The apps
Two apps, one system
The person who reports the pothole and the person who fills it are looking at the same record from two ends. Today they are two vendors who do not speak to each other — which is why nobody could tell the man from Las Milpas whether a crew had been assigned.
Why the screens look like this
- The answer is the biggest thing on the screen. A resident asked when somebody is coming. That is the headline, in words — not a map, not a menu, not a case number.
- Past due is a word, not a colour. Every state on both screens carries text as well as colour, so it survives colour-blindness and a greyscale print.
- The crew screen shows the truck too. PW-33's brake inspection is 3,100 miles overdue, and the person driving it is the one who should know first.
- Drawn, not screenshotted. These are SVG in the page: they scale, they print, they exist in both languages from one source, and each is described in full below for anyone who cannot see it.
The same screens, written out
Everything the drawings above show, as text. This is what a screen reader announces, and it is generated from the same source as the pictures, so the two cannot drift apart.
The resident's screen
A phone screen headed 'My Pharr' with the city seal. The largest text reads 'Crew scheduled Thursday'. Above it a card names the report: a pothole on the 1400 block of West Ferguson Avenue, reference SR-2026-4471, reported Monday with a photograph attached. A four-step strip shows the report was received Monday at 8:12 in the morning, assigned to the Streets crew on Tuesday, scheduled for Thursday 10 September, and not yet closed. Below that, two more cards: a water bill of $64.20 due on 15 September with a pay button, and brush collection for Zone C on Tuesday 9 September. At the bottom the page says it was updated four minutes ago, and a row of buttons offers reports, bills and the account.
The crew's screen
A phone screen headed 'Pharr Crew' with the city seal, showing Streets Crew 2 signed in to unit PW-33. A bar reads 'Today: 4 jobs, 1 past due'. The first card is the job in progress: the pothole at 1400 West Ferguson Avenue, reference SR-2026-4471, with the resident's photograph attached, marked 'On site since 9:04'. Under it three more jobs are listed — a street light at East Ridge Road marked past due by four days and waiting on the electric utility, a dumped mattress on South Cage Boulevard, and a water meter box to raise on West Sioux Road. Each shows its crew, its age and its state in words. At the bottom the unit's own status: PW-33, brake inspection overdue by 3,100 miles, flagged for the shop. A green dot says the position was confirmed two minutes ago, and a row of buttons offers the board, the map and the truck.