Moving towards user-centered government: community information needs and practices of families

Government organizations have begun to consider how to provide families with information about their communities, yet their current design strategies focus on providing any and all of their information. This makes it difficult for families to find what is relevant to them. To help address this problem, we conducted a diary and interview study to explore what community information families are actually interested in, how and when they acquire it, and what challenges they face in doing so. Results show that location-based information in their environments triggered people to want to know more about their community while time-based information helped people plan family activities. Family members also wanted to have information resurface at particular places and points in time to support face-to-face interactions. Our analysis suggests design opportunities to leverage the affordances of print and online media and the use of in-home technologies to support the interactions between family members. We also suggest considerations for location-based experiences within communities.