What was the brief?
Mexborough Futures is an initiative that can help bring about significant positive change, transforming Mexborough Town Centre into a sustainable and high-quality place that is better equipped to take on challenges that are affecting town centres across the UK now and in the future, and to create a place that everyone has pride in.
In order to support community and stakeholder engagement on the masterplan, produced by David Lock Associates, Doncaster Council sought to create an interactive online hub to capture feedback on the masterplan and key projects which form part of it.
What did we do?
Participatr was commissioned by Doncaster Council, through David Lock Associates, to create a standalone interactive digital platform, focusing on an multi-layered interactive map which would signpost to information about key masterplan initiatives and provide key information on proposed land uses across a range of themes.
The interactive map deployed a range of different features, with the masterplan image produced by David Lock Associates forming the map's base layer. Visitors to the interactive map could either 'drop a pin' to comment on a specific location on the plan, click on predefined points to find out more about what is proposed at that location, or use a drop down menu in the map legend to select a new map layer which would provide detailed information by theme, such as 'access and movement' or 'green space and landscaping'.
When selecting the 'key projects' layer on the map, this would reveal polygons which, when clicked, would lead through to more detailed information on each of the key projects, including CGIs, detailed plans and sketches. On each of the key project pages, visitors had the opportunity to submit comments on that project, and 'like' comments made by others.
The interactive map sat alongside broader information about the project, including the outcomes of previous engagement carried out. All of these features sat within a user interface which was designed to match the brand identity for the project developed by David Lock Associates.
What was the outcome?
- Over 200 interactions were made through the Mexborough Futures platform, including over 50 map-based comments
- The platform was visited by 4,069 people
- 66% of visitors used mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets
The Mexborough Futures digital platform - click to enlarge