The City of Tallahassee has relaunched its first mobile application, DigiTally, to the public, which allows residents to report city-related issues directly to the specific department.
Since its inception in April 2013, the app has experienced a number of crashes and other technical issues. However, within the past month, an issue that caused occasional crashes during a service request was fixed.
The purpose of DigiTally is to provide quick resolutions to residents’ concerns. These concerns can range from a broken streetlight to a sidewalk pothole.
“With DigiTally, residents have these tools at their fingertips, making it even easier and more convenient to accomplish their everyday tasks,” said Carrie Poole, a representative from the City’s communication department.
According to Poole, the app has received nearly 8,000 downloads. The city departments have responded to about 6,000 service requests that include repairs and traffic safety enhancements.
Kierra Crump, a senior business administration student from Tallahassee, Fla., said she was tired of seeing graffiti on her driving route, which is why she downloaded the app.
“I thought it was a great way to handle those issues and for the city to solve those problems that I normally see every day,” Crump said.
PublicStuff, a software provider, created the core design of the app. It also hosts the program on behalf of the City. During the development phase, representatives from the community were invited to test and review the app before launching it to the public.
Jim Van Riper, the Technology & Planning Administrator with the City’s Information System Services Department, said the app’s other features were created independently from PublicStuff.
“The additional features beyond the reporting tool, referred to as ‘widgets,’ were designed and incorporated into DigiTally by the City’s Information Systems Services Department,” Riper said.
The funding for the development of DigiTally came from a special allocation from the City administration.
In addition to reporting city-related issues, DigiTally users can pay their utility bill, check their garbage pickup schedule, view adoptable pets and locate nearby parks.
The app can be downloaded from an Android and IOS, and there is a non-mobile version for access on a computer.