COGS 127 Project

Overview

Project Focus: Get It Done San Diego

Get It Done San Diego is a mobile app that allows residents to report non-emergency city issues such as potholes, graffiti, broken streetlights, and illegal dumping by uploading photos and locations directly to city departments. While the app has processed millions of service requests and improved accessibility through features like a Spanish-language version, it is still mainly designed for adult users. Our project focuses on extending the platform to better support younger users, specifically junior high and high school students between the ages of 12–17.

Students interact with public spaces every day through walking to school, taking public transportation, and spending time in their neighborhoods, making them some of the first people to notice unsafe or neglected areas. Our goal is to create a more accessible and engaging experience for younger users by introducing features such as community upvoting to reduce duplicate reports and an improved impact timeline that makes service updates clearer and more interactive. By giving students a safe and anonymous way to participate, we hope to encourage stronger civic engagement and help them feel more connected to improving their communities.

User Research

One major issue with the current app is that users often do not see the impact of their reports, which can reduce motivation to continue participating. To address this, we want to create features that make the reporting process feel more transparent and collaborative. Adding visible progress updates, community support through upvotes, and a simpler reporting experience can help students feel that their voices matter and encourage them to become more active participants in maintaining safer and cleaner neighborhoods.

Through interviews, we also discovered that the app is not widely known among younger users. Most of the students we interviewed had either never heard of Get It Done San Diego or did not understand what the app was used for. This showed us that there is a lack of awareness and engagement within the younger population. To help increase interest and accessibility, we explored adding more interactive features that would encourage users to stay involved and updated on issues happening in their communities. Features such as community upvotes, clearer progress updates, and a more engaging timeline could make the app feel more relevant and appealing to younger audiences.