Public-Facing Mobile App: Why Do We Need It?
Neighbourhood Alert: Your Community’s Connection
Neighbourhood Alert (NA) is a digital platform bridging the gap between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. It empowers police forces to collect data through surveys, understand local issues, and deliver personalized safety alerts to residents. However, the current reliance on emails and police websites for updates limits the platform’s potential for real-time engagement. To address this, we are developing a dedicated mobile app to provide users with more accessible and interactive features.
This blog post critically evaluates the NA platform, identifies key opportunities for improvement, and presents the findings of our research to inform the app’s development.
The Problem: Current User Experience and Challenges
Residents can register for NA via the product website or their local police website. Once registered, users can customize their preferences, such as the types of alerts they wish to receive. Our annual national survey revealed that residents value the platform for its timely and relevant alerts. However, they expressed challenges in accessing specific information, such as contact details for local teams or updates on crime prevention events. Many users rely on fragmented sources, such as local police pages, for these details.
This fragmented experience highlights a significant opportunity to consolidate these resources into a central hub—the Neighbourhood Alert mobile app. By addressing these pain points, the app can enhance user satisfaction, attract new registrations, and deepen engagement with existing users.
Our Research Aims
The primary purpose of this research is to investigate how a Neighbourhood Alert (NA) mobile app can better meet user needs, resolve challenges with the current platform, and enhance community engagement.
Investigation Objectives
To achieve this purpose, the following objectives will guide the research:
- Discover User Needs: Identify the features and functionalities that users find most valuable, ensuring the app aligns with their preferences and expectations.
- Uncover Pain Points: Investigate challenges users face when accessing the current platform via emails or websites, including barriers to engagement and usability.
- Bridge Service Gaps: Analyze gaps between user expectations and the current platform’s capabilities to propose app features that effectively address these shortcomings.
- Understand User Contexts: Explore how user demographics (age, location, device preferences) and behaviors influence their interaction with the platform and inform app design.
Competitor Analysis: What We Can Learn from Salesforce and Nextdoor
To ensure our app delivers a competitive and unique user experience, we conducted an analysis of similar platforms:
- Nextdoor
- Strengths: Nextdoor excels in fostering community engagement with features like neighborhood-specific groups, event postings, and discussion threads.
- Weaknesses: The app lacks a strong integration with law enforcement, limiting its ability to provide official safety updates or address critical public safety concerns.
- Salesforce’s Public Safety Solutions
- Strengths: Salesforce provides advanced tools for data management and analytics, empowering agencies to collect and act on public feedback effectively.
- Weaknesses: Its focus on back-end solutions leaves gaps in user-facing accessibility, particularly for residents seeking direct engagement.
Opportunity for NA: By combining the community focus of Nextdoor with the robust data-handling capabilities of Salesforce, the NA mobile app can stand out as a platform that not only informs but actively engages residents with law enforcement.
Target Audience Research: Who Are Our Users?
To design a successful mobile app, understanding the target audience is crucial. Our research reveals key insights into the demographics, preferences, and behaviors of Neighbourhood Alert (NA) users.
Demographics
- Age and Gender: The majority of NA users fall within the 35–55 age range, with a slightly higher proportion of female users (55%). This suggests a target demographic of working professionals and parents, who are likely invested in community safety.
- Geolocation: Most users are based in suburban and urban areas, reflecting a diverse range of community needs—from concerns about urban crime to neighborhood-specific updates in quieter suburbs.
Device and OS Preferences
- Devices: 70% of users access NA via mobile devices, indicating a strong demand for a mobile-first solution.
- Operating Systems: Among mobile users, 60% use Android devices, while 40% prefer iOS.
Behavioral Insights
- NA users frequently check updates during weekday mornings and evenings, aligning with work commutes and post-work hours.
- The most popular content includes crime updates, safety tips, and event notifications, indicating a need for streamlined access to these categories.
These findings confirm that the app must cater to mobile-first, older adult users who require quick, easy access to relevant updates. The platform’s design must also reflect the varying preferences of Android and iOS users, ensuring compatibility and usability across devices.
User Goals and Challenges
To ensure the app meets the diverse needs of our users, we’ve identified key goals and challenges:
User Goals
- Quick access to timely, relevant alerts.
- Centralized information on local crime prevention events and police team contacts.
- A seamless, user-friendly experience across devices.
User Challenges
- Fragmented access to local information through multiple platforms.
- Limited engagement with alerts beyond viewing.
Difficulty navigating existing websites for non-registered members.
Conclusion: Moving Towards a User-Centric Solution
The development of the Neighbourhood Alert mobile app represents a critical opportunity to address user pain points and establish a central hub for community engagement. By learning from competitors like Nextdoor and Salesforce and conducting thorough research into user preferences, challenges, and behaviors, we aim to create an app that not only meets but exceeds user expectations.
