City of Boston · Civic UX

Boston CityScore.

A research-led redesign of Boston's public civic data dashboard.

RoleLead Product Designer

Research15 Boston residents

OutcomeLive product adoption

Approved Boston CityScore dashboard redesign

01 · Original

The data was there. The context wasn't.

Boston's CityScore was designed to give residents a real-time view of how the city was performing across dozens of metrics. The original dashboard was a dense green table of numbers with internal acronyms, little context, and no way to drill into your neighborhood.

Original Boston CityScore dashboard — Original CityScore dashboard: dense scores, limited context, internal labels, and no neighborhood drill-down.

02 · Research

Test it with the people it was built for.

We conducted in-person usability testing with 15 Boston residents at South Station and Downtown Crossing. Participants ranged from 20 to 68 and included consultants, analysts, students, and retirees. We also compared civic dashboards in Portland and Kansas City.

Usability testing session with a Boston resident — In-person usability testing with Boston residents in public city spaces.

Card sorting session for CityScore metrics — Card sorting helped shape the final information architecture.

03 · Findings

What residents couldn't read or do.

Data clarity

Users confused daily, weekly, and monthly scores.

Language

Internal city acronyms created confusion.

Format

Data appeared before the context needed to understand it.

Color

The color system was inaccessible and unsuitable for crime data.

Neighborhood

Residents wanted to filter by their own neighborhood.

Interaction

Users couldn't drill deeper into the data.

04 · Redesign

Context first. Data second.

Based on card-sorting research, we reorganized the dashboard around four user-facing categories: Community, Maintenance Services, Crime, and Emergency Services. We rewrote labels in plain language, replaced the inaccessible color system, and added neighborhood-level filtering. The redesign was ADA accessible and mobile responsive.

Original CityScore dashboard before redesign — Before: dense metrics and limited hierarchy.

Approved CityScore dashboard redesign — After: clearer hierarchy, contrast, score readability, and neighborhood context.

05 · Outcome

Research that made it into the live product.

Key elements of the redesign were adopted in the City of Boston's live product update. Post-testing, participants responded positively to the grouping of information, the clearer color treatment, and overall usability.

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