Communication City of Utrecht

The city of Utrecht is facing a major challenge to get all homes in the district of Utrecht Overvecht switched off from gas. Many people with a non-Western migration background live in this district. They still often cook on fire. The gas cooker will be replaced by an electric induction stove. The city of Utrecht is now informing its citizens about the coming changes by letter in the Dutch language. However, the municipality receives very little response to the offer to replace the gas cooker with an induction stove.

We were asked to design something playful, informative and user-friendly that would get more residents to switch from cooking on gas to cooking on induction.

By doing field research we soon found out that the residents are not satisfied with the communication of the city. The city mainly communicates with letters and brochures in the Dutch language. The city is not clear about the steps to be taken. And when residents say they would like to receive the letters in a different language, they are only given a halfway response and nothing is done with it.  

That’s when we came up with the BuurtBox. A kind of ‘Arcade Video Game Box’ like you see in game halls. The box has a large screen and obvious buttons to press. By displaying different icons on the buttons (see image below) it is immediately clear on what subject you can view information. Do you want to know something about cooking on induction? Or do you want to know something about the costs? It’s all displayed on the screen with animations and told by a voice-over in your own language. 

The mobile Neighborhood Box can be placed at several busy locations in the neighborhood. Think of the weekly market, the shopping center or the community center.