Open Amsterdam

A working prototype for the Municipality of Amsterdam

Open Amsterdam is the platform where the Municipality of Amsterdam makes information publicly available for everyone. Think of decisions, policy documents, and other files that the municipality is required to share under the Open Government Act (Woo). There are thousands of these, and as a resident or journalist, you want to be able to search through them quickly and easily. We developed a working prototype that can replace the current Open Amsterdam website. The goal is to make all information easier to find and search using the latest technologies.

The challenge

In the current Open Amsterdam environment, users can't always find the information they need quickly and easily. The metadata is not always complete or consistent, and the search function doesn't match how citizens, journalists, and social organizations look for information. As a result, it takes too long to find what you need. Additionally, the website isn't fast enough or inviting for citizens.

That's why the Municipality of Amsterdam came to us with the question:

Can you build a solution that helps visitors find the right documents faster and more easily?

The solution

We developed a working prototype that allows visitors to Open Amsterdam to quickly and intuitively find what they need. In a short time, we created a user-friendly search environment. This allowed the municipality to immediately see the benefits of an improved search function and identify technical opportunities and challenges. The prototype provides a solid foundation to further develop into a full-fledged platform.

Our approach

We started with an interactive workshop together with the key stakeholders from the Municipality of Amsterdam. At Dolphiq, we often do such workshops at the start of a project, because it helps everyone quickly get a clear picture of what is truly needed.

As a starting point, we used a user study that Open Amsterdam had previously commissioned. Together, we then determined which features needed to be included in the prototype. For each feature, we weighed how important and feasible it was. The result was a well-supported plan with a clear scope.

Throughout the project, we worked closely with, among others, Sibrand, project leader at the Municipality of Amsterdam. We met with him regularly to discuss decisions and test whether the AI was delivering the right results. A data analyst from the municipality provided around 10,000 documents for us to work with. Based on this, we created the design, after which our developers built the prototype in two sprints.

On July 2, we presented the working prototype during a lunch lecture, where everyone from the Municipality of Amsterdam could watch.

"Dolphiq digs deeper and quickly gets to the heart of your challenge. In fact, they come up with a solution that goes beyond what you expected."

– Sibrand de Boer, projectleider bij Open Amsterdam

Benefits of the working prototype

Start quickly with limited risk & budget

With a prototype, you can test whether a solution works on a limited budget before making a major investment. The municipality can now make an informed decision based on a working result about whether to move forward in this direction.

Documents easier to find

The search function looks not only at titles and metadata, but also images, scanned documents, and the full text of documents (full-text search). This helps you find the policy documents that truly match your query much faster.

Less manual work thanks to AI

The Municipality of Amsterdam provided raw data, which we analyzed with AI to enrich the metadata. This made it possible to add geographic filters, so you can now filter by district, neighborhood, or street. AI helps automatically recognize and supplement relevant metadata, reducing the need for manual enrichment of documents.

An attractive interface with new features

The new interface better matches the Municipality of Amsterdam's branding and features an improved filter system. Each document includes a short AI-generated summary, so you immediately see what it's about. You can also see how many pages a document has, and you no longer need to request files by email. These are all advantages over the current website, where you have to open a document first to see what it's about.

Frequently asked questions about this case

We work in five phases. First, we explore your wishes and needs together, often through a workshop. Then we plan and prepare: epics and user stories in Jira. Next, we build in three-week sprints. After the go-live, we start active monitoring and then continuously maintain the application.
Absolutely. We'd love to invite you for a no-obligation introductory meeting or a workshop to explore your idea. Get in touch and we'll look at what's possible together.
Een gemiddelde maatwerk software applicatie kost tussen de €15.000 en €80.000+. De exacte prijs hangt af van de complexiteit, het aantal functionaliteiten en de gewenste integraties. Bij Dolphiq start maatwerk vanaf €15.000.
Dolphiq uses the Atlassian Suite, with Jira as the central project board. As a client, you have access to the Scrum board and can track progress and the backlog in real time. This way, you're always up to date on what's happening.

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