Redesigning location-based search for the Greenwich Community Directory

Overview

I led the redesign of location-based search for the Greenwich Community Directory to better reflect how residents actually find services.

Research showed location was a key decision factor, particularly for optional and local activities, yet the directory's location experience was fragmented and difficult to use. Improving this wasn't just a usability fix, but a strategic opportunity to increase trust, relevance, and real-world usefulness.

Problem

Although the directory held a rich database of services, searching by location was confusing and ineffective:

• Users could only browse via a cluttered GIS map
• No way to filter by neighbourhood or area
• Listings didn't clearly show where services were located
• Inconsistent location naming broke users' mental models

As a result, many residents abandoned the directory in favour of Google, losing access to curated local services.

Approach

I took a behaviour-led approach: desk research across councils, user testing to uncover real search patterns, concept exploration with effort-vs-impact prioritisation, and detailed design grounded in delivery feasibility.

Key insight

User research surfaced two primary search behaviours: service-first searchers who struggled to interpret location information, and location-first searchers who explored mainly via the map. The redesign needed to support both.

Implementing neighbourhood filters

In the CMS, the only required location field for service listings was postcode. An internal database mapped postcodes to regional wards, but raw postcodes weren't meaningful for filtering, and ward names were too granular and unfamiliar to residents.

I defined a more intuitive list of Greenwich neighbourhoods and mapped all service postcodes into these areas, creating a scalable postcode-to-neighbourhood dataset, layering meaningful, human-readable filters on top of existing data without changing the CMS.