SeeChange

Team Name

Hack aPEEL

Team Members

Project Description

GovHack Admin: There are two links for evidence of work. This is stopping the below button working. Links are here https://drive.google.com/open?id=1w_IJOBAMD-c2NgTzHUNw-IvCe19MVOzA; https://github.com/seanjen/seechange.git

Introducing - seeCHANGE

seeCHANGE is a simple interactive tool that allows people living in urban areas to visualise the possible economic and lifestyle advantages of relocating to a regional centre.

We engaged design-thinking principles to truly empathise with the potential user of this tool, to create something that is beautiful, simple and provides powerful reasons to consider a sea-change to a regional area.

The tool seeks to encourage them to think outside-the-box of the city limits and find a their ideal home based on what's important to them.

There is an overwhelming amount of information out there that can take hours and hours and days to research it all.

We wanted a solution that was easy to use and provides the latest relevant information and is tailored to an individuals needs.

This tool is a solution that would pulls the latest data from:

-ABS regional statistics, which include census data such as income, mortgage and rent payments, and information about population and population density.

-Mapping tools Nearmap and Google maps to measure the distance of each of our regional centres to the Perth CBD and to the nearest swimming beach.

-data.wa.gov.au to gather cost of living data from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development

-Living in regions survey

The seeCHANGE tool begins by simply asking the user to input their current postcode and budget (<$500k, $500-700k, $700-$1m, $1m+).

The user is then asked to rank their what is important to them through a series of 'drag and drop' and sliding scale questions between not very important and very important. This includes proximity to the beach, proximity to a CBD, cafes & restaurants, arts & cultural events, sporting clubs, health services, mobile and internet quality, green space and parks, transport, crime and the ability to walk to work.

Results are shown of regional areas that best suit their lifestyle preferences, ranked accordingly. Clicking on one of these areas will:

-Provide a brief bio of the town
-Compare what you can purchase with your provided budget in the suburb? (ie. for $700k you can get a old 3x1 townhouse in Leederville or a beachfront 4x2 house in Mandurah)
-Compare data around lifestyle preferences in current suburb vs suitable regional towns. Ie. access to nature/parks (through protected areas total %), proximity to the coast (distance to nearest swimming beach by road) etc. The aim is to surprise the user with insights they may not realise around the highlighted regional towns.

This is a consumer facing tool but highlights the detailed reports and data Department Regional Development has collated on the regional towns of the future in a exciting format.

With more time we would like to build out the profiles of each suburb. This would include featuring top local attractions, restaurants or beaches and events happening that month. These review-based sites provide a strong case of support for the regional area through social proof.

Current house listings will be shown according to their budget requirements. An added question of 'what is your occupation?' would allow us to pull current job openings for similar positions in the recommended area.

Each of these can be embedded through the API's of Google My Business, Trip Advisor, Seek and Domain respectively.

This provides a seamless experience for those who wish to further explore the opportunities to relocate to a regional hub and allows users to take action immediately. It is not simply a tool for providing information, but allows action to be taken.

For individual circumstances there is ability to specify criteria such as under Health – that the local hospital has a kidney dialysis unit for a child.

Or that under Education – there must be a private secondary school within 50 kms.

The team would seek to push the tool through media outlets.

Our solution to the challenge allows people of all different ages, backgrounds and budgets to easily find information about which of WA’s regional centres will suit their lifestyle and economic situation. This individualised tool is a powerful way to attract urban dwellers to relocate to regional areas, to make sure that our vibrant regional centres can grow and thrive.

Data Story

We wanted a solution that was easy to use and provides the latest relevant information and can be tailored to an individuals needs so we developed an App as it was a solution that would pull data from:

ABS regional statistics, which include census data such as income, mortgage and rent payments, and information about population and population density.
We used mapping tools Nearmap and Google maps to measure the distance of each of our regional centres to the Perth CBD and to the nearest swimming beach.
We used data.wa.gov.au to gather cost of living data from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development

In the app, this data then compares to their current town they are living in and firstly using that town, shows the user whether it is better or worse and where other opportunities are.
We have also included a wildcard town to encourage them to look at towns that have the highest rating score which they may not have thought about.

One of the main factors was distance and using the Perth CBD as the core, asked the question if it matters and how far. We also came up with a number of other economic factors such as housing affordability, income earning potential, and cost of living. We came up with lifestyle factors such as access to nature and parks, arts and culture events, cafes and restaurants, opportunities to participate in the community. Of course, access to basic services such as health and education would also be important.

To respond to our chosen challenge, we also needed to define what a ‘regional centre’ is. Informally, a regional centre is a larger regional town or City that is generally a support centre for smaller surrounding towns. It has a larger population, and more Government services and shops than your typical small country town. We chose to go with the regional centres that have been identified as potential centres for population growth by the State Government. These include the ‘SuperTowns’ and selected towns for the Regional Centres Development Plan. To narrow it down we chose the 10 regional centres in Southern WA - covering Peel, SouthWest, Great Southern, and Goldfields-Esperance.

We wanted a solution that was easy to use and provides the latest relevant information, so we created an App that pulls data from:

ABS regional statistics, which include census data such as income, mortgage and rent payments, and information about population and population density.
We used mapping tools Nearmap and Google maps to measure the distance of each of our regional centres to the Perth CBD and to the nearest swimming beach.
We used data.wa.gov.au to gather cost of living data from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development

In the app, this data then compares to their current town they are living in and firstly using that town, shows the user whether it is better or worse and where other opportunities are.
We have also included a wildcard town to encourage them to look at towns that have the highest rating score which they may not have thought about.

This challenge is highly relevant to Ollie and Charlie, two members of our team. Ollie and Charlie both currently work in Mandurah but are based in the Perth CBD. They choose to do this for lifestyle reasons but are considering the move regionally.