YourView

Getting residents and other stakeholders involved in spatial projects in an efficient and effective way is challenging. For many local area and communications managers, poorly attended sounding board evenings or confusion owing to differing levels of knowledge are familiar occurrences. YourView is a proven online participation and communications tool, which provides tooling for digital participation and communications on different types of projects.

Involved stakeholders

Getting residents and other stakeholders involved at an early stage in projects within their own living of work environment often produces better results and greater resident satisfaction. Furthermore, with the introduction of the Environment and Planning Act, participation has become a mandatory component for many types of projects. Witteveen+Bos is involved in the development of many spatial planning projects and has built up extensive experience of being in contact with many stakeholders, both experts and laypeople as well as professionals and local residents. In order to improve this contact both quantitatively and qualitatively, we developed YourView.

YourView as online addition

At Witteveen+Bos, YourView is often part of a comprehensive participation process which also includes the traditional residents meetings. However, YourView can also be used separately in a project if there is a demand for it. This tool is an online addition that appeals to those stakeholders already familiar with digital information exchange. For example, YourView can be set up as a project website to strengthen the communication strategy and can be used to participate online in various ways.

Witteveen+Bos sets up the YourView environment and supports the content production and interaction. Examples include processing reactions, adding project information and providing feedback on the online platform. Those interested in the project thus find up-to-date information 24/7 and can follow the project's progress step by step.

An illustration of a tablet. The tablet shows a map with a bridge and roads. You can also see reactions from a neighbour wondering where she should park her car now.

YourView in practice

YourView has been successfully used by 42 municipalities and companies in the Netherlands, Singapore and Belgium, with the aim of increasing participation among residents or other stakeholders. An illustrative example is the Municipality of Schiedam, for which Witteveen+Bos created the design plan. Using YourView, we were able to get the residents of Hogendorpstraat and the surrounding area involved. The window for responding has since been closed, but the site nevertheless gives a good impression of the possibilities offered by YourView. Visit the Municipality of Schiedam’s Yourview platform here(Dutch).

An illustration of two hands holding a tablet. On the tablet you can see an alternative to the current bridge.

YourView accessibility

More responses and qualitative feedback

The online environment makes it easy to collect the views of residents and other stakeholders. Visitors to the site can respond 24/7, at a moment's notice. This reaches a large audience.