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City of Antwerp: User-Centred Solutions for a Future-Ready City

The city of Antwerp is pur­su­ing a dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion strat­e­gy to pro­vide all cit­i­zens, busi­ness­es, stu­dents and vis­i­tors with an opti­mal dig­i­tal ser­vice with­in a secure envi­ron­ment. The city’s dig­i­tal team found an expe­ri­enced and enthu­si­as­tic local part­ner in Hype­r­i­on to guide and realise this dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion. With our exten­sive ecosys­tem of pas­sion­ate experts, we always match the right solu­tion to the spe­cif­ic needs of every tar­get group. With a track record of over 70 suc­cess­ful projects, we know the city inside and out. Our part­ner­ships and long-term col­lab­o­ra­tion make sure Hype­r­i­on can ful­ly sup­port the city with any dig­i­tal challenge.

  • User-Centered Design
  • Smart City Solutions
  • Public Sector Innovation

A collaboration between

  • Leap Forward
  • Customer Link
  • Studio Hyperdrive
  • Monkeyshot
  • Anvil
Hands holding a tablet displaying the City of Antwerp's "Slim naar Antwerpen" route planner with various transportation options on a map. A smartphone displaying the "Slim naar Antwerpen" app, showcasing real-time navigation and transport options in Antwerp.

Challenge

The city of Antwerp faces the sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge of inform­ing and engag­ing its cit­i­zens in a way that is acces­si­ble, user-friend­ly, and inno­v­a­tive. Safe­ty, access to trans­porta­tion options and the pub­lic space require more atten­tion, while the pub­lic becomes more diverse every year, forc­ing cities to adapt with great speed. There­fore, there is a strong need for reli­able and easy-to-use dig­i­tal solu­tions across var­i­ous areas of city services:

  • “Slim naar Antwer­pen” app: The city want­ed to cre­ate, among oth­er solu­tions, an app that shows cit­i­zens the avail­abil­i­ty of trans­port options and encour­ages them to choose sus­tain­able mobil­i­ty solu­tions. Addi­tion­al­ly, the desire was iden­ti­fied to inform cit­i­zens about upcom­ing infra­struc­ture works in their city.
  • “Mijn Antwer­pen” app: There was a clear demand from the res­i­dents of Antwerp for a sim­ple and effi­cient dig­i­tal plat­form to quick­ly access munic­i­pal ser­vices. This app need­ed to allow cit­i­zens to quick­ly man­age tasks like apply for a pass­port or update their address, but just as eas­i­ly keep up to date with local news or events. 
  • Dig­i­tize the back-office process­es: Cit­i­zens get in touch with the city with a vari­ety of requests: apply­ing for per­mits, remod­el­ling or organ­is­ing events. To speed up han­dling of these requests, the city aims to digi­tise the process as much as pos­si­ble, gath­er­ing the nec­es­sary doc­u­ments and build­ing a sin­gle source of truth for fur­ther review. A sys­tem that cre­ates a 360° view of these requests forms the back­bone of such optimisations.
  • Ruben­shuis: The Ruben­shuis, a lead­ing muse­um in Antwerp, want­ed to offer a smooth dig­i­tal expe­ri­ence by merg­ing var­i­ous web­sites, mak­ing it eas­i­er for both researchers and muse­um vis­i­tors to access the right infor­ma­tion and services.

Services used

Information Architecture

UX/UI Design

Front-end development

User Research

Mobile Application Development

Solutions

In the pro­posed solu­tions, the city of Antwerp empha­sised the impor­tance of an opti­mal dig­i­tal user expe­ri­ence, allow­ing users to inter­act with the city on the fly or get more insight when­ev­er they want. At Hype­r­i­on, we ful­ly sup­port this vision, as we build solu­tions not just for users, but for peo­ple.

To apply this human-cen­tred approach, our projects began with thor­ough user research. Our researchers com­bined quan­ti­ta­tive and qual­i­ta­tive meth­ods, includ­ing co-cre­ation ses­sions, data analy­sis, and work­shops, to active­ly involve users in every project.

Armed with invalu­able insights from users, our strate­gic experts mapped out user needs through­out the dif­fer­ent projects, from the sim­plic­i­ty of pur­chas­ing a tick­et for the Ruben­shuis to pro­vid­ing a clear overview of week­end activ­i­ties in the city.

Our UX design­ers used these insights to cre­ate designs ful­ly tai­lored to the needs of the users. They not only shaped the dig­i­tal expe­ri­ence but also pro­vid­ed strate­gic advice through­out the design process. Addi­tion­al­ly, they coached the city of Antwer­p’s staff to utilise their tools to stay in touch with every cit­i­zen that need help. For the new Sales­force plat­form, we pro­vid­ed train­ing and sup­port, enabling var­i­ous depart­ments and ser­vices to use the tool to serve cit­i­zens more quick­ly, yet on an indi­vid­ual level.

Dur­ing the devel­op­ment phase, the focus was on the scal­a­bil­i­ty and reusabil­i­ty of the solu­tions. This result­ed in dig­i­tal prod­ucts that could eas­i­ly be imple­ment­ed across oth­er city ser­vices or organ­i­sa­tions. A prime exam­ple is the Ruben­shuis web­site, built on a Head­less Dru­pal Con­tent Man­age­ment Sys­tem, allow­ing for eas­i­er expan­sion to oth­er city muse­ums. With a strong empha­sis on secu­ri­ty in every project, we help the city remain com­pli­ant with ever-evolv­ing safe­ty stan­dards and regulations.

Where nec­es­sary, we also part­ner with Cronos Pub­lic Ser­vices to select the right experts to add to the city’s vision. This way, we can make sure the city of Antwerp uses the full extent of our partnership.

Results

The chal­lenges faced by the city of Antwerp required a thought­ful and for­ward-look­ing approach. The part­ner­ship with Hype­r­i­on has result­ed in user-cen­tred tools that meet the spe­cif­ic needs of cit­i­zens, city users and city ser­vices, help­ing the city achieve its goal of inform­ing and engag­ing its audiences.

One of the key out­comes of this col­lab­o­ra­tion is the launch of the ​“Mijn Antwer­pen” app. The app offers a user-friend­ly expe­ri­ence that allows cit­i­zens to han­dle their affairs quick­ly and effi­cient­ly, sig­nif­i­cant­ly increas­ing cit­i­zen sat­is­fac­tion and engagement.

The improve­ment of inter­nal process­es with­in civ­il ser­vices is also yield­ing results. Fol­low­ing the suc­cess­ful imple­men­ta­tion of Sales­force for one depart­ment of the city of Antwerp and the added val­ue in the form of time sav­ings and bet­ter cit­i­zen inter­ac­tion, we’re orches­trat­ing a con­tin­u­ous stream of roll-outs across mul­ti­ple depart­ments. This will pro­vide staff with a 360° view of cit­i­zens through a robust and secure plat­form that is future-ready, giv­ing them insight in the back­ground of every cit­i­zen that reach­es out, so staff can help on a per­son­al lev­el. Now, dif­fer­ent depart­ments have a com­pre­hen­sive and safe overview of cit­i­zen files, facil­i­tat­ing eas­i­er collaboration. 

Screenshots of the Slim naar Antwerpen mobile app, displaying route planning and transportation options for getting around the city of Antwerp.

In the area of mobil­i­ty, Antwerp is also pre­pared for the chal­lenges of tomor­row. Thanks to the ​“Slim naar Antwer­pen” plat­form, users are bet­ter informed about trans­port options via the web­site and app, have real-time updates through the inter­ac­tive map, and are shift­ing towards more sus­tain­able trans­port modes. The plat­form is the main medi­um for city com­mu­ni­ca­tion and has become one of Antwer­p’s most vis­it­ed websites.

Mobile site screenshots for the Rubenshuis, featuring sections on the library collection, garden, and visitor information.

The Ruben­shuis web­site, anoth­er fre­quent­ly vis­it­ed site, was redesigned to increase online tick­et sales and han­dle larg­er vis­i­tor flows since the reopen­ing of the muse­um in August 2024. Our design­ers and devel­op­ers have laid the foun­da­tion for the future, with a set­up that can be eas­i­ly expand­ed to oth­er city muse­ums, allow­ing each sub­se­quent muse­um to build upon and max­imise the exist­ing components.

Conclusion

The col­lab­o­ra­tion between Hype­r­i­on and the City of Antwerp show­cas­es the strength of our 8‑year part­ner­ship in dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion. With over 70 projects com­plet­ed, we’ve con­sis­tent­ly deliv­ered solu­tions tai­lored to the needs of both cit­i­zens and city staff. Our deep knowl­edge of the city allows us to build tools that improve com­mu­ni­ca­tion, increas­es the reach of the city towards less­er con­nect­ed cit­i­zens and con­tribute to a safer, clean­er and more inclu­sive city. Togeth­er, we’re sync­ing Antwerp’s now to what’s next, keep­ing them well-posi­tioned to achieve their ambi­tious dig­i­tal goals in a rapid­ly evolv­ing urban landscape.

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