The Flemish Building Passport

As a homeowner today, all information about your home is scattered over various government agencies. There is no clear overview of information. That’s why five Flemish entities decided to join forces and create the project woningpas, i.e. Vlaams Energie Agentschap (VEA), Wonen Vlaanderen, Ruimte Vlaanderen, Informatie Vlaanderen en OVAM. Each agency has access to a piece of the information puzzle.

For the whole process, the Flemish entities chose Leap Forward as their design and innovation partner. Within Leap Forward, Knight Moves was responsible for user research, the creative facilitation and the concept development of the project. We were thrilled to take on this project and after two years of close collaboration, we couldn’t be more proud to present you the results.

This project posed challenges on multiple levels. First of all, with the immense amount of information available, we had to filter out the information citizens actually need to come up with the right concept. Secondly, we needed to keep all the different stakeholders (the agencies, the policy makers and private parties) aligned, regardless of their divergent interests. Thirdly, the result needed to be designed in a clear and simple way. Lastly, the Woningpas should affect change in people. It should make them aware of renovating and building with a long-term sustainable mindset.

From start to finish, from initial concept to implementation, the whole long-term process of the project was characterised by intensive co-creation. Every step we took, we took together with the 5 Flemish entities. Besides the many workshops we did with them, we also hosted periodical stakeholder meetings. Every iteration was checked and put to the test. We represented the voice of the citizen by involving them through qualitative and quantitative research and recurring user tests.

To bring this project to a successful end we had a lot of help from other partners. We worked closely together with Little Miss Robot, who took care of the detailed design and interaction behaviour of the woningpas website and with ACA, who were responsible for the technical development.

The result is an easy-to-use, self-evident online environment, that introduces citizens to a wealth of information about their property. This tool empowers users to independently collect and manage relevant information. This is only the start of what will be an even more powerful platform. Extra features and possibilities will be gradually added in the near future. We hope this will give the opportunity to home-owners to make well-informed decisions about how and when to start with renovation works.

We are very proud of the result and the fact that the complex network of stakeholders is fully on board with the result. Have a look at your woningpas.