Welcome, Guest.
What design rule did NextDoor break?
NextDoor added friction to the design of their website. They increased the number of clicks and the number fields requiring entry when filing a suspicious activity report. This made it more difficult and involved to submit one.
What led them to consider this change?
There was evidence of racial profiling in the suspicious activity or person reports which were being filed. Reports filed frequently identified only a person by race or color while leaving out useful details pertaining to clothing or activity.
Was it a good or bad decision? Why or why not?
Filing a report became more difficult after making this decision. If the only metric for good or bad was the ease of filing the report, this would be a bad decision. However, for these reports, a better metric is the quality of data. The new process is more involved for submitting a report, but it also provides a much higher quality of data and helps to eliminate the racial profiling which was taking place.
Was it successful? Why or why not?
NextDoor says the racial profiling of these reports is down 75% while submissions being "abandoned" (not completed) are up by 50%. This means a lot of reports may not be getting filed now. This could mean legitimate suspicious activity not being reported or it could mean borderline suspicious activity is not being reported. That could be a negative result. However, the higher quality of these reports should be a huge win, especially as the police have indicated the newer reports include information which is more helpful to them.