward. The chart makes sense. I do not find it compelling. What I REALLY want to know is how my alderman VOTES on specific issues. I have seen a couple sites similar to chicagoworksforyou but they all talk about potholes and not so much on the real issues like parking meters, TIF, etc. Do you like the service type page? No Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I dont find the photo feature useful for THIS website, but if the photos could be used and fed into some kind of site that tracked gangs by their tagging, now THAT would be useful. Do you like the Photos page? No Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

No Tell us more.

As I said above, there are a couple similar sites - but I dont think that an alderman should be judged on whether or not the potholes are filled - that should be a city servant job. Aldermen should be judged on criteria such as how much they: 1 - Hold public meetings 2 - Ask for citizens opinions on upcoming votes 3 - How they vote on issues 4 - How much they educate their ward on important issues (education funding, privatization stance, etc) I have a CRAP alderman, but everything thinks she is good because she sends out a weekly newsletter, which doesnt tell me anything I cannot find out from my neighborhood group. A true open data movement would start making VOTES easy to access for citizens.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Thanks for letting me participate. I like the idea of the opengov movement and really looking forward to some tools that I think would be helpful in Chicago.

2013-11-25 14:38:04

Tester #: 34

Tester Profile (given by tester): Fanatic in ordering Service for East Garfield Park, or anywhere else in

the city What browser are you using? Firefox Have you ever made a service request through

311? Yes

Care to explain? I use the telephone to have contact with 311.



Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? The site allows residents to use technology to order services from various city departments. It is interesting. Why? Taking photos shows that a real problem exists. Using 311 without photos is limited to the ability of the caller and the 311 operator using WORDS. Pics are worth a thousand words and the same goes for Judges. The site also shows numerical information which more or less tells how many others called in for service during a time period by department. It is interesting to see that not many calls are called in. I am interested because I believe that technology can solve the vast and enormous waste problem in delivering city services. Oftentimes city services are dispatched as many as 17 times and the problem does not get fixed. Taxpayers pay and the problem does not get fixed. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on services to see how many services were ordered under the listed categories. I looked by ward to see if the service orders I made via email were there. I had ordered services from Cdot (block of lights out), FLY DUMPING (5 locations all city owned vacant lots) , Cdot (street repair Apr-Oct various locations), charitable FOOD TRUCK problems. I did not have enough time to look into the detail for each order for this survey. Expections were met Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. This site does a good job of showing the wholistic view of ordering city services. The Annotations depicts in a utopian world what is supposed to happen with an order made on 311. It demystifies the 311 process and hopefully will make a better user experience that can translate into better actual dispatching of service in Chicago inner city areas aka ghettos now on the French travel advisory :-( The DUPLICATE feature as described is not accurate for ordering services in the ghetto areas of town. Perhaps that is because DUPLICATES are not scrutinized enough by the ward superintendents who are supposed to sort out the MEANING of a duplicate. A foia of [address removed for privacy] will show

60 orders for a trash pick up and a trash can in the 2012-2013 years. WHY? were the city services ordered NOT done??? This is important. U guys need to scrutinize this address under S&S orders. The charts make sense. But MAYBE putting the wards Horizontally and the item ordered vertically would be easier to navigate. There needs to be more items on this list including POLICE PROBLEMS. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? Ward 28 residents and MANY in underserved neighborhoods are CLULESS on how to get city services

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I have ordered street lights out in different wards in the last 30 days. I was not able to tell if the orders were picked up by 311. I know the lights were fixed. I believe that the light department is entering data into the 311 site when they are completing the work, meaning the order should be present in the 311 system. The info is valuable, but I am not sure if it was picked up. I clicked each main topic (Headings) and looked at each. They were clear and easy to understand. The site is biased towards those who are technology buffs and do not include how those in the digital divide will get access? Perhaps you can do a DIGITAL night at some locations and citizens can USE YOU instead of using an ALDERMAN forum. Or perhaps you can approach an ALDERMAN and the alderman can segway into your internet features, and let YOU enter the data for the citizen!!! You could be their tutor....and see the REAL situation on the streets. TECHNOLOGY needs to solve problems for the worst neighborhoods. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. The photos clearly depict problems. However, not everyone has a smart phone so those with smart phones will have a leg up on those who do not. This may skew delivery of services and create an even bigger imbalance. I would suggest to all neighbors with a smart phone to use this site and send in photos The feature was easy to understand. Not sure if photos were clear. Graffiti shots could be clear enough for an inspector or service provider to find the locale. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I would like to see the source of the order. Example: 311, 311 online, Commissioner, Mayor. It is important to note that in MOST ghetto neighborhoods there are fewer calls for service because calling for service did not provide service, only frustration. How??? Will services be ordered in neighborhoods where demoralized occupants don't call anymore? That should fall under the ALDERMANS' scope and perhaps a RATE YOUR ALDERMAN should be tallied on this

site. You tally and RANK service. There should be a way for this site to ZING aldermen and make it competitive for them to improve their numerical Rankng! That would be fun to incite competition between aldermen to go from say rank 33 to rank 5 :-)

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? The WARD page loaded blank. I had to scroll down to find the graph. This site should send weekly emails to aldermen giving their RANKING by ward. This would show aldermen whether services are being performed in a timely fashion. I believe the data is not accurate...I see very low timeframes for service being done. The REALITY is that in ghettos service is ordered, service dispatched, service not performed, service ordered again over and over and over. This site doe snot capture any of this DISTORTION and waste of taxpayer $$ by sending crews over and over and over. I think if you do a foia for 3265 W. Washington Blvd under the SEWER DEPARTMENT for the past 10 years...you can see service ordered multiple times; the work orders...and the problem STILL exists! How will your data catch this? It does not appear to do so. Maybe your site should mesh with the Inspector General so the IG and Procurement can figure out....what is going on with city services :-)

2013-11-25 14:40:32

Tester #: 35

Tester Profile (given by tester): rastedt


311? No

Care to explain? I have called 311 in the past but was never connected anyone.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Provides data visualization for types of requests handled by 311. Includes a heatmap by ward of the number of a certain request type, charts per-ward by service and the reverse (per-service by ward). This site does not provide direct assistance for submitting requests, though links to the appropriate page are provided (but not from the main template). Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I couldn't remember my ward number, so I attempted to identify it from the streets on the map. The wards have very minor transparency so this was a difficult task, resulting in a few click through to ward page where it is a little easier to identify ward boundaries. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. (see previous response) Would have been helpful to be able to visit nearby wards from a particular ward page. Would also be nice to denote locations of complaints on the map. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I don't share on Facebook often, and use twitter in a more professional capacity

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Restaurant Complaint Counts across wards are somewhat interesting, might find it more useful when evaluating wards ahead of a move or visit.

Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Sufficient linkage back to wards / service types to make it useful. Wish photos were just part of the services/wards pages. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I miss EveryBlock and provides some of the information I would get from that site. I would likely use this more frequently if ward pages were more than just counts.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Great to see this stuff getting evaluated by the general public.

2013-11-25 14:50:38

Tester #: 36

Tester Profile (given by tester): pretty new in the city


311? Yes

Care to explain? Had my bicycle stolen, called to report it


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? show history of events that happened in different wards Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. clicked on different services to compare, then tried to zoom to look for my ward (didn't zoom with scroll wheel, couldn't find +/- buttons). then clicked on what I thought was my ward, it wasn't, remembered that mine was 46, went to "wards" button and chose 46. looked at the graphs, found interesting which wards were the ones with a huge time-to-close and went to check them out. Wards with a low time-to-close are almost invisible and difficult to differentiate. Did this meet your expectations? Select one Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. copy-paste from previous: clicked on what I thought was my ward, it wasn't, remembered that mine was 46, went to "wards" button and chose 46. looked at the graphs, found interesting which wards were the ones with a huge time-to-close and went to check them out. Wards with a low time-to-close are almost invisible and difficult to differentiate. the graph "days with most <something> requests" doesn't seem useful, something like "total of last months" would make more sense as you can see if it's trending down or up for the last 4-6 months. The graph as it is now is just noise data. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I hate the impersonal share button, when I share I do with on a per-person basis

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. it looks nice, only thing I would add is when hovering on a color, it would seem useful to highlight that day for all the other wards. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Maybe it should also be sortable by wards. As it is there is too much non-important information for me to be useful Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

nice interface but some things are too large scope. Maybe save in a cookie the ward I'm in and show mainly contextual data that would be useful to me.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Thank you for your work!

2013-11-25 14:55:54

Tester #: 37

Tester Profile (given by tester): logancircler


311? Yes

Care to explain? Traffic signal outage, building code violations.



Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? What do you think this site does? Zip, zero, nada... Yet another waste of tax payer money in the form of more high tech lip-gloss. Calls to 311 are not properly entered, and quite often not at all. Waugespack and Colon's office have verified this. What good is "improving" accesss to data if it is never entered to begin with? Your database is short real info. What a waste! Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. Clicked services in the white area, not the nav. Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Could do with a graph or calendar as opposed to having to click day to day. Pretty useless function when trying to get a specific date or compare or get the long view. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? Site is a waste of time and unimaginatively made.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Street lights - inaccurate data as verified by 32nd ward. Do you like the service type page? No

Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. see above Do you like the Photos page? No Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

No Tell us more.

bye Do you like the CUTGroup? No Did you like this CUTGroup test? No Anything else you want to add? unsubscribe me

2013-11-25 15:01:29

Tester #: 38

Tester Profile (given by tester): River's Edge


311? Yes

Care to explain? Tree-trimming in parkway - I called and talked to an operator. Also I have called to check about power outages and water stoppages in my area - length of time, area affected, etc.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Lists the types and frequency of service requests in Chicago. It could be helpful in figuring out what kind of problems are occurring in your neighborhood. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on the service type "Pavement Cave-in Survey" because it sounded interesting. Then I saw that you could see the requests for the type of service broken down by ward and by date. I clicked through a few more service types and looked to see the types of activity in my ward. I liked how each service type page explained what the service was and could take you immediately to a City 311 request form to report or request that type of service. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I was able to find my ward easily on the map on the homepage and click through. The charts were easy to understand. I did not know about the Councilmatic site, so I am pleased to learn about it through the contact information listed by my alderman. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? It could be useful information for my neighbors

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I went back to the homepage and clicked on "Abandoned Vehicle." The charts make sense and I did find

the information both valuable and compelling, as I did not know what the City classified as an abandoned vehicle. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I went to the photo section which I thought was pretty cool, and I definitely would use it in the future. I think it's an efficient way to report an issue, as the City can easily identify the problem spot when they send someone out to fix it. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I would like to see the services section expanded to include more types of requests (e.g. I've called for tree trimming and water stoppage before, and I don't see those listed)


2013-11-25 15:07:23

Tester #: 39

Tester Profile (given by tester): Clueless college student


311? No

Care to explain? I've never made a service request.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It looks like a place where people can go to view/report problems as they see them across the city, broken down into separate wards. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. After reviewing the homepage, I saw that services were listed in the bar beside the Chicago map, so I figured I would get more information regarding each listing on the actual 'Services' page. I followed the first option to 'Abandoned Vehicles,' where I found a very organized chart of opened/closed cases broken down into separate wards. I then went to the 'About' tab, to better find out the purpose of everything. Although it doesn't seem problems are received through the website, it provides up-to-date statistics for anyone and everyone who may need them. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. My ward was really easy to find, and it was surprising how much information is readily presented. The charts are well-labeled and are really interesting to read through. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I generally don't share much of anything on Facebook, but I would readily recommend this website to friends I know are interested in relevant matters.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I looked at Graffiti Removal. I like how concisely everything is broken down on the main chart.

However, after looking at my specific ward and seeing highs noted for each service, I think it would be interesting to see overall highs listed on the service page. I also finally found where to submit a request for the service. It wasn't hard to find, yet also wasn't totally obvious. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I like the overall view, as well as a menu to choose specific issues. I also like how upon viewing the picture, it updates whether or not the specific case is closed. Perhaps an asterisk (*) could denote closed or open cases on the overall page. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

This is full of information I didn't know. And it's definitely quite interesting to see statistics displayed for the whole city. I don't know if I will ever have the need to use this again, but if I experience some kind of problem requiring 311, I will definitely consult the page to see if others nearby are experiencing the same problem.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? This was pretty interesting, and I'm glad to have been a part of it!

2013-11-25 15:10:40

Tester #: 40

Tester Profile (given by tester): AllisonRae


311? Yes

Care to explain? Reporting street light outages, burst water mains, and our car being stolen.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It looks like a giant map of Chicago which indicates, ward by ward, what complaints are being reported Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I located then clicked on my ward. Although it appeared there would be no data available ("0 requests"), I suppose my first impulse was to see what was happening in my neighborhood. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. It was easy to locate, and the hierarchy of info made perfect sense. The complaints menu on the left is easy to use, and with more data, the graphs seem like they would provide a quick visual snapshot as to what's happening. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? Probably just email, like to email the page to someone else in my household.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Graffiti removal: I think initially I was expecting to see details on the actual reports/complaints, though after spending a few minutes on the page, realized that this info was available on the linked City of Chicago website. I liked that there was a direct link to submit a report online. (Sometimes it takes forever to Google my way into completing tasks like that on the often disorganized City of Chicago sites). Overall the page seemed well-designed, but I didn't personally find the information all that useful.

Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. This is really cool! I've uploaded pics via the 311 app and it's pretty interesting to see them here and realize they aren't in a black hole somewhere. I assume the thumbnails are indexed in newest-to-oldest fashion - it would be cool if there was a filter to re-sort by ward (so I could quickly zip to Ward 36, for example, to see at a glance whether the tags in my neighborhood had already been reported). Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

Well, it's really clean and easy to use. Frankly, it's a breath of fresh air after having used (or tried to use) other municipal websites, Chicago and elsewhere. Bringing in even more information (crime/police reports, etc.) would make me even more likely to visit.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Sorry I couldn't figure out the Google Hangout issue. I was having to download new plugins, and then the prompt said I was going to be video-ed, which I wasn't prepared for - I thought it was just a screenshare. Anyway, thanks!

2013-11-25 15:10:46

Tester #: 41

Tester Profile (given by tester): Frenchie


311? No

Care to explain? I have not used 311 Recently but I know for sure that It isn't too hot my mom and dad use to use it and get billed like crazy It is not a cheap service I can tell you!



Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? To assist Chicagoans Really that is what comes to my mind. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. Because it came flashing at my eyes first. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I felt like the site was super beneficial for me It was detailed in a way. I like the concept of it how it was created very informative The Charts to me make sense I can tell fast because how there set up on this website. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? Because i don't think anyone would care

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I was able to find everything that I wanted to look out for It was super easy for me but maybe not other people. Do you like the service type page? Yes

Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I was able to see all images I understand where everything belonged also it was informative. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

It is extremely beneficial not hard to figure out It's not like I halfto go and make a call to tech support to find everything.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? It is a well groomed site in my perspective!!!!

2013-11-25 15:23:18

Tester #: 42

Tester Profile (given by tester): it's 20 minutes


311? Yes

Care to explain? To report street lights and alley lights that were out.


� Aldermanic ward night � Block club

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Provides Chicago geodata. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I poked around to see what the site was offering and is about. I had no expectations but am still not sure why these data are relevant to me. For example, why would I care that my ward had the highest # of complaints about abandoned vehicles in January 2009. Not relevant at all. Did this meet your expectations? Select one Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Again, I can't understand why data from 2008 and 2009 are relevant. These data are no indication that the has become more responsive. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I don't see the purpose

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Sanitation codes. Gives me highest dates from 2010 - 2013. With no background detail, these data are irrelevant. and there is a huge difference between someone complaining and actual violations and more importantly, responsiveness to fix the regulatory issue.

Do you like the service type page? No Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. The photos, with associated data, are more purposeful. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

No Tell us more.

I think it will be a good tool for neighborhood organizations who struggle with Aldermen offices to get things done. It might also provide a monitoring tool for things such as graffiti.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? nope.

2013-11-25 15:31:29

Tester #: 43

Tester Profile (given by tester): NWsider MACKro and MIKEro


311? Yes

Care to explain? I know I've done it, I'm trying to recall, it was once several years ago and I believe had to do with special trash removal. At the time certainly I would have done it via telephone. I'm sorry, I'm blanking out right now!


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It does appear to be a way to communicate 311-esque types of neighborhood service requests to the city (I assume) Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I'm immediately drawn to the map, I assume that by finding and clicking on my ward that I'll find out something related to my neighborhood. It sort of meets my expectations. Primarily because I realize, hey cool, this looks like it might be a way to easily request and track any service requests I might have. I guess I'm less interested in the service performance of the district than I am in having a quick and easy way to make service requests. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. My answer to the previous question effectively answers this question. I'm not as concerned about my ward performance, although, I'd qualify that by saying, i'm not completely disinterested. If I can see that nothing is getting done in my ward it may spark me to act or engage with the ward office to find out what's going on. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? I am connected in one way or another with multiple people who live in the city. We live in a "social" world...I embrace that.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. So, now I realize this is not a tool to submit service requests, which dramatically lowers it's usefulness. This reminds me of the "health options" site I tested which was essentially a data aggregator with no value add per se. Unless you're an academician or statistician, knowing this information is basically irrelevant. I clicked on graffiti and did see a way to link to the city to report graffiti so that's good, but, unless the city itself used this site as a point of entry to their services I see no use for it, again, unless I'm a researcher, reporter or some other information gatherer....as a resident I don't really care about the minutiae of the data, I just want it requests done as quickly as possible and I want to be able to communicate my requests quickly and easily. I would say that if the citi of chicago used this as their entry point, then a global snapshot of stats doesn't hurt, but, the primary feature I note is city definitions of each service and links to deal with them. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. yes and no...it would be nice if there were an app to submit a photo easily...I do like the tracking functionality that's shown here, not sure how effective, up to date and accurate that would be, but, if it were effective, up to date and accurate that's a nice feature. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

My yes answers are qualified in that I would use this site as is if it were the primary portal that were a layer above actual city services. Ultimately, statistical information is fun and nice and trivially interesting...however, it would HAVE to be a way to directly plug in to those actual services to be of any real value. Not sure if that makes any sense! aggregating and displaying information without providing paths to resolution on the services displayed becomes an exercise in frustration or midnight fodder for the less socially inclined of the world.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? I'm happy to offer whatever feedback I can. I truly like the "spirit" of the two tests I've participated in so far, however, they both shared the characteristic of aggregating and reporting of statistical information. Without being able to drill down and create actions towards resolutions of a goal then I can't find actual value in terms of solving real problems, you've done nothing of real value to the average joe...in my opinion...Thanks!

2013-11-25 16:05:19

Tester #: 44

Tester Profile (given by tester): Northside Transplant


311? No

Care to explain? Calling 311 seemed like too much work. Did not know about Open311 until this summer.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Make service requests, provide data Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. Explored service types, looking for wards I am familiar with. I was interested in to see the average requests for comparison. It would have been nice to zoom into the map, or get a close-up of a ward. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Found it by click on the homepage map -- took a few tries because I couldn't zoom in enough to get a good look. Explored the service requests from this week. Since there weren't many, an overall or monthly chart might be more interesting. It was good to learn the name of my Alderman -- I followed him on Twitter. I hadn't heard of Councilmatic before, so I checked that out. It was useful to see ward changes on the map. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I've just moved to the neighborhood and don't spend much time here. I would have been more interested to share the information of my old ward, where I knew more people.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Sanitation Code Violation -- this one is interesting, because many requests are still open. It would have been more useful to see what type of violations had been made (worker practices vs rodents etc), or to be able to click on the bars to open up a pop-up with the request/picture, or to be taken there. Close

time and averages would have been interesting data to see. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. This part is great. It's interesting to look through the photos, see recurring tags, and the notification feature is useful. This was probably the part of the site I would be most likely to re-visit if I didn't have a specific purpose for visiting the site. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

More data and more analysis would be great. But it's useful, and I can see myself coming back if there's something I want to know more about, or if I were doing research on a related topic. Also: the Annotations page was my favorite. I would follow it just as a blog, honestly. The post on various angles of graffitti and the fact that street crews will repair all potholes on a street they're responding to were both of interest to me.


2013-11-25 16:38:08

Tester #: 45

Tester Profile (given by tester): Sleepy web designer


311? Yes

Care to explain? I have called 311 to report pot holes and broken street signs. I have never texted or used the website.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It is a ward-map-based listing of city service requests. I'm interested, because I am currently considering moving, and being able to compare requests between wards seems useful. Not sure that viewing requests by day is the most useful for my purposes. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I first clicked through the listed services, then clicked on my ward to view its information in depth. It worked about like I expected, though I didn't realize at first that the homepage was only showing a single day's data. I think this site is an interesting display of available data, but I'm not sure that the daily info would be terribly useful to me, vs the data in aggregate over larger periods of time Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I was able to easily find my ward. I like that the contact info was there, and I found it easily, but I worry that it might not be obvious to less web-savvy users. The charts make sense for the most part. The week in review seems a bit odd with the two different icons for requests opened and requests closed -- I clicked through a few charts before I realized that they were showing me two different things on the same chart. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? I think this info could be useful to other city residents

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I was able to find the service type (alley lights out). The charts make sense. I find the information provided in the right column, and the ward comparison chart interesting. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I was able to find the photo feature. I think it is interesting, and I like the detail provided when clicking through to individual photos. It is a bit odd that the photo detail page is on a different website, with no way to get back other than the browser's back button, which again might confuse less web-savvy users. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I would use this site, since I am considering a move. It would be interesting to see the same type of site focusing on other information, like crime data as well. It would be nice to be able to view the data over larger periods of time as well, rather than just daily and weekly. It would also be interesting to be able to compare year over year data.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? There needs to be a "none of the above" option for the "Do you attend any of these types of meetings?" questions.

2013-11-25 16:55:46

Tester #: 46

Tester Profile (given by tester): 3rd Year Student


311? No

Care to explain? I have never made a service request through 311.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? I believe this site allows the user to be more familiar with the happenings in the city in terms of different types of maintenance issues, or possible dangers, etc. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I looked at the Abandoned Vehicles section and tried clicking around, but I wasn't able to click on any of the bars (I thought they were links at first). I was a little confused at how the site was set up, I wasn't sure what exactly I was supposed to be looking for. I assumed that this section would tell me where potential abandoned vehicles were but I couldn't find anywhere that told me specifics. I also wasn't sure what "opened" and "closed" meant. I'm not familiar with this type of site and I've never really had experience with it, so this is all sort of confusing to me. I do like the way that you can click on different wards and see the statistics that way but at the same time, the actual information given is sort of confusing. Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. It's not a straight up no. It somewhat met my expectations. The site seems pretty polished looks-wise. I'm just having trouble processing the information that is given to me through this site. I also do like the color coordination. I assume that the darker the color the more complaints in that area for that particular issue. Although it does seem strange to me that there are only really 0-4 "requests". I'm also not quite sure how "request" is defined, or what exactly a "request" is in this context. Also another question I have is who is submitting these so called requests? I was able to find my ward, and I couldn't find the contact information, but the charts make somewhat sense. See above answer for more detail on charts. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would

Why or why not? Once again the website is confusing and I'm not sure what my peers

you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

would gain from this... I can see that the website is trying to be informative but about what is what confuses me.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose the potholes service type. Once again the charts are confusing... Also the one picture is sort of confusing as well. It would be pretty cool if I could get a picture of every pothole there was a complaint or request about (although I understand that is probably very difficult to achieve). I still don't understand what opened and closed mean. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Once again, not really a solid yes or no, but I do like that it is organized and includes a description, although I feel like there could be a better explanation of what exactly is open and what is closed. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

No Tell us more.

I feel like this website is trying to tell the community important information about itself but it doesn't really achieve this. I would want to see more explanations on the website (a possible tutorial on how exactly to use it when you visit it for the first time), clearer contact numbers (who to contact if you have any questions). The information seems sort of random and scattered, and I still don't know who is making these requests. Is it the community? Are the police making them? Do we have any sort of input on these requests?

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? I do like the remote survey better than the one I had to go to the library for. The particular public library I had to go to was in a very dangerous area and I didn't know before I went... Other than that it has been a pretty good experience being a part of the CUTGroup thus far and I'm definitely willing to give my input on multiple websites.

2013-11-25 17:36:08

Tester #: 47

Tester Profile (given by tester): LP Runner


311? Yes

Care to explain? Rats in alley; ice on Wacker Drive bridge; coyote in neighborhood


� Aldermanic ward night � Neighborhood watch

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? At furst glance, I thought the site was for a hospitality-driven website. Meaning a site that provides info. on what to do and where to HP in the City of Chicago. I did not initially think I'd be interested because there already is an abundance of these types of sites. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "About" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I was trying to learn more about what the site did and in doing so, I looked at the top bar menu options and saw About abd decided to click in that option which informed me the site was associated with 311. Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I was able to find my ward. I found it interesting to learn of the number of call-ins per category. The charts do make sense, however, I found them to be overly vague. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? Not sure it would hold that much appeals

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I looked up the number of rat call-ins and was able to see - by ward - the numbers of incidents reported. Found it really fascinating to see the relatively high numbers to ensure I was not the only person bothered by the growing rat population.

Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Find it more amusing than helpful...storytelling in the city. Do you like the Photos page? No Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I find it very helpful on a number of levels: 1) good for transparency purposes -really authentic data as to what takes place in the city 2) very useful if for instance you'd car gets towed or you need an ice truck in your area 3) easy to report items nice alternative to calling

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Like the opportunity to provide feedback on city-centric services. Thanks

2013-11-25 17:46:49

Tester #: 48

Tester Profile (given by tester): Feeling like an uninvolved Chicagoan.


311? No

Care to explain? Never made a 311 request, yo!


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It lists different services/needs in different neighborhoods of Chicago. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I went to streetlights>all out. I was curious if this was a service to report lights out or examine the trends in the area. When I clicked on different days, I was a little surprise that it pushed me to the map view instead of just giving plain data. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I love the contact information. I thought the chart was helpful, but I was curious in that my ward is ranked 17th but has a quick turnaround time for service (.06 days). How is that calculated? Is it just because there were a lot more service requests put in? Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? I have a decent number of friends who live in my hood who would find it interesting.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. All street lights out: I appreciated the description of how "all out" are categorized and fixed. I really don't like that when I try to go from one day to another (say Nov. 24th to Nov. 21st) it jumps to map view.... what if I don't want map view?

Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Yup- the only problem is the same thing I mentioned above... jumping from the specific service page back to the map. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I think integrating reporting (even though its a separate service) for these issues could be helpful.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? This was really helpful and fun!

2013-11-25 17:57:43

Tester #: 49

Tester Profile (given by tester): Nube Tester


311? Yes

Care to explain? Tried to find out where my vehicle was after being towed.



Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It aggregates all 311 requests by ward and displays it in a map by ward in a easy to use format. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. Clicked on Abandoned Vehicle > Ward 31 It was the first on the list and being a car guy I clicked on it. I expected the map to highlight what areas these requests came from and it did what I expected. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I was able to find my ward fine. The contact info wasn't so easy to determine at first but i hovered over the Ald. name and quickly figured it out. However, I did not know what the icon for Councilmatic was. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? I think it would be useful for people living in the same ward.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Easy to find any service type. The charts make sense but I'm not sure if I would use this site on a regular basis unless I was really interested in this type of data or filing a request. Do you like the service type page? Yes

Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I like this feature especially if I had requested service. This tells me when my request was complete. I would like to see a photo of the completed project as well once it is done. This would be a reassuring feature to the end user. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I would only use it if I needed to report a request. Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add?

2013-11-25 18:05:38

Tester #: 50

Tester Profile (given by tester): i like pizza


311? No

Care to explain? i dont remember ever using it.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? shows how quickly requests were completed and how many requests were made throughout chicago. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I was a little confused what was being shown at first. But I had no idea what 311 was. I know assume 311 is where requests are made and the site shows the results of those. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. i was easily able to find my ward and everything makes sense. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? it doesnt seem urgent to share

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. street lights all out. the info is good and makes sense. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience.

everything seems good here. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

i may use this site if i issue a complaint but otherwise probably would not.


2013-11-25 18:14:04

Tester #: 51

Tester Profile (given by tester): UoC student


311? No

Care to explain? n/a


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Tells us about requests based on location Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "About" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I went to About to see if the site had specific information on what it was serving, as well as background information. I don't know what these service requests are. It gives me information about the display as well as Open311, which is pretty interesting. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. It would be nice if you could zoom in and look at the streets. I'm not sure what ward I'm in. So, I tried clicking a few in the area, looking for some cues. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? My friends aren't interested

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Rodent baiting: It's a pretty good layout, though a little confusing. It needs more explicit labeling Do you like the service type page? Yes

Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. This is actually pretty cool. You can see photos of requests serviced. You see address and person that listed by clicking on the photo. I wouldn't use it, but it's useful to see things in your area. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

It's relatively informational, but not useful to me. Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add?

2013-11-25 18:19:06

Tester #: 52

Tester Profile (given by tester): Involved urban resident


311? Yes

Care to explain? More than once for over a decade; first over the phone, though I've tried the web interface and the new apps that use the API, with mixed results. The web interface complaints (potholes and dead pigeons mostly) get marked 'resolved' quickly when they're not fixed yet; a lot of the things I've tried to report via apps that use the Open311 API come back with the error, "Your city isn't allowing requests on that code."



Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Let the public review and follow what kinds of 311 requests are currently open or recently closed, including by location (ward). Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. Wanted to see stats on pothole requests near where I live. Was shocked at the low number of reported problems: I need to start getting proactive about reporting everything I see! Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. One problem: it's still acting like the old ward map means anything at all, whereas every alderman (in my area, at least) is now acting like their ward is their newly-mapped ward boundaries, not the supposed 'current' ones. If I ask my 'old' alderman for anything, she forwards the email almost unread to my 'new' alderman. However, it does show both old and new boundaries, so that's good. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? There is no share button that I can find on the 'ward' page. There is a link to the alderman's facebook and suchlike pages, though, which is useful.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. The charts are all right, though it only shows a week on the 'how many reports' view, which is limiting. I did find it useful, and would be more so if more people were making reports. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. It's amazing and I love it. I found it very intuitive and incredibly useful. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

So so so much 1000% better than the old 311 web interface. I hope the report-a-problem site undergoes a similarly useful upgrade, since right now it's clunky as heck (among other things, not offering 'pigeon' or 'bird' as a type of dead animal you can report on the 'pick up a corpse' part of the form, and 'other' has no fill-in spot to explain.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Sorry for the long delays; unexpected childcare interventions happened amidst my test. :->

2013-11-25 18:34:59

Tester #: 53

Tester Profile (given by tester): vthky6


311? No

Care to explain? I have not made a request through 311


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Service requests by different areas in the city/dates and the time it takes to respond to requests. I find it interesting to see the 311 calls in my area Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. Clicked on the ward where I currently live Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. It was easy to find my ward and the graphs were easy to read Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? Don't use social media

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I clicked on abandoned vehicle service request and was easily able to identify where these requests took place and whether they were open/closed. The charts are easy to read but the shades of blue on the map were very similar and could be made more distinct Do you like the service type page? Yes

Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I like the photo page, it gives you a better understanding of complaints made, and you can recognize what issues have been attended to Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I think this website is a valuable resource and will visit it in the future Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add?

2013-11-25 18:40:26

Tester #: 54

Tester Profile (given by tester): Non-frequent 311 caller


311? Yes

Care to explain? Used it via phone to request an additional recycling bin.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? I think this site let's you view statistics on the various 311 services used and let's you possibly request 311 services online? It seems like something I might be interested in. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I chose "Services" first because I wanted to see if it offered more than just statistics. Wanted to see if it was an alternative way of requesting 311 services other than through the phone. My expectations were met because it showed timelines of events/requests, statistics, and allowed me to submit reports from the website. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I was able to find my ward easily. It provided my alderman's name and a quick link to the rest of his contact info. The graphs were easy to follow as well. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? Many people might be looking for an easier way to make requests.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose the graffiti removal service since I have graffiti pop up in my neighborhood from time to time. The charts make sense and when I click to submit a report, there are directions on the side that are clear.

Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I like the photo feature because when making a request, it can be easier for the 311 responder to see how damaging/severe some issue may be and more likely to get it fixed right away. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I believe the website is fine as it is. It provides maps, directions, stats, and let's us submit reports directly from the page. I do not think there is anything that it needs to improve on.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? I liked this test because I learned quite a few new things today that I never knew about, such as what specific services are offered by 311.

2013-11-25 19:16:32

Tester #: 55

Tester Profile (given by tester): Uptowner


311? Yes

Care to explain? A man was passed out on Montrose. I didn't know if he was dead or passed out from intoxication. Called 3-1-1 to report incident.



Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Allows Chicago residents to report problems in their community without having to call 3-1-1. It may be something I'd be interested in using if I had a non-emergent issue to report. Would be easier to give information to the city via a website than find the time to call. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I wanted to explore the website more and did so by clicking on each of the tabs on the top of the page. I started with "Services" then moved to Wards, Photos, Annotations and About. It was on the "About" page that I learned my first impression of the website was incorrect. One cannot report incidents on the website but rather track reports (hence my response below about it not meeting my expectations). Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. The page for my ward (46th) was not the most user friendly. It took my a couple minutes to figure out each of the graphs and why the information presented was important. I don't have a clear understanding of the needs in my community compared to the others. It would be nice to read the reports for each service type and how the issue was resolved. Perhaps this can be done on another page but it would be nice to have a link on the ward page so it's easier to find. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? Nothing interesting to share.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I clicked on Restaurant Complaint as this was the most interesting service type to me. I found that there were a few complaints this year but nothing this week. I was frustrated to find that there were not reports on the restaurants with the complaints. I would like to know when, where, what. It's not helpful for me to know that there were complaints. That information does not impact my life. I could be eating that those restaurants and not know. However, I found that if I clicked on the Tab for Restaurants and then was linked to all the complaints with the names of the restaurants and the type of incident. Would be nice if I could gather the same information straight from my ward. Do you like the service type page? No Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. It was interesting to see what people report. I wouldn't think to report overflowing trash cans or graffiti. Perhaps if had a problem with a pot hole or some kind of city service, I'd post the picture as well. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I'm interested to follow-up with this website to see what improvements/changes are made. I'd like more location specific information within the ward section. It would be interesting to see crime information and police stops within the ward as well. I think there should be a brief summary of what the website is on the home page. I know there is an About tab but people like to see the information up front without having to dig around for it.


2013-11-25 19:59:39

Tester #: 56

Tester Profile (given by tester): ketchup ketchup


311? Yes

Care to explain? I called 311 to report a found stray dog.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? I think it shows me the 311 reports from the day selected. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I tried to figure out how the average was calculated since every report I saw for November 24th was below average. I think clicked on the Light Outages in more detail and was shocked to see Ward 42 had so many new outages. Looking closer at it, I saw both new tickets and closed tickets were reported. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. In every listing, I see that my Ward has lower than average reports. Clicking on this map was the first time I realized my ward was changing boundaries in 2015. The charts do make sense, although I can't see what date had the most graffiti removed because it is off the chart. The contact info makes sense but I'd add in Twitter. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I wouldn't randomly share it. I'd want to share it when something is happening.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. For abandoned vehicles, I like the photo and description on the right rail. I like how it's laid out by week. I didn't understand that at first though. The blue gradient is classy looking, but maybe not the most obvious.

Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I see a long of gang graffiti, which makes sad. I think photos can be used as examples, but I wonder about having a big photo dump like this. Do you like the Photos page? No Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I like the website, but it doesn't have much of a purpose for me, unfortunately. It's collecting and displaying data, but as a resident, I am most interested in submitting issues or seeing if an issue has already been submitted.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Great first test, thank you!

2013-11-25 20:17:54

Tester #: 57

Tester Profile (given by tester): citygal


311? No

Care to explain? Have not made a request.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Tracks service requests made to 311 and maps activity by Ward. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on different service types, then navigated backward and forward a day. I did not click on the map on hoe homepage. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I found my ward right away. I scrolled down to view all the different charts. The charts all made sense. I didn't find the chart about days with the most requests particularly helpful because the timespan for the chart was so long. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? Not particularly interested in this data

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose graffiti removal. The information was well laid out. I liked the info about the service in the sidebar. I understand the chart but the gradient is slightly confusing. The color shades don't seem to mean anything, and if they are to show intensity it seems like the gradient should be reversed. Do you like the service type page?

Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. The photos page was my favorite part of the site because it contained info beyond a simple count of how many service requests had been submitted. The different tags are interesting to review. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

No Tell us more.


2013-11-25 20:22:48

Tester #: 58

Tester Profile (given by tester): nerdy 311 caller


311? Yes

Care to explain? I've only called 311, haven't used website or text. I've used 311 for non-emergency police requests, to report graffiti, to ask about wild animal removal, to ask about construction work in front of our apartment.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It compares the service requests from wards, by type of service request, with a heat map to indicate comparative number of requests Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Other Tell us more about the first thing you did. I looked at the color key on the right, then clicked a different service in the list of services on the left. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I clicked my ward. "Areas remaining in Ward 40" took a few seconds to parse. I clicked Abandoned Vehicle, then Alley Light Out, then Building Violation, and each one had a straight set of zeros. Not very exciting. Graffiti Removal was the first category with some interesting data. It took a second to understand that "Requests closed" were just checkmarks, and not connected by a line. After clicking different services a lot, quickly, it took a long time for the data to reload. I clicked back on Graffiti Removal and the data appeared to be all zero. There should be some visual indication that something is about to be happening. I don't understand why the text "Ward 40 didn't close 1 or more Street Cut Complaints requests this week, so it's not shown on this chart" is listed under the Time-to-close ranking. I don't understand what the bar chart is for under the Time-to-close ranking heading. I don't understand the vertical nor the horizontal axes. It doesn't make sense to me that the "Days with the most Graffiti Removal requests" is a bar chart, but a multi-year calendar would be hard to portray as well, wouldn't it. I like the PREV WEEK and NEXT WEEK links. I'd like a way to snap back to the current date. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page

Why or why not? My tech and non tech friends would find it cool. Maybe separate the social networking links from the councilmatic/City of Chicago website

on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

links (I'd never heard of councilmatic). Hey, there are two twitter links, and two facebook links, and one Mail lin

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose Graffiti Removal. The different shades of blue to represent different days doesn't work for me. I expect the deeper shades of blue to indicate higher numbers. Do you like the service type page? No Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I clicked Graffiti Removal. It's kind of neat to see all the pictures, but it seems like a random order. I didn't read more than the first 2 sentences in the text at the top of the photos, so when I clicked a photo I noticed that the chronology is weird - a request for service wasn't at the bottom. Ha, I didn't realize that clicking a photo brought me outside of the website, until I played around a little bit. I thought that Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? I spent about 30 minutes, not less than 20.

2013-11-25 20:29:00

Tester #: 59

Tester Profile (given by tester): 46th Ward Pigeon


311? Yes

Care to explain? I've called multiple times about graffiti. I called once about a pavement cave-in in the street, then again about the plate covering the hole being displaced. I also called once about a crosswalk sign that had been hit by a high truck and knocked out of alignment.



Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? 1) I think the site is a way to track 311 requests and city service requests in a "gee whiz" way -- also a very slow and difficult way to view that data across the city. 2) I'm somewhat interested in viewing 311 requests and improving response but this website has a very low density of information and is not clearly focused on showing service request statuses. How does this website do a better job of communicating information than a table with the same information? You can't view by week or month. Don't you think tracking tree debris complaints on a daily basis across a 300 square mile map is missing the forest for the tree debris? 3) It also does not appear to have any way to submit a 311 request -- which is the #1 priority of people who would give a damn about this kind of info. This looks like a way for the Chicago pols to say, "look at me!", not a way to improve performance or make submitting requests (and following up) easier. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked "Services", only to find the same dropdown that appears at the left of the homepage. You can't actually request any services from the Services drop down, right? Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. It's a very low density presentation of information stripped of context and detached from any real ability for the citizen to get help. In other words, it is par for the course for the Emanuel administration. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or

Why or why not? It's not useful

Email? Nah Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. What do citizens get out of this website? The ability to track service requests on a daily basis, but not to file them from the same site. The inability to view data on a weekly or monthly basis to see any trend. Open 311 is a good idea but you should spend your efforts getting more people to use that service and less time playing with maps and databases that are of interest only to lazy journalists and grandstanding pols. A truly interested citizen with more than a 6th grade education can't get very much information from this website and would be better off with a few data tables and a static map. Present your information more densely if you want to inform. The site is OK. It has good information but again -- this should all be integrated into the Open 311 request page, not in a separate low information density website. This is the page that people give a crap about -- this service request info should be prominent on the City of Chicago homepage, not buried. http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/311.html Do you like the service type page? No Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. It's good that the photos come from users. That's a good feature. If this website was a page or two buried in the Open 311 service it would be an improvement. As a stand alone website, it's a wankfest. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

No Tell us more.

I don't see how it gives you any information that is useful as a citizen. You can't see trends or individual requests very clearly. Data isn't information. Tree debris by ward daily tells me what exactly? Can I watch the map light up after a windstorm? Yippee!

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? I'm a crabby person. I appreciate you taking the time to try and improve things. I think the current leadership in Chicago releases all kinds of "data" every day divorced from context so I'm generally not very positive about these data presentation ideas. If people want raw tables of data, make them available. Beyond that, focus on services and improving services. The city needs to do a lot more to make 311 and online/texting 311 more well known.

2013-11-25 20:32:27

Tester #: 60

Tester Profile (given by tester): Just a normal guy.


311? Yes

Care to explain? I believe I called this once to report a homeless man peeing outside the house! True story! Not even sure it was the right number to report it to.


� Block club

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It looks like it's a site to report "quality of life" type complaints around the city. With graphs that i think show how many of those complains have been resolved? The graphs to be honest on a few pages were a bit confusing to immediately know what I was looking at. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. Try and figure out exactly what the info on the site was for. Services tab gave me a pretty good idea right off the bat what the site was for. Graffiti Removal is what gave me the idea. It stuck out, the word Removal. Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. It was all a bit confusing. I'm sure if I stayed on the site longer, or used it more often it would become clear but off of quick first impression it seemed like a lot of info to take in. The front page doesn't quickly tell me what I'm supposed to use the site for. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? If I knew someone who had a reason to need it.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Graffiti Removal. Still not entiry sure what that graph is telling me! Lol. I assume it's how many reports they have gotten. I think it also mixes in how many of those cases were resolved.

Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I love this idea. But it doesn't explain how to use it myself to submit a pic or the right way to do so. After clicking it made a bit more sense but I would have had to search through the entire list of pics to see if any of them were something I would have submitted. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

Overall it just feels a bit confusing. It's not as intuitive as I would like a site like this to be. Chances are if I'm going here, I have something bothering me in mind and want to quickly be able to report or check on it's progress.


2013-11-25 20:39:51

Tester #: 61

Tester Profile (given by tester): funny


311? Yes

Care to explain? Pot holes And heat in my building in the winter.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Gives the feed back on how many reports were made for each incident and how many actually got resolved Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on service types listed today. Just to see what is going on Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Horrible. Just a map wish there were more pics to show us the severity of our ward Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? so people can get more involved. if more people call and complain more will or can get done

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Potholes 3 request vs. 135.1 on an average. To me this says the city is making sure they fix the problem before there is actually a problem among us. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience.

Love the fact that once you place a call or request you can also attach a photo to show the severity of the problem. When I first opened the photo gallery I saw ward 11 alot. Wow craz. And these were photos just from the last 14 days Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.


2013-11-25 20:46:21

Tester #: 62

Tester Profile (given by tester): PlaysWithSquirrels


311? No

Care to explain? I have not made a service request


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? This page reports on different services that the city responded to over a period of time by neighborhood. It is something I'm interested in because it could show why I would want to live in one neighborhood over another Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked into the neighborhood that I live in. I expected to see a few non-serious service requests for where I live. My expectations were met - there was one instance of graffiti removal. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Yes, I was able to find my ward (even though i didn't know what number it was). The map helped greatly in this regard. The contact information for my alderman doesn't stand out and I don't feel like I would be able to get in contact with her because I didn't realize her named was clickable. The charts do make sense. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? It's important that most of the idiots I'm connected to on facebook understand where they live. Plus, it makes me look good by knowing where to find this info.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose graffiti removal. It may be helpful to explain what requests opened and requests closed means. The time-to-close graph makes no sense; I could barely tell where my ward was. The information isn't

particularly valuable or compelling to me but it would be helpful for police planning. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Yes, I was able to find the photos feature. I like it but it makes Chicago look ugly and worn down because most photos are of graffiti. I understand where each photo came from and it's helpful to be able to click on the photo and receive more information. I would definitely want to use it in the future. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I think it's really helpful for doing initial neighborhood exploration (ie for people just moving to Chicago). I'm not sure I'd use it a ton now that I'm settled here but I definitely can see where it would be useful.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? The CUTGroup is great! I feel like I'm contributing and it doesn't feel useless like voting does.

2013-11-25 20:51:53

Tester #: 63

Tester Profile (given by tester): Aspiring Batgirl


311? No

Care to explain? Nope, just never needed/thought to.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? I think it shows how city services are been used across wards. It seems like it'd be useful information, in the way that info graphics are fun to look at, but I'm not immediately sure how it'd be helpful for me. I don't necessarily need this data and I don't think this would help me find/use city services. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on a ward that looked like it might be mine to see what information it would give me—would it be a pop up or a hover bubble? Kind of surprised to see a whole new page. I like the list on the sidebar that allows me to filter but the graphs are kind of confusing. 'Days with the most requests' seems like an odd or inaccurate title for that particular chart. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I was able to find my ward because I knew which one I was in but I wish there was a way for me to double check. It'd be great if there was a map I could refer to or a brief list of neighborhoods included. Even when I clicked on the city website star, I couldn't know for sure. Eventually opened Google in a new tab. I like the contact information but initially thought they were share links. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? It's cool, but it's not useful for me. Like, I don't need any of this information so I wouldn't need to go look for it.


I chose Abandoned Vehicles from the top navigation. The colors in the chart are a little confusing. I understand from the days of the week bar that the colors represent different days but on the first page, they represented the number. So I was expecting darker colors to be a higher number and not just requests from Monday. I like that it clarifies the criteria on the right though and otherwise, the page is laid out very well. Everything's easy to find. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. The first set of thumbnails load kind of slow. I couldn't initially tell if clicking on a thumbnail would take me to all the pictures from that ward, or if they were just the most recent uploads. Figured out it was the latter because they weren't in numerical order. I like the feature, but the activity feed below the full-sized picture was confusing. Couldn't tell if something had been taken care of or not. Expected the activity to go top to bottom in terms of chronological order but I think it's the reverse? I was also confused when I realized it took me off site. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I like the website, but I don't know if I'll use it again. I've never reported any of these things before. That being said, I never knew how to or really thought about it. I might be more likely to know that I know this exists. Especially because I could actually see if my request was followed up on and taken care of. That would be worth the effort. I do wish there was a submit request button more prominently located. though. Those are kind of buried and I didn't initially realize I could do that.


2013-11-25 20:54:52

Tester #: 64

Tester Profile (given by tester): 311 dabbler


311? Yes

Care to explain? Phone call about potholes in my alley.


� Block club

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Let's you compare city services in various neighborhoods Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I zoomed over to my ward and clicked on it. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Finding my ward was simple. I like the contact info--might be nice to have a phone number listed. The second chart on each page is a bit hard to decipher. Why do the bars appear on the right? Why the changing size of the bars? Not sure what value the third graph gives me. What conclusions can I draw from it? Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? real time, local data is needed

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Check the alley light out service. This data is not valuable to me per se, but I think the idea that it can hold aldermanic offices accountable for the responsiveness is what makes this data useful for me. Love the links to reporting the lights out. Do you like the service type page?

Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. The photo section seemed novel to me and sort of fun to review, but does it improve my chances of having something fixed to use a photo? What is the purpose? Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I like the idea of this building equity of service across the city. Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add?

2013-11-25 20:58:37

Tester #: 65

Tester Profile (given by tester): My Old Kentucky Home


311? No

Care to explain? I've never made a request. so I have nothing to add here.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? This website enables a user to review what complaints have been made today and what the status of previously made complaints are. the website does not look that interesting to me. I wish I could login in to remember what I was taking a look at. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. There was a chance to view rat sitings. I have seen raates in my area. I began to look for a way to submit a problem. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I could not find my ward. To begin with I do not know what ward I am in. On this website there is nowhere that I can easily locate to determine what ward I am in. When I choose a random ward. I did like the contact information. The charts were easy to understand. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? I want to make sure there are no bugs in this.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I tried to share this view on twitter. It opened a second web browser but there was no pre-populated information. In reviewing the rat problem. I felt that the charts really helped understand the efforts Chicago is making. I found the information pretty valuable.

Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. The photos section is by far the coolest part in the fact that it shows the progression of a ticket being opening, then received, then closed. I want to be able to use this. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I wish there was a way to login in and have the ticket request numbers be saved into my profile so that I can easily review what i have submitted. I am worried that I might repeat existing tickets.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Thank you so much for allowing me to learn first hand about the process of developing useful technology tools for Chicago area citizens.

2013-11-25 21:04:03

Tester #: 66

Tester Profile (given by tester): better living through algorithms


311? Yes

Care to explain? I've called 311 to report potholes before.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? At first glance it looks like it visualizes some city data. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on the ward I live in. I assumed this would show me more details about the ward. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I found my ward easily by clicking on the map near where I live. The charts made sense, but I don't know if there's much utility to them. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I don't think there's much interesting about any given page, but I would refer my friends to the site in general.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I opened the "Traffic Signal Out" page. It took a moment to understand how the chart was structures, but it makes sense. It's a nice way of displaying comparative information about wards, but I don't think it's particularly compelling or interesting on an individual level. Do you like the service type page? Yes

Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. This I like! A photo plus information about requests, you can see if something has already been reported, and if it's been unaddressed for a long time. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I'd like to see more information about other service requests that weren't entered though an app.


2013-11-25 21:05:44

Tester #: 67

Tester Profile (given by tester): I love red wine


311? No

Care to explain? NA


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Community alert website that notifies users of type and amount of crime/activity in your neighborhood. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Wards" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I wanted to see what information was out there on my ward (45). I expected to find graphs of crime data. The info I found was a little confusing to read. Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I was able to find my ward right away and the contact information was visible almost immediately. The charts took a little bit of time for me to understand. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? I would share this information via email to my husband and friends that live in our area.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose graffiti removal, the charts made sense. I would want more information on locations of graffiti. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience.

I like the photo feature but wish I could sort by ward. I liked how I could see the timeline of the service call. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

Maybe a ward community message board where residents can post comments and share information.


2013-11-25 21:11:16

Tester #: 68

Tester Profile (given by tester): I miss Everyblock


311? Yes

Care to explain? I called 311 to let them know someone had opened a fire hydrant on my block.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It looks like this site logs, maps and tracks specific 311 requests. This is something I'd be interested in if I had a certain 311 request - although it doesn't show anything I've ever called 311 for before. It's interesting to see where the most graffiti removal takes place... as sociology major with a master's in public health, this kind of service mapping intrigues me. It's also nice to see service turnaround time. That kind of transparency is always appreciated. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked to see where the most pothole complaints were first, just because that's a consistent city problem. I then saw that graffiti removal had the highest numbers, so I took a look at that. The areas where the most service calls were requested didn't immediately overlap with what I assumed were the areas with the most graffiti, but then I remembered that this is just a reflection of the number of people who want the city to fix something. I don't know what I expected, but I figured out the site pretty quickly. The ability to visually document a 311 request was NOT expected, so that was a nice surprise. But the annotations section doesn't really add anything for me, and I think some people would find it unnecessary. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I found my ward, but the contact info isn't immediately obvious... not sure those who aren't regularly on social media would think to hover over the twitter icon and tweet Ald. Pawar. Took me a few seconds to understand the line graph (circle means opened, check means closed) but I got it. The only thing wrong is the date and number is missing for the "day with the most complaints" for rat baiting. I wanted to know that! Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would

Why or why not? Because I have some sociology-minded friends I think would be

you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

interested in this type of data.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose graffiti removal. The charts do make sense, but not immediately. Once you understand that complaints aren't closed the day they are made - or closings could be for a complaint made the week before - it's all good. It's also nice to have the link to the specific city department that handles that request on the info sidebar. I would say it's valuable information... not really compelling though. Like, compel me to do what, anyway? Do you like the service type page? Select one Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I like the photo feature a lot! Linking to the service tracker is good. I understand that the people making the 311 request took the photo. I probably actually would use it in the future! Documenting things with a photo always gives you a sense of agency, I guess. I HAVE PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE, etc. etc. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

It should link directly to the Open311 request system (which I did NOT know existed until now). I'd also like to see a couple more services included in the tracking (don't know what those would be).

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Thank you for allowing me to participate. This was fun!

2013-11-25 21:14:19

Tester #: 69

Tester Profile (given by tester): Nosy neighbor


311? Yes

Care to explain? Phone call to fix a loose street sign on our block



Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Shows the amount of activity on a particular day in the city by color coding (may want to check variance between 0-1 -- in overlay it doesn't look much different). Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I immediately navigated to my own Ward to see what's going on in my backyard. I know that I live in ward 46, but some additional information on community (name) may be more useful for population. I then clicked back to see the difference in service type requests on the homepage. I would like to be able to expand all types to see full number of complaints on each at a glance. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Ward 46: Again, I think there needs to be an all service types option on the homepage. Clicking into my ward defaults to the service type I had selected on the homepage. I'd prefer to default to all services types and then drill down on the ward homepage. Time to close chart: doesn't provide enough context to be meaningful. Days with most requests: can't see date of pothole in street (107) Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? I work with hyperlocal data in my day job so I find it interesting and most of my social network is comprised of journalists.


I selected restaurant complaints. I appreciate the definition on the service page, but I think this would be equally useful if it was present on the Ward's individual service pages. The chart shows open and closed, but not pass/fail as explained. Without the ability to see the name or exact location of the complaint, there is little drive to visit these pages. Great, I know 3 complaints were filed in Ward 1 this week -- but I don't know where I need to avoid. The link to city data is useful, but if I know how to use that dataset (or that it exists) I'm not going to hit this site first. Do you like the service type page? No Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Love this page -- can we sort by Ward? Clicking into photos displays the most useful content -- on a city website. Timestamps plus action show Chicago at Work. This is what's missing from services with the focus solely on number of opened/closed Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

No Tell us more.

Not as it is currently. The site is well designed and has a nice GUI, but it just doesn't provide enough information to be a destination.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Thanks for the opportunity!

2013-11-25 21:14:49

Tester #: 70

Tester Profile (given by tester): Knowledgeable Logan Square Resident


311? Yes

Care to explain? I have made the following services request via 311: Graffiti removal Stray dog wandering in the middle of the street


� Aldermanic ward night � Local school council

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? The site seems to aggregates 311 data. Although, it was not immediately apparent whether or not I could or should submit a 311 request via this site. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "About" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I visited the "About" section of the site because I wanted to see what could be done via the site and what information was immediately available. My expectations were met, although I prefer more visual representations of what features are available and what information is available. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I live in the 35th Ward. I was happy and surprised to learn the following: Time-to-close ranking (in days) Among the 50 wards that closed 1 or more requests this week, Ward 35 ranked 7th, with an average time-to-close of 0.03 days. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? I would share this page with other property owners in the 35th Ward.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I clicked on the Pavement Cave-In Survey to learn more about pavement cave-ins. I feel that this is such a relatively rare occurrence that pictures would be more helpful so that citizens can identify pavement

cave-ins before they happen. Do you like the service type page? No Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I liked the Photo section but it was also hard to look at photos that portrayed these neighborhoods in a negative light. This is especially true when graffiti is obviously gang-related as opposed graffiti that is an artistic expression. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.


2013-11-25 21:16:17

Tester #: 71

Tester Profile (given by tester): min the great


311? No

Care to explain? I have never made a request.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It shows all service requests with pictures sorted by type of request or ward. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "About" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked About and read the mission statement of the website. I read through what each section of the website contained one by one. After I finished I read where the data comes from and clicked on Open311 API link to see more about that. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I found my ward, 42. It was laid out clear with 4 different ways to contact the alderman as well as a direct link to his personal website. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? It's a good way to make other people aware.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I selected Graffiti removal. It showed the current amount of opened requests and how many requests that were closed. The charts and graphs make sense. It gives you an idea of how many requests were made and how long it took for them to be closed. It shows what days had the most requests made. The information is is clear and relevant.

Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. The photos section has the all the photos of service requests in a collage interface for easy browsing. It has each pictured labeled with which ward the picture is from. Clicking a picture takes you to the specific service request page with the address and all related activity. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I really like the idea of the website. The design is nice and clear and easy on the eyes. It's modern and integrated with social networking.


2013-11-25 21:16:45

Tester #: 72

Tester Profile (given by tester): Coffee fueled developer


311? Yes

Care to explain? I have called to report dead birds (bird flu), and called to request for city park information.


� Neighborhood watch � Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Allows you to track 311 requests online, place them, view history, based on your ward (and has a snazzy Google Maps UI). Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. Looked up my local ward, found service requests placed, tracked a few of them (and their status). Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I looked up my ward and scrolled through all of the elements you can peruse. I actually found out a few of the more common complaints in my area. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? Because this is incredibly helpful.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I'm able to easily view a graphical representation of data regarding abandoned car reports. Do you like the service type page? Yes

Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I was shocked to see photos alongside the requests. Nice for seeing what others have actually complained about. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I try to be active in my neighborhood and make sure it is a great place to live. By keeping up with the data on this site I'll have a better tool to be "in the know" about my ward.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Keep up the good work with your tests. Also, who can I talk to about contributing to any open source related development?

2013-11-25 21:22:10

Tester #: 73

Tester Profile (given by tester): soozannerie


311? Yes

Care to explain? I called re: trash pick up and homeless guy living in the alley



Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? WOW. This is awesome. I think this page does the same thing as calling 311 but much easier and I wouldn't have to talk to someone. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Wards" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on my ward and looked at the information Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. It was nice to see the current boundaries and also the new boundaries. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? if someone i knew needed info, I'd share it

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I clicked on "pothole removal" The charts made sense. I was hoping I could report a pothole on this page. I liked being able to see the comparison between wards. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience.

there were a lot of graffiti photos. and also issues in the wards. Do you like the Photos page? No Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I liked being able to report issues online rather than speak to someone who might or might not care

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? :)

2013-11-25 21:37:02

Tester #: 74

Tester Profile (given by tester): lovely236


311? Yes

Care to explain? I have called 311 to complete a police report before when my phone was stolen. I have called 311 to report a broken red light camera on Diversey and California. I have also called 311 before to locate my car when it was towed by the city. Finally, I have used 311 to report a landlord who was not providing heat for his building during the brisk Chicago winters.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Looking at the different services listed down the side I imagine it has something to do with these services in Chicago. I see the map outlining the city and identifying both the wards and surrounding cities. This is definitely something that I am interested in because it involves the city I live in, and I may need the services listed in the left size in the future. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I hovered my mouse over the different parts of the city, each ward was identified, as well as, it told me how many open request for traffice signals that ward had which I found very helpful and informative. I clicked on ward 20 whose alderman is Willie Cochran. I not only got a status update for all the request in this ward but also a timeline for the week, identifying when each request was received. It also told me where this ward ranked among the other 50 wards in the city of chicago. . This is way more than I expected, I only expected another outlet to fulfill a service request. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I found my ward and my alderman in Howard Brookins, I love the contact information. My ward ranks the worst in the city with an average time to close of 16 days. The time to close ranking chart makes very good sense. The days with the most request chart to makes no sense to display. If that information is wanted they should provide a link that simply list the totals. I don't think the typical citizen is interested in when the most request were recieved in Chicago history. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would

Why or why not? I am not a sharer on fb, I don't have twitter or instagram. I simply

you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

wouldn't share because for one my ward is the worst in the city so there is not point in sharing that. Secondly because service request logs are not the type of thing I share on fb,

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. The service I clicked on was the restaurant complaint. I currently do have any restaurant complaints in my ward at all. i went back to the homepage and clicked on restaurant complaints for the city and surprisingly there are not a lot of restaurant complaints at all. I believe this is because many people don't know that 311 offers this service. I did not know before exploring this website today and will be making a note of that for the future. I found the charts helpful, the information is definitely valuable, I am also glad they let you know whether the restaurant failed or passed the inspection once it is conducted. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I clicked on the photos and then an array of pictures from potholes to graffiti popped up. I clicked on a couple of photos, each photo had the service request info displayed when you double click on it. It showed whether it was resolved or still open and what department handled the request. I understand that they are photos uploaded by residents. I plan to use this feature in the future now that I am aware of it. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I would use the website as it is. Some pages do give more information than necessary, but I still view that the statistical data regarding record highs. I believe this website serves my needs and goes above and beyond.


2013-11-25 21:40:36

Tester #: 75

Tester Profile (given by tester): Still working youthful elder.


311? Yes

Care to explain? I used to call 311 by phone to report graffiti or burned out streetlights but now I use the website. Never used text.


� Aldermanic ward night � Block club

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Home page seems only to track various complaints across the city aldermanic wards. I might be curious to check out some of the items listed, but I'd wonder why this is the home page. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "About" Tell us more about the first thing you did. Well, I couldn't figure out why there would be a site just to track complaints, so after "About," I clicked on the other items listed at the top, exploring further. I became quite fascinated by the detail, and of course looked up my own Ward 35, which is changing, and then checked out Ward 33 which I won't be in any longer, out of curiosity. As for expectations, I initially thought this survey would be assessing the value of contacting Chicago's 311 system!! Once I figured out the site, it did answer many questions and thus fulfill my next set of expectations. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Loved the detailed map showing in color which areas including my own block will be new in 2015 although the very top of the map is cut off.... where my block is, but I was aware of the coming change. [Never mind; I just found the + and - signs.] As for the graph, I don't know what the numbers at the left mean (from 0 to 60). Also it appears that 62 requests were closed out of 77 opened. How would we know when the remaining 15 requests would be closed? Also, I had to click over every type of complaint to discover that all the complaints or requests were about graffiti removal. Isn't there a way to highlight or boldface those affected in the week or am I asking too much, knowing zilch about technology. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page

Why or why not? I'll like it on Facebook.

on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Seems like I'd randomly look at various services out of curiosity. It's one thing to see all the complaints but it's more important to see how many get fixed and how soon. I cannot figure out the charts. They need explanation. Blue dots and little checks are just cartoons to me. As to the next question, I do like how the services pop up when they're clicked, explanation and all. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Colorful, but is there any way to put them in order of Wards by number? Of course I'm looking for my ward and had to scan all the photos, but also wondering for example where is Ward 11 where most of the photos are taken. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I think I've mentioned suggestions already. Oh, one more. The narrative in some instances refers to the author as "we" and then to "me" so of course I wonder who is writing this? and also since that's confusing, maybe "we" and "me" should be one or the other, with an ID as to who is "we" or "me" or have the writing generic throughout.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? More power to you (we, me). I think this is a fascinating site, and lucky it pops up atop other listings when googled. Good luck!

2013-11-25 21:49:02

Tester #: 76

Tester Profile (given by tester): Middle School Educator


311? No

Care to explain? I haven't ever really thought of 311 as a resource prior to this!


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? I think this site is about making data about 311 requests transparent and easy to navigate. The site allows you to look at data by ward and by type of requests, to compare how many requests happen per ward, and to see how many requests are opened and closed. This is something I am interested in, because I think there is a sense that the city responds to different neighborhoods more/less quickly, and it could be very useful for people to point to actual, easy to understand data. The site could be a great resource for getting people involved in their community -- I for one have never called 311, but after seeing all of the potential requests that can be made, I feel more empowered to do that. I also just generally like 1) maps and 2) city data, so this site is appealing as a way to learn more about the city through the lens of 311. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Wards" Tell us more about the first thing you did. After looking at the broad comparisons on home page, I immediately wanted to dive deeper into looking specifically at the ward where I live and the ward where the school I work at is located. I live in the 1st Ward, and I liked that right away I could see the boundary areas (and how they are soon changing). I thought I would be able to see data specific to my ward, which I could, but I wanted it to be easier to see what kinds of requests were most frequently being made. On the first "Week in Review" graph, it would be nice if you could click on the "Requests Opened" to see what kinds of requests. You can get at this info by going through all the categories, but it takes time and isn't immediately obvious. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. See above for my initial response. I looked at my school's ward next. I had to look it up because I couldn't remember -- it would be nice if the site had a look-up feature or a link to where you can find one if you don't know your ward. I didn't immediately understand that there was contact information, before seeing your question, but I like that idea. The charts make sense. I'm not sure about the point of the "Days with the most requests" graph -- it seems to maybe show how many people reported on a specific day for a specific category (so likely the same incident?) but I'm not sure why I need that info.

Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? It's a good resource! I'd definitely share -- especially with teachers to use in the classroom, I can see all kinds of potential projects...

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Graffiti Removal -- I was able to find the service type easily. I like the chart comparing the different wards for the week. It took me a minute to figure out the check mark, but I think it's a good way of conveying info. I like that I can compare how many requests are happening in a given area AND how many are being closed at the same time. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I found the photos easily, and I like the idea. I clicked on one and was taken to a Service Tracker page that I didn't know existed -- it made me wonder if there were other ways to link to those pages, to be able to break down data into specific requests that were made (for example, to see if 20 graffiti removal requests made on the same day in the same ward were about a similar issue) Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

As mentioned above, I think this could be a great tool to introduce students to analyzing city data -- we have students from 50 different neighborhoods, and I could see a project involving using this site as a resource to talk about their neighborhood & about being civically active. I'd like to be able to see, if I submit a request, what happens? Where can I check the status of it? What's the process for it being addressed? Will I be notified? More on how to actually use 311.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? This was great. I would do more of this in the future!!

2013-11-25 22:23:30

Tester #: 77

Tester Profile (given by tester): Elizabeth07


311? No

Care to explain? I have not used 311


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? The site looks like it collects data on requests that wards receive from its residents, such as potholes, rodent problems, and graffiti. It looks like it breaks it down by ward. As someone who is looking to move into a new neighborhood, it allows me to see what the major problems are within the ward, such as if I were to have to deal with a rodent issue or if aldermen are not taking care of their ward and the issues. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on "street lights all out". I know that in the past, there have been occasions where the lights on my block all went out and were not fixed right away. This is a safety concern to me; therefore, I wanted to see what areas of the city are dealing with this issue the most right now. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I was able to find my ward. The link for my Alderman took me to the City of Chicago website with his contact information. The charts were a little difficult to understand. Most of the charts I understood, but I had a hard time understanding the "Week in Review" chart. I did not know what the numbers meant, and I was not sure what the circles and x's were for. More labeling for the charts would help with understanding them. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? There is a certain audience for this, but not all of my acquaintances would find the site necessary.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I chose the graffiti removal service type. This page helped me understand what the X's and O's stand for. The chart was easy to understand. It helped me see that my ward is not one with a lot of graffiti complaints, but there are wards that do not receive any graffiti complaints. This is a good tool and is valuable information. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I liked being able to see photos. I also liked how it linked to information about whether the case was closed or not. I am not sure if it is something that I would use regularly, but it is a cool feature. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

This website is helpful in seeing how effective wards are at resolving problems. However, it would be even more helpful if crimes were also tracked in this website. It would be a better tool.I would use this website again. It is pretty straightforward, with the exception of me not understanding the charts right away.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? An online test is a better form of testing a website or app. It is done within the comfort of one's home, with flexible times. It allows more people to participate and allows for a more natural environment.

2013-11-25 22:37:27

Tester #: 78

Tester Profile (given by tester): Mocha Barbie


311? Yes

Care to explain? Several request regarding City Sewers backing up during heaving rainstorms, and adding a garbage can at a bus stop.


� Aldermanic ward night � Local school council � Block club � Neighborhood watch

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Allow me to quantify 311 service requests to a certain area in the City of Chicago Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on the Service Type and saw the colors change on the map. I read the legend showing the number of requests for that ward. I double clicked on the map and saw the screen change to the Ward where the incidents occurred. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. The current week lists only 1 incident open and closed. I then clicked on the prior week and saw multiple open and closed tickets. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not? Very useful. I want to share it with my Alderman

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I went to 'Street Cut' in the 16th Ward, for last week, and saw 1 incident opened on Tuesday, Nov. 19. When I click on the Ward to see the incident, it shows 0 incidents in the 'Week in Review section'.

Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I like the fact that customers are providing photos to share with the ticket. I didn't know this was possible as I still phone311 versus making a ticket online. I like the Activity timeline. Very helpful. I notice once you click on the photo, the header says '311 service tracker chicago' but the name of the app is 'chicagoworksforyou'. I would be consistent here. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Select one Tell us more.

I am interested in Sewer Backup in the City. When it rains, I want to see the viaducts/streets/interstates that are shut down. I want to see how many streets have standing water, and how many homes have water and sewer backup in their home.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? This app was presented very logically. There was never a sense of doubt upon what I was looking for. I liked the fact that the information was presented in several different ways (list, geographically, graph, photos, etc.) I would add a part for incidents that were never closed, an option to get them closed somehow.

2013-11-25 22:51:28

Tester #: 79

Tester Profile (given by tester): South Sider up North


311? Yes

Care to explain? Graffiti removal via phone call to 311


� Aldermanic ward night � Neighborhood watch

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Looks like it compiles service requests from 311. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click on a service type listed today Tell us more about the first thing you did. Since I've used 311 for graffiti removal calls, I clicked on that first. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Surprised to see a very clear map of the ward boundaries, including what will be the new boundaries. Good info that's not very easy to come by. I've tried, usually all you can find is a small map with hard to read street names. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? Why would I? No one is gonna want to see that on any social media I use.

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Again, I'll go with graffiti. This is actually really cool to be able to see visualized and to easily get an idea about reports from, and to see how many open service calls they have. The link to the submission site... good idea. Do you like the service type page?

Select one Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Not surprising, it's mostly graffiti pics. I know that you are able to use the city mobile app to send a picture to the city of something you want removed, interesting to see all of it. What would be great is if the photo page had an option to sort by ward. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

This is actually very well done. Easy to navigate. One thing that would be nice- in the "ward view", when you hover a point on the first graph and it says "X # of requests opened" if you could link that to what actual requests were opened.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? This page- WAY more helpful than the last one I tested.

2013-11-25 23:00:21

Tester #: 80

Tester Profile (given by tester): Full Timer who just completed Grad Program


311? Yes

Care to explain? I had called once trying to find a missing person. I don't recall if they were able to provide me with information or if they directed me to a police station or not.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Very first impression is that the site is very clean. Now the details: - All the menu options are clear to understand, except for Annotations (not sure where I am going to be directed if I click on it) - At first I thought that the map of Chicago was simply a picture and not that I could click on it - I would have preferred if the map pointed out my current location - I am not color blind but it was hard for me to differentiate between all the shades of blue - I would have like to be able to zoom in the map Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. Since I am nosy :), I want to know what's going on my ward (which I dont know the number but I know it is close to burbank) so I click on what i think is my ward. I definitely did not like the fact that the colors have different meanings between the Home Page and this page (extremely confusing). Overlooking this fact, this information was somehow valuable (not sure how it will become of use but it is nice to know, maybe something info should be provided listed the impact in the change of the Ward) I dont know what 11 opened and 10 closed means I dont know how valuable all these different charts are for me since they are simply summarizing data. I think that instead of showing Week in Review, I would like to see the whole year and if the Ward has improved in comparison to last year on these data points. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. See answer to the previous question. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email?

Why or why not? I dont know who would find this data valuable since it is for just one week. Somehow this data only looks relevant to me during campaign season.

Nah Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Yes, this data made sense, but I would have preferred the locations in the map where the service was completed to see if there are patterns of occurrence (maybe I can avoid areas where multiple potholes are and are not yet resolved) Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. Actually pretty nice page but it needs some improvements: I want the option to filter for pictures only for a certain ward I want the option to filter for pictures based on my current location Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

Good job overall and certainly room for improvement (but great first iteration of the page)

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Thanks for doing this as Remote Test instead of making us coming into the library, look forward to doing other test remotely

2013-11-25 23:05:20

Tester #: 81

Tester Profile (given by tester): Avowed rooster-hater


311? Yes

Care to explain? I've called and submitted on the website.


� Block club � Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? Tells me the frequency of the listed complaints/requests to 311 by ward. Gives comparison of the different wards on these topics. Gives weekly/monthly/annual information graphics or summaries. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on my ward to see what kind of information was available about my ward. I expected to see either a list of information or the locations of the requests/services. I was disappointed a bit due to the difficulty in understanding the data, but also b/c it was for a week with no activity so it wasn't very meaningful. Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Ditto. I liked seeing how my ward boundaries would change, it was a nice info point. The charts made some sense but weren't intuitive. "Days with most requests" was really random and difficult to understand why it was there. I wanted to be able to click on the weekly graph points and checks to see the specific details, not just '9 requests closed'. Tell me what those requests were. Time To Close chart seemed utterly useless and skewed to the far right. I looked up Graffiti Removal, 26th ward. The charts make general sense, but I want to know what happened to all those outstanding requests that weren't closed that week--there's like 20 outstanding requests going into the following week, why aren't they closed? And the chart at the bottom with the most-populated-day info--I'd rather see a monthly or yearly average instead of the top 6 days of graffiti removal since 2008. Show me a trend, show me something more than a static graphic. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page

Why or why not? Not sure of the purpose of sharing. I'm not bragging about my Alderman's completion-rate. If an alderman really sucks at resolving

on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

the issues, then it's a call to arms but there are probably better ways to do it. The email function takes me to Outlook?!?!

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I liked the graphic and I LOVED the text that describes and explains the purpose and goal of that request category. I really like the additional links for other requests so it's immediately useful. I really like the photo option as well. The charts are easy to understand and compare. I would like a monthly and/or annual option as well. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. they took a while to load, but I liked having visual representation and it inspires me to upload my own in the future. I like that each category has a number telling you the number of photos so I know not to load the graffiti category on my phone or it'll take forever. Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

I would like to see more comprehensive data; monthly and yearly stats. I would like to be able to compare 2 wards in a single category of service. I would like a bigger/more obvious reminder that this info is all pulled from another source and is therefore limited in what story(s) it can tell.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Good work!

2013-11-25 23:07:12

Tester #: 82

Tester Profile (given by tester): Uptown 365 Cycler


311? Yes

Care to explain? Phone Call: I called to report a pot hole that was not marked by the city and wanted to make sure they knew it was there. About three months had gone by and it was getting harder to navigate on my bike.


� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It looks like it is a data GUI that keeps track of complaints made to 311 broken up by ward, but only showing the current day. The average is interesting. I would be more interested in viewing this site after a storm or other natural disaster or to see trends by time of month and climate. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click a area on the map Tell us more about the first thing you did. As I moused over the map I noticed that the ward number changed. I clicked a ward in the map because I was curious about why it had a larger number of requests and was a ward that was close to me. When I opened it I was delighted to see the Ward Alderman's name on the top of the print. They are responsible to their wards and should notice when things need attention. This tool can hold them accountable. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. It's nice to know the name of my Ward Alderman and see a link to his personal/ward website where I found a wealth of information. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? I never share things on twitter or email. Only funny things go on Facebook!

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. Yes, I looked at many of the services to find that my ward is quite well taken for being considered a

neighborhood that has in the past been taken care of less. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. That was neat to see all the art, just kidding graffiti! Makes sense to see if someone else has tagged the same one already. I wonder if you can take pictures of potholes? Do you like the Photos page? Yes Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

Even though links to OPEN311 are available, I would like to see requests submitted through Chicago Works For You.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? Thanks for giving me this opportunity to find new websites and explore my local community. This was fun!

2013-11-25 23:33:54

Tester #: 83

Tester Profile (given by tester): Baller


311? No



� Other

Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? It looks like a website that provides information on various complaints based on frequency in each ward. It looks like something that could be pretty interesting, maybe not something that I'd use daily. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I clicked on "Services" because it was the first tab after Home. I chose a random one that looked interesting, "Graffiti Removal," and looked at the weekly data on graffiti removal requests by ward. The website design is very sleek and seems pretty intuitive to use and understand. Did this meet your expectations? Yes Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. Yes, I found my own ward. The information I found for violations in my ward was pretty interesting to look at. All the charts make sense. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Nah

Why or why not? Don't want to bother other people

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. The city uses a graffiti blaster to remove vandalism as a service to private property owners. They use high pressure water to blast off the graffiti and paint over anything else they can't remove. Pretty interesting information on a service that I had little knowledge about prior.

Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience. I found the photos section a little cluttered. There should be some separation between photos, maybe organized by ward or something. Do you like the Photos page? No Will you use this website again, on your own? No Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

As a student, I don't really see any use for me personally in the future, but I can see its usefulness for other residents of Chicago.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? nothing

2013-11-25 23:45:35

Tester #: 84

Tester Profile (given by tester): I am a single parent, semi-self employed and always looking to learn

something new. What browser are you using? Internet Explorer Have you ever made a service request through

311? Yes

Care to explain? I requested information on upcoming family friendly events in Chicago.



Review the homepage. What do you think this site does? I think it is fairly informative. Explore the site. What's the first thing you do?

� Click "Services" Tell us more about the first thing you did. I looked at the data under each service in my ward. Did this meet your expectations? No Please find your own ward and tell us about this experience. I guess I was expecting a more detailed base of data. Find the "Share this" links on the ward page. Would you want to share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or Email? Sure

Why or why not?

Please choose one service type and tell us about this experience. I checked the pothole listing and and the rodent control areas in the 17th ward. I was suprised to see there was actual information. Do you like the service type page? Yes Please click "Photos" and tell us about this experience.

It took forever for the photos to load and they were basic examples. Do you like the Photos page? No Will you use this website again, on your own? Yes Do you like this website?

Yes Tell us more.

Do you like the CUTGroup? Yes Did you like this CUTGroup test? Yes Anything else you want to add? I think thos site can become an awesome asset to Chicago.

2013-11-25 23:56:36

final cut group-5-chicago-worksforyou-report

Technology

web site interesting

remote test

city service delivery

remote cutgroup test

city service requests

city services requests

cutgroup participants

citywide information