Commenting on Applications

Inclusive commenting 

This prototype has been developed to show how a future digital service could assist community groups and members of the public in both finding out about and having their say on current planning applications of interest to them.

It is based on thinking around improving inclusiveness in planning, and allowing communities further opportunities to help shape their place, using simple digital tools to do this. These issues have been highlighted in our user research.

Who is it for: 

• Planning authorities
• Communities
• Consultees

What it does: 

• Shows how digital could help communities have a greater understanding of what is happening in their area and how they can get involved to help shape their place.
• Shows how a single online system could assist planning authorities in tracking comments made on specific applications.

Informed by: 

• User research
• eDevelopment service

These prototypes help to illustrate what change could look like. What ultimately is developed could look very different but they give an early opportunity to explore the future of planning.

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Straightforward commenting

Key features of this prototype:

• Account using signed-in information
  Shows that if a person has signed up for the service they could skip personal questions about themselves to enable a quick commenting experience. Sign-up would be optional to allow for one-time commenters.
• User friendly process
  Designed to look familiar and approachable for people to engage.
• Easy to understand applications
  In our finding and viewing sites prototype we demonstrated how applications could be easier to understand to enable more informed comments.

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Categorisation

Key features of this prototype:

• Helping people articulate their comment
  Choosing from a list of legitimate planning concerns this could help people better articulate their concerns or support for a proposal.
• Categorised comments
  Categorising comments could make a planner’s task of tracking and analysing comments more straightforward, and focus in on key concerns.
• Detailed comments
  Having sub-categories and allowing further written comments could help people go into more detail about their concerns or support. This would also allow planners to effectively drill down into comments for more information.
• Comment upvoting
  Allowing people to upvote others comments could help reduce the number of unique and repetitive comments, and streamline the analysis process for planners.

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Help for planners

Key features of the prototypes:

• Comments analysis
  Categorisation of comments could help in the analysis of themes and topics for the planner.
• Unique comments
  Having comments shown in full alongside upvoting totals could assist planners find a specific comment.
• Comments dashboard
  Having a dashboard could bring together all responses and comments into a single, easy-to-read place. 

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