Did you know that the State of Berlin offers low-income individuals numerous discounts or even free activities in culture, sports, education, and leisure? We were surprised ourselves when we came across the open dataset about it. We found that many people are unaware they can not only get discounted public transportation if they receive benefits like Bürgergeld, Wohngeld, or other social assistance (Are you eligible? Find out!), but that there are also many other perks. For instance, you can get reduced prices at swimming pools or cinemas, take a continuing education course at a VHS, receive a free library card, or gain free entry to museums. In total, there are over 400 offers across the city—a fantastic program that promotes inclusion in Berlin!
Our Motivation for the Project: Enhancing Visibility
Although the offers were already available on berlin.de, they were hard to find on a subpage of the Senatsverwaltung für Arbeit, Soziales, Gleichstellung, Integration, Vielfalt und Antidiskriminierung (SenASGIVA for short). Additionally, the search tool was not user-friendly. For us, it was clear: this has potential! So we asked ourselves: How can we make discounted offers for those in need more accessible?
Our approach was to rethink the topic. We added spatial information (georeferencing) to the offers and categorized them specifically for different target groups. After all, people have varying needs depending on their life situation—whether they’re job-seeking, elderly with limited mobility, or single parents with children. Over 700,000 Berliners who receive social assistance are the target group for these offers. We wanted to create added value for this often-overlooked marginalized group by increasing the visibility of these excellent offers and thereby boosting their use.
Challenges on the Road to the App on berlin.de
Our first click dummy for this idea was a complete success. SenASGIVA was enthusiastic about our plan and gave us the mandate to develop a prototype in the form of a web application. However, they added one more request: the prototype should be integrated into berlin.de to ensure its long-term use.
One major obstacle in this mission was the lack of infrastructure in Berlin to permanently implement innovative solutions like CityLAB prototypes. We are currently addressing this issue in discussions with key stakeholders involved in Berlin’s IT infrastructure. Until then, we host and operate our prototypes ourselves—a significant challenge for a small team with limited resources.
The berlin.de environment was also new territory for us. We were suddenly confronted with the formal “look & feel” of berlin.de and numerous design specifications. As a result, we had to let go of some feature ideas on the way to an adapted prototype (how cool would a “Surprise Me!” button have been, highlighting random offers?!). However, our main focus remained delivering a user-oriented application. User tests at CityLAB and the Amt für Soziales in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg provided valuable feedback on the functions and user experience needed for the application. Despite some limitations, the opportunity to collaborate with key partners in administrative digitization and benefit from the reach of a platform like berlin.de was a strong incentive.
So, we got to work! We immersed ourselves in the berlin.de style guide and gradually understood which components and elements were available—and, conversely, which functions or design elements were (still) missing.
All’s Well That Ends Online
Overall, the collaboration with all project partners was consistently respectful and based on trust, leading to valuable synergies. One particular highlight: some of our suggestions were even incorporated into the berlin.de style guide. Another win-win example was in the area of data management. The Jugendkulturservice, tasked by SenASGIVA with maintaining and updating the data for the discounted offers, had previously used a CSV file to manually transfer and regularly upload the information. Thanks to our project, this process has been digitized: the data now resides in a new database that updates automatically with changes and new entries via an online form, while simultaneously feeding our application with data.
Now the prototype is live, and we’re euphoric! A huge thank you to all our project partners who made Fairgnügen possible: SenASGIVA, Berlin Online, Jugendkulturservice, and the Landesredaktion / Koordinierung berlin.de at the Senatskanzlei.
Try out the prototype for yourself:
