Turning community surveys into contextual, location-based experiences
TanyaLe! is an AR-based community survey platform that helps residents experience ideas where they would actually happen, explore their neighborhood, and give more meaningful feedback. Instead of asking people to imagine a proposal through a conventional form, TanyaLe brings the survey into the physical environment using location-based checkpoints, AR, and lightweight interactions.
Research
We did a lot of research for this project. We started with the topic of “Gather People's Aspirations and Turn Them into Participable City-Building Initiatives”. I resonated with this theme because as a citizen, I want to be able to know what my surroundings are doing and what can I help them.
We looked at mediums on which citizens can express their aspirations on multiple public spaces.
We had a chat with DPMPTSP Jakarta about how they socialize their programs to citizens in Jakarta.
We tried asking general public about what kinds of aspiration that they’ve had about the city.
Eventually, we met Pak Taufik, which is a Pak RT (Neighborhood Leader). He’s already well known in Indonesia for his innovative ideas for improving his community. But before realizing his projects, he needs to understand: is the idea really what the residents need?
The solution is a survey. But conventional surveys introduce another problems. A resident might receive questions such as whether a chicken coop should be built somewhere in the neighborhood. But without standing there, they may immediately wonder:
Would it even fit?
What would the space actually feel like?
Would it smell?
Opportunity
We always did a debrief and wrote down the insights we had from the fieldwork. Then at the end, we synthesized our findings during the fieldwork into one giant framework in the whiteboard. We started to think back to the questions that would popup when an organizer will do a program / event in the places that they live.
The biggest opportunity was realizing that many community questions are inherently spatial. If the question is about a park, sidewalk, garden, facility, or neighborhood improvement, the location itself contains information that cannot easily be communicated through text. We sometimes have to go there, look around, hear the environment, understand the scale, and experience the space.
How might we help residents understand a proposal in its real-world context before asking them to make a decision about it?
User persona
TanyaLe serves two interconnected users: citizens who want their voices to be understood, and community organizers who need meaningful input to make better decisions.
Citizen
My behaviour are ...I respond when an issue feels relevant to me, but I may rush or skip surveys that are long, unclear, or disconnected from the actual place.
I need ...Enough context to understand an idea before giving my opinion, and an easy way to express what I actually think.
My pain points are ...Traditional surveys can feel boring, sudden, and difficult to answer when I have to imagine a situation without seeing the real context.
Organizer (Pak RT)
My behaviour are ...I regularly collect residents’ opinions to validate ideas, plan initiatives, and understand what the community needs.
I need ...A way to clearly communicate my ideas, encourage participation, and collect feedback that reflects what residents truly understand and feel.
My pain points are ...Low participation and half-hearted responses make it difficult to tell whether residents truly understand or support an initiative.
Exploring solution
The whiteboard became our best friend. We used Crazy 8s, competitor research, and rapid sketching to explore different ways and solutions.
The most useful (and memorable) exercise was mapping a citizen’s day-to-day journey using sticky notes and LEGO. We traced when people encounter community issues and it rarely happens only on screens.
We realize that the experience started then people are moving through a neighborhood. From there, AR because a natural direction. The technology can connect exploration, discovery, and feedback.
The solution
A community organizer creates a journey by defining locations, checkpoints, and questions.
Residents then explore the neighborhood using their phone.
A map and AR navigation guide them toward specific checkpoints. Once they reach one, TanyaLe presents an interaction directly within the environment.
Core flows
Maker’s App
Community organizers such as Pak RT use the Maker’s App to create and manage AR survey journeys. They can define locations and checkpoints to setting questions and publishing the experience.
location Set the
points Set the
questions Publish the App Code
App Clip
TanyaLe uses App Clips to remove the friction of downloading a full app. Citizens can simply scan the App Clip Code and immediately enter the neighborhood survey experience.
This is a new interesting technicall challenge for me!
Interactions
We designed four core interaction types to match different kinds of feedback, allowing organizers to choose the format that best fits each question.
Feedback and iterations
We had the opportunity to present TanyaLe to William Reynold and Juan Kanggrawan from City Karsa Lab, whose work focuses on participatory urban development, technology, and public policy. Their feedback helped us evaluate TanyaLe beyond usability. Especially how the concept could fit into real community decision-making.
We’re very grateful for the feedback and we hope we can continue to develop this even further.
Reflections
Key Takeaways
Fieldwork reminded me how valuable it is to simply talk to people. I was surprised by how open strangers were to sharing their thoughts! Even when we approached them spontaneously.
This also made me a lot more confident in starting conversations with strangers, asking better questions, and practicing active listening.
This project was also a major technical learning curve.
It was my first time working closely with Apple’s App Clip, and it pushed me to think beyond interface design into how people actually access and enter an experience.
I also designed the mascot, assets, and logo! It was very freeing