When we launched the alpha release of FixMyCityDC, we went with a very different approach than other teams. Rather than focusing on the frontend first and worry about the API later on, we went the opposite way. A beautiful app is useless if it doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to, so from the start, we focused on absolute, rigid compatibility with DC’s Open311 API. Heck, we even built a Ruby gem for it. But the usability wasn’t perfect.

So in this release, we follow up with improving the user experience, and with that, leap far ahead.

• The old application required that you enter in your full address, wait for the results, yawn…. wait… yawn… We now have a slick location selector, where you can easily choose where you are right on a map.
• Well, we actually have THREE ways… pan around and click on your location (don’t worry, we’ll find the nearest street address to send to DC), type in your address, or, using Skyhook’s revolutionary Loki service, have us find you! Give it a try, it’s pretty sweet.
• We’ve improved a whole lot of bugs that have popped up with the 311 API, namely some service requests that didnt have any questions associated with them. Our app choked on those, sorry.
• Once you create a service request, from that page you can easily share it with your friends.
• We’ve added helpful tooltips, little bits of information to guide you along your way.

Give it a try. We still think the coolest feature happens when you type in your phone number!

We have a few more revisions to go before the July 1st deadline, so keep checking back!

Zvi Band
http://fixmycitydc.com