Municipality of Amsterdam
Staying in control of your digital ID
Vulnerable data
We share lots of personal data with each other and with organizations. It's hard to keep track: with whom do we share our data, and what do they do with it? Organizations have a growing challenge to meet privacy regulations. A new way is needed to identify ourselves and to share personal data. The municipality of Amsterdam wants to enable their residents to safely share their data, and to protect their rights online.
With residents, for residents
We were asked to ‘design a digital identity manager for residents of Amsterdam’. Our UX designers and service designers worked together with a group of residents to visualize their privacy needs in the real world (think wallets or keyrings), and to translate this to the digital domain - a wallet containing your data. This service design process was the start of a collaboration with the ‘Privacy by Design’ foundation. Design and tech effort resulted in a redesign of the foundation’s IRMA app, based on ease of use, security and inclusiveness.
Privacy by design
IRMA enables you to identify yourself to organizations in a privacy-friendly way. You always see what an organization wants to know about you, and it is up to you to decide whether you share this information. This way you do not share more than what is strictly necessary – you’re in control of your own data. For example, with IRMA you can prove that you are older than 18, or 65, without having to disclose your exact age. Or you can prove that you live in a certain neighborhood, without having to share your exact address. This reduces the risk of fraud with personal data and companies cannot build up a profile of you.
"The IRMA app was originally developed by people with a background in privacy and computer security. Informaat has played a crucial role during the development of IRMA by focusing on its users and their user experience. Now, their designs are crucial for the success of IRMA."
Bart Jacobs
Privacy by Design Foundation
Positive reactions
Our designers have designed concepts, dialogues and screens, and validated these designs with the users. Based on the feedback from the users, adjustments have been made and these adjustments were tested as well. The test users rated the app very positive.
Dutch Interactive Award
With this project, Informaat and its partners Municipality of Amsterdam and Privacy by Design won 'silver' in the category Digital for Good at the Dutch Interactive Awards 2021. The prize for the very best interactive online work by Dutch agencies. From the jury report: "It is smart that they have set up a good partnership with the city of Amsterdam. The ambitions surrounding this project are great and the same applies to all possibilities. A rollout in more cities is in the offing. All praise for the thorough and comprehensive approach that has been chosen."
WSA Award
In addition to the silver DIA, Informaat, together with the municipality of Amsterdam and the Privacy by Design Foundation, has also won the international SWA award with project "IRMA - A digital wallet for your privacy data on your phone", in the category 'Government & Citizen engagement'. The jury was impressed by this new way of identifying yourself digitally, which fits well with the social development of transparency and accountability: open source, secure and designed and developed in collaboration with citizens. We are therefore very proud of this 2nd award for our project.
Want to try the IRMA app yourself?
On the website "Try IRMA" residents of Amsterdam can try IRMA without consequences and experience for themselves how to use the app in different ways. IRMA can be downloaded from the Apple Store or the Google Play store.
Also wondering about your digital ID?
Marcel Kosters
Business director