JOHNSTON, Iowa — The City of Johnston is launching a new app and website this week, with the goal of using technology to build community engagement.
"We need to learn to adapt... So that's kind of where our app comes into play," said Janet Wilwerding, communications manager for the city.
The redesign has been months in the making.
"We really wanted a website that was responsive, very mobile-friendly," Wilwerding said.
The goal is to create a one-stop shop where residents can get city information and reach out to officials.
"We do look at the back end analytics of our website to see what keywords people are searching for... If they have a specific concern, they can just add the information and they can upload a file to add a picture," Wilwerding said.
She's hoping this version will get more use than the previous one.
Over in Des Moines, the city's app started off slowly several years ago, but now has thousands of registered users, app downloads and service requests each year, according to director of public works Jonathan Gano.
Getting a city app to that point, though, can be difficult. Iowa State University regional planning professor Dr. Alenka Poplin has spent two decades studying how cities can use technology to engage residents.
"You need to understand what who the users are, what the goal of an app is, how to make a user-friendly user interface, what the content is going to be," Dr. Poplin said. "So they are facing quite many challenges in creating an app like that."
But she says apps have a lot of potential for engagement and urban planning.
"Our research focuses more on how can [there] be more continuing communication, but also how can these type of applications be more playful, engaging, and [include] some learning opportunities," Dr. Poplin added.
For now Wilwerding is focused on making life a little bit easier for the people of Johnston.
"I'm very hopeful that people will download it and find it very useful," she said.
Johnston's redesigned website is live now and Wilwerding expects the app to be available for download in the coming days.
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