The municipality of Tilburg is working hard to implement the Open Government Act (Woo). Together with an external supplier, the municipality is developing the publication facility 'Open Tilburg'. This platform plays an important role in the pursuit of a transparent and accessible government.
Documents covered by the Woo are actively disclosed herein. These documents are in 1 central location and are accessible to everyone. To ensure that the platform is well aligned with the needs of residents and business owners, the municipality uses the UX Lab. In the lab, the municipality conducts user tests to gather feedback from end users and optimize the platform.
The Open Publication Facility of the Municipality of Tilburg arose from the obligation imposed by the Open Government Act states: municipalities must actively make documents public. To fulfill this obligation, the Municipality of Tilburg launched the program "Towards Open Tilburg. The goal of this program is, among other things, to make all documents that must be public easily accessible to everyone.
Project leader Eefje Hackeng explains: "We want to develop Open.Tilburg.nl based on the Common Ground principle. The core is that data are requested directly from the source. This avoids having to copy and store data over and over again. To make this possible, data is made uniform, retrieved via APIs, and the data remains in its original location."
An important part of the development of the Open Tilburg publication facility is the UX Lab, the test environment for the municipality's digital services. In the UX Lab, Tilburg actively engages its residents and business owners to improve services. Thus, through testing and feedback, the user experience is continuously optimized. "When we do it, we do it well," says project leader Eefje Hackeng. "This motto is central to the development of the publication facility."
The Open Tilburg publishing facility received a financial contribution from the Digitale Overheid Innovation Budget in 2024. With the innovation budget, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations stimulates cooperation and innovation between government organizations. An expert jury evaluates the innovation proposals based on a number of criteria. One of these is the involvement of users. View all criteria and more information via the website.
User tests provide insight into how residents and business owners experience the municipality's digital services. During these surveys, they perform concrete tasks and share their feedback. This input enables the municipality of Tilburg to continuously improve its digital services.
Fiona Damen, coordinator of the UX Lab, says: "We don't want to think for the users, but really ask them what they need. By collecting feedback at an early stage, we ensure that the final products are optimally aligned with the needs of our residents and business owners."
"The UX testing method can be used in several ways," explains Fiona Damen. "Usually we test in a test room, where a team of observers closely monitors the test and notes all feedback. But we also test on site. For example, we tested an accessibility tool by walking around the Tilburg Fair together with testers. This way we could see whether the tool also works well in practice."
A so-called "red thread session" is held after each test. During this session, the team discusses the feedback received and identifies key recurring points. Based on these insights, the municipality formulates concrete areas for improvement. These are described in a test report.
Several areas for improvement emerged from the user test. For example, it appears that the Open Government Act is unfamiliar to many people. This gives reason to adjust the website with clear and accessible information about the law. It also turned out that people use the search bar very intensively. It should therefore be given a prominent role in the design of the website. At the same time, it turned out that additional features, such as a favorites button or the ability to copy links, are hardly ever used. To further improve the user experience, the focus is on simplicity and clarity. For example, by replacing long texts with fold-out text fields. This approach ensures that users can quickly access relevant information without distraction.
One of the main principles of the UX Lab is that all residents of Tilburg can participate in user testing. It is not a fixed test panel, but an open invitation to anyone who wants to contribute. This ensures a wide range of opinions and insights, giving the municipality a good picture of the needs of different target groups.
Fiona Damen emphasizes, "Our desire is for the UX Lab to really live among residents. We want people to actively participate and know that we are actually using their feedback to improve services."
