Broken glass in the children's playground, defective traffic lights or road damage? Cities and municipalities have their hands full identifying and repairing the many damages and defects. The Stuttgart-based internet agency .FUF has therefore developed the mobile smart city app "Scherbenfrei" as part of its app competition, which citizens can use to report defects and damage to the city or municipality in the simplest possible way. "There is still great potential in the digitalization of municipalities. Although there are various digital defect reporters, they are not as convenient and consistently optimized for mobile use," says Frank Meier, Managing Director of digital agency .FUF, explaining the decision. Against the backdrop of the environmental policy debate and the promotion of bicycle-friendly cities, the smart city app idea is both promising and beneficial to the common good.
Defect detector mobile app "Scherbenfrei" now available in the stores
The internet agency had stepped on the gas again in recent weeks so that the app could be completed earlier than planned. As a result, the pre-launch celebration planned for October 5, 2017 spontaneously turned into a launch party, at which the digital agency's team reviewed the development and presented the first version of the app: With just a photo and a few clicks, users can inform the relevant Smart City authority of any pollution or damage so that it can be rectified. This means that not only cyclists benefit from litter-free paths, but also parents with children, dog owners, joggers and all citizens who value a clean city.
Technical basis: Hybrid app with AngularJS and Cordova
For the implementation, the digital agency opted for a hybrid app based on HTML5, AngularJS and Cordova. The challenges during development were the integration of the camera and optimization of the map function, as well as the performance of native functions such as swiping.
Functionalities of the Smart City app can also be extended to other areas
The e-Government app has great potential to simplify and digitize administrative processes in municipalities. The functionalities of the app can be adapted for each municipality to individual areas such as waste disposal or reporting defective street lighting. In addition, a backend is made available to the municipalities, which is then used to inform the "notifiers" as soon as the damage reported via the app has been rectified.