How do you create a plan document that grabs the attention of your audience and generates feedback? In Central Arkansas, citizens are exploring and experiencing an interactive online draft plan that makes participation easy and fun.
"Can plan documents be brought to life?" is the question answered in this article from Engaging Cities.
"Draft plans can be long and wordy, hard to digest and slow to download. Not many people are interested in reading a whole plan document or commenting on it. This makes feedback hard to obtain - especially meaningful conversations around specific plan elements. Metroplan sought to present the new draft in a fresh, relevant way that would hold the attention of today’s citizens. To do this, the document would need to take on the eye-catching, easy-to-read flow of a typical modern website - abandoning the static, lengthy format common to draft plans."
Find out how it was done, and how citizens in Central Arkansas can now interact with various elements of the plan, explore at their own pace, and give feedback right alongside the information.
FULL STORY: Citizens "Imagine Central Arkansas"

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