2026Civic UX Research, AI Systems, Design Engineering
Collier Blueprint
A township project tracker that reaches residents while the decision can still change.
Collier Township asked Carnegie Mellon what AI could do for its transparency. The record was not the broken part: residents turn up in their hundreds, once the decision is made. Blueprint reaches them while it is a draft.
- Role
- Design engineering lead
- Team
- A UXR lead, a designer-developer, a PM
- Client
- Collier Township, Pennsylvania
- Timeline
- 7 months, Jan. 2026 - July 2026
- Built with
- Next.js and Tailwind, on Vercel
- Outcome
- 11 of 12 residents would track a real decision with it
- Links
- Live prototype
Two residents on a normal Tuesday. Two hundred when it was too late.
We were asked about AI and reporting. The first board meeting rearranged the brief, and our first answer was wrong.
The brief was AI for the township's data and transparency. It read as a staff problem. It was not. I counted three people at a Board of Commissioners meeting; a contested development hearing weeks earlier drew two hundred. Same decision, same residents. The only variable was how far along it was.
- 2 vs 200
- At a routine board meeting, against a contested hearing weeks earlier
- 2.94 / 5
- Sense of belonging, across 39 residents surveyed
Our first answer was belonging, and the poll confirmed it. We spent weeks designing against it. We were wrong: Collier has weekly concerts, a cleanup day, and a community centre where residents made friends.
Belonging in Collier, drawn as who talks to whom
- ResidentResidentWorks
- DepartmentDepartmentWorks
- TownshipResidentThe gap
Five findings that turned out to be one finding
January to July, 224 conversations across four stages. Everything after tested what they said.
- 224
- Conversations across four stages
- 82
- Points of contact in stage one
- 23
- Interviews with residents, staff and commissioners
- 39
- Survey responses, 32 online and 7 in person
One source, not more
The newsletter, the website, two social accounts and the minutes are five places to check.
By the time they show up, it is too late
A project runs for years and the comment period is its last stage. 35 of 39 cited lack of awareness.
Attention is not evenly spread
Residents named neighbourhoods getting more than their own, and asked for a level field.
Not heard where it matters most
One resident called major housing plans a break with Collier's rural roots.
Residents often do not know what to look for and where to look for it.
Not access. Orientation and timing. The site assumes you know the name already.
90 ideas, ten prototypes, and the one Collier was already building
Every opportunity area could have been a product. This stage found which ideas residents would refuse.
- CutGamified rewards and a leaderboard10 of 13 said rewards would lower their motivation
- CutA what kind of resident are you quizA toy bolted to a government service
- CutA public bulletin boardOne more channel, and they had asked for fewer
- CutA filter sorting news by detail and tone5 of 10 called tone filtering unnecessary
- CutA map of events and worksWanted, and Collier was already building it
- KeptA project broken into stagesComprehension of where it stood rose from 2.2 to 4.4
I do not think there should be rewards to get people involved in the government.
The direction we walked in believing, and the one residents killed fastest.
So we kept the part nobody was building: the project in stages, with the record attached. Residents added one thing. When was this updated, and what changed.
Collier Blueprint, a tracker that arrives while the decision is still a draft
Two sides of one system. Residents follow a project through its stages. Staff publish one in minutes, from documents they have.
It arranges what the township publishes as a sequence rather than a document, so a resident can see which part is still open. A blueprint is what a thing is while it can still be redrawn.
- Today most residents first hear at the comment period, when the only move left is to object.
- Follow a project and Blueprint tells you the day each stage opens, while there is still something to say.
What a resident does with it
Read before you vote, argue in public or write in private, and find out where it went.
Find a project without knowing what it is called
Searchable and sortable, each with a plain description and the date it last moved. Follow one and new stages arrive while you can still comment.
Read a decision in stages, not as a document
Solid line for done, dashed for not, only the open stage in blue. Against the same content, comprehension of where a project stood rose from 2.2 to 4.4.
Say where you stand before you read the room
Support, oppose or neutral, results hidden until you vote. It sits below the timeline, because asking what someone thinks before they read produces a number worse than none.
Argue in public, with the room watching
Comment under your name, your initials or anonymously. The count on the eye is how many have read the thread, because being watched lifts what people write.
I would think for sure no one is reading it. I would like to know who is receiving it and the response time. Without these, I would not use it.
A form that swallows what you write teaches you that speaking up does nothing.
Write to the township, and find out where it went
A private line for what nobody says in public. As you write it offers ways to turn a reaction into something a department can route: which street, which hour, what you want instead.
The reply lands under the comment, in your notifications, and in your own record of what you said.
What the township does with it, and where AI is allowed to stand
A tracker nobody maintains is worse than none, so the staff side had one requirement: it cannot be more work.
Early resident facing versions led with AI: summaries, suggested questions, a chat surface. Half the room rejected them.
I would want an answer from a real person. I would not want this for Collier and would not use this if actual AI was responding.
- Resident side
- Nothing. Trust is what is being repaired here.
- Township side
- Drafts a project out of an uploaded document
- Groups comments by sentiment and theme
- Writes a first version of a reply
- Answers on the township's behalf
- Posts, replies or removes anything without a person
- Shows a reading without the source it came from
AI off
AI onPublish a project in minutes, from documents you have
Upload the ordinance, the bid, the staff report. The system drafts name, funding, sponsor, duration, stage dates and descriptions, each labelled suggested.
Read four hundred comments without reading four hundred
Grouped by sentiment, with themes across projects. Percentages never appear without raw counts, after a commissioner objected that 75% in favour means nothing if you asked four.
The pie chart is dangerous because it is too easy for someone to read the comments and just look at the chart.
The best argument against my own feature, from the person it was built for.
Moderate with a person in the loop, always
Flagged comments wait in a queue naming the reason. Nothing is removed automatically, and Draft with AI fills a box a person presses Post on.
91% task success at ages 55 to 84, and a township that stopped writing residents off
The last stage tested it the way it will be met: by residents who do not use apps.
- 91.29%
- Task success across 23 tasks, testers aged 55 to 84
- 4.55 / 5
- Readability, written to Plain Writing Act guidelines
- 11 of 12
- Residents who would track a real decision with it
- 9 of 9
- Department heads who said it adds no work
In the round run entirely with analog users, every resident summarised a project unprompted and 92% found a comment unaided.
All in one place. I do not have to go through the meetings and minutes.
The same public record, arranged so that finding it does not need you to know where it is.
A source of unprecedented value for grant writing and operations.
They began describing residents as people who turn up too late, and ended treating four hundred comments as an asset.
Collier passed a 35% tax increase in December, and for that one the room was full. The aim is not to fill that room, but that nobody has to wait for one to fill.