Designing a User-Centered Digital Lost-and-Found System for Municipal Services

Research · 2020 · Cologne University of Applied Sciences

This study was developed within the field of Human-Computer Interaction and focused on improving the user experience of municipal lost-and-found office systems. The starting point was the problem that losing personal belongings such as wallets, bank cards, jackets, important documents, or other valuable items often causes stress, uncertainty, and significant time pressure for the affected person. Although many lost items are eventually handed in to municipal lost-and-found offices, users often face difficulties due to poor information quality, lack of clarity, limited accessibility, and insufficient usability of existing digital lost-and-found platforms. The objective of this study was to design a user-centered system that reduces the stress associated with using municipal lost-and-found services and simplifies the overall process of reporting, searching for, and recovering lost items. A key focus was to ensure that the platform would be consistently accessible, easy to understand, and clearly structured for all users. The first step involved conducting thorough research on the problem space to identify the main challenges within the context of municipal lost-and-found offices. In addition, brainstorming sessions were carried out to explore potential solutions and define relevant usage scenarios. Based on this research, the key actors involved in the system were identified and structured within a domain model. This helped visualize the relationships between finders, owners of lost items, lost-and-found office employees, and the digital platform itself. Following this, these actors were analyzed as stakeholders in order to better understand their needs, expectations, and interactions with the proposed system. From these stakeholders, personas were created to represent typical user groups in a realistic way. Usage contexts were then defined to illustrate specific real-life situations in which users interact with the system. Based on these findings, user requirements were derived and formulated as user stories, allowing both functional and emotional user needs to be captured systematically. These insights were then used to define the essential features of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The core system functionalities were translated into initial design concepts, first through storyboards to visualize user journeys and usage scenarios, and then through wireframes to develop the structural and functional layout of the user interface. As a result, the study delivered a well-founded UX concept for a digital lost-and-found office system that is centered around user needs and aims to make the process of finding and recovering lost belongings more efficient, understandable, and significantly less stressful.