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Smart City Muncie was an academic team project aimed at proposing user‑centered ICT solutions to strengthen city‑citizen communication and engagement within the context of urban revitalization in Muncie, Indiana. The goal was to design digital interaction systems that would open communication pathways between residents, business owners, and local government to support smart city planning, data collection, and collaborative decision‑making.
In this project, I served as a UX researcher with responsibilities that included:
Despite ongoing downtown revitalization and community investment efforts in Muncie, communication gaps persisted between city leadership and residents. Traditional engagement channels were limited, and residents lacked a consistent, accessible platform to provide input or access city information.
The challenge was:
How might we design digital engagement mechanisms that improve transparency, participation, and two‑way communication between the City of Muncie and its residents?
This project set out to:
We interviewed residents and business owners from Muncie to capture lived experiences, needs, and perceptions related to city engagement. Participants were selected based on their residency and local economic activity in Muncie.
Participants contributed to mini design sessions to envision how digital tools might help them interact with city services, share feedback, and be better informed about local initiatives.
We created user story maps to visualize primary user goals, tasks, pain points, and opportunities for interaction design, with a particular focus on kiosk and mobile app concepts.
From research and co‑design activities, several key insights emerged:
Co‑design sessions revealed that hands‑on interaction with concepts helps residents articulate priorities and frustrations more clearly than abstract questions.
The team proposed two complementary solutions:
An app designed to:
Public kiosks placed in high‑traffic areas that:
Both solutions were envisioned to operate in tandem, creating multiple access points for engagement and participation.
Through story mapping, we defined core interaction flows such as:
These flows guided how screens and interaction models would be prioritized in future design phases.
The project culminated in a fully documented proposal sent to Muncie city leadership and connected to local planning stakeholders. It emphasized inclusive digital engagement — recognizing that civic technology should be accessible, participatory, and contextually grounded.
The project culminated in a fully documented proposal sent to Muncie city leadership and connected to local planning stakeholders. It emphasized inclusive digital engagement — recognizing that civic technology should be accessible, participatory, and contextually grounded.