Case Study: City of Miami improves resident engagement and emergency communications with OpenCities

Serving an extremely large group of diverse people in local government is a challenge

The City of Miami needed a website that could serve 450,000 residents with very different languages, backgrounds, ages, and technical abilities. Its existing site lacked mobile-friendly design, easy navigation, current content, and accessible online services, while also needing to avoid excessive taxpayer cost. Miami worked with OpenCities to plan a more user-centered digital experience.

OpenCities helped launch an Alpha website for testing and public feedback, which later became an emergency information hub during Hurricane Irma. Within 6 hours, city traffic was redirected to the remotely hosted OpenCities site in Microsoft Azure Gov cloud, allowing Miami to quickly publish critical emergency resources. OpenCities also delivered training through a Digital Service Academy to help staff improve content, workflows, and user-centered design, giving the city a stronger long-term model for managing and updating services.

City of Miami

Mike Sarasti

Chief Innovation Officer