City of Toronto Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) Webpage
City of Toronto Inclusionary Zoning page at the time
— PROJECT NAME
City of Toronto Inclusionary Zoning webpage update
— PROJECT GOAL
Awareness, Engagement
— MY ROLE
Content strategy, User Research, Style guide, UX writing, Cross-functional collaboration
— TOOLS
Figma, Google docs, Mural
— DATE
Fall 2021
The City of Toronto was exploring inclusionary zoning (IZ) policies with the goal of:
1. Increasing the supply of affordable housing;
2. Creating more inclusive, complete and equitable communities.
Challenge: There was no awareness on the City's website regarding the IZ policies. The City needed to inform the public on the IZ policies but lacked a dedicated project webpage.
Solution: My team and I were brought on the project to increase public awareness of IZ, collect feedback through extensive user research and promote an understanding of how IZ fits into the City’s affordable housing tool box. My role was to design the website content and use engaging copy to attract and reach as many people as possible.
Stakeholder Mapping
One of the first steps was stakeholder mapping. I identified a comprehensive list of stakeholders to be interviewed and surveyed throughout the project.
This comprehensive list became valuable during the research process.
User Research
Survey Findings
The results (charts below) showed that:
- 60% were renters and 2% had no permanent or fixed address.
- 34% said they are not aware of any City of Toronto housing-related initiatives.
- 37% of respondents identified transit as an important criteria for determining where inclusionary zoning should be applied.
Public Polls
The poll results (image below) showed that people valued the following the most in their neighbourhoods:
- - Affordable housing and a range of housing types
- - Access to transit and transportation options
- - Green spaces, ravines and parks
- - Climate change
- - Cycling and pedestrian connections
Stakeholder Interviews
My teammate and I conducted 15 stakeholder interviews (excerpts in picture below). The results revealed that the biggest housing challenges for residents in Toronto include:
- - Environment, climate change and sustainability
- - Housing supply, access and affordability
- - Equity: inclusivity, accessibility, discrimination and process
- - Healthy and resilient communities
- - Building complete communities throughout Toronto
Findings from the indigenous meetings
Conversation Mining
The discussions in virtual chats and forums showed that users wanted the IZ policies to be focused on achieving affordable housing and prioritizing the most vulnerable groups, using a rights-based approach.
Results from the conversation mining
Style Guide
I designed the content page based on the City's style guide on typography and colour (images below).
Results
Based on the project's goals and user research, I wrote the website and other platform content in an empathetic, reassuring, trustworthy and friendly voice and tone.
In collaboration with the graphics team, I prepared a script for an interactive video that highlighted the real housing stories that Torontonians shared during the user research. This was placed on the website to introduce inclusionary zoning and motivate users to get involved.
The video attracted over 1500 unique visitors within a month.
Adaptive UX Writing
I created messaging used for other platforms such as advertisements and postcards (image below). I ensured the theme of the project stood out "Everyone should be able to afford a house in Toronto" in the information hierarchy.
Lessons Learnt
- Workflow efficiency: Working with collaborative tools such as Mural, Figma and Miro helped to efficiently improve workflows, work with key stakeholders and save my team's time.
Plain Language communication: I learnt the art of speaking on UX outside of the design ecosystem to stakeholders from different background. I was able to simplify the content design work so that everyone can understand the value of the user research and its application to the website structure/content.