Demystifying Permitting for Austin Residents
Research, Strategy, and UX Design
“We were able to learn everything we needed and got our permit approved on the first try.”
Overview
In a city growing as rapidly as Austin, housing supply is not keeping up with demand. Gentrification is perhaps the most discussed and debated topic in the city - for good reason. A 2017 study ranked it as one of the “fastest-gentrifying” cities in the nation. On top of the housing supply is the fact that many homeowners have struggled to maintain their homes, leading to many homes to be in a state of disrepair. One element that contributes to this issue is permitting.
The labrynthine department site, the only online information available to homeowners previously.
Opportunity
“How might we help homeowners navigate the complex permitting process and align city staff around consistent rules?”
Evolving rules, regulations, and rapid growth has birthed a permitting structure that is difficult to navigate, even for city staff themselves. The notoriously complicated, opaque, inconsistent process extends construction times, and issues during the process can add years and thousands of dollars to the construction of a home. It also forces homeowners to decide between spending excessive time and money to follow the rules and risk potentially never being able to complete renovations, or forgoing permitting and exposing themselves to the risks of predatory contractors, unsafe work, and extensive fines. In one of the fastest growing cities in the country, this issue contributes to the discrepancy between housing need and housing supply.
The Development Services Department and IT department came to the Innovation Office with a pretty open-ended request - design a tool to help the public navigate the process.
PermittingATX
Outcomes
A web resource that explains the residential permitting process in plain language, details popular projects, and includes sample plans and other helpful tools. Through this resource, we made permitting processes more transparent and increased alignment among City staff, so novice users who couldn’t navigate the process at all can now understand the process, requirements, and either effectively pursue permitting themselves or be empowered with the information they need while interacting with contractors. By addressing those who have the hardest time navigating the system, the system became more transparent and consistent for all.
A strategy and process for scaling this resource and service and staff alignment improvements across multiple departments and permit types.
Our original deliverable was a custom website. It has since been transferred over to the main City website to improve maintainability, visibility, and increase scale. Some of the previous functionality was unavailable on the new website but the content largely remains the same. Check it out! May I recommend the Shed guide.
Impact
The average number of necessary application submissions were cut in half.
The average number of times a resident had to attend in-person consultations went from five visits down to two.
Anecdotally, we began hearing scenarios in which homeowners were able to navigate the process, or identify how to scope their projects to build while legally, safely avoiding the process.
A simplification of requirements by permitting staff on small-scale projects and an increase in alignment.
Team
My role Generative and evaluative research lead, strategy for design and content, UX and information architecture, workshop facilitator.
Collaborators A service designer, a developer, a visual designer, an organizational change specialist, two project managers, three content strategists/copywriters, and several building and land development code experts.