Just take a picture… The research behind our GenAI image recognition tool

Rhea Ebanks-Simpson | Senior User Researcher

Rhea is a Senior User Researcher within Westminster City Council with experience from across the public and charity sector. While her academic specialism is ethnographic research with vulnerable groups, user research has led her to exploring GenAI, and service and digital transformations in local government settings. She’s passionate about helping services turn user insights into delivery and tangible results.

Rebecca Gordon-Watts | Head of Online Customer Experience

Head of Online Customer Experience at Westminster City Council, I lead award-winning digital transformation in local government. With a background in cloud consulting, I’ve spent seven years delivering services that put people first — from scaling AI-powered platforms to designing with residents at the heart. I’m passionate about inclusive innovation, mentoring future leaders, and reshaping public services to be fairer, faster and more human.

Abstract

Just take a picture… The research behind our GenAI image recognition tool and how it helps Westminster residents to ‘Report It’.

We want to share the research that led to the creation of Westminster Council’s flagship product, an AI image recognition tool that allows residents to easily report street-based issues to Westminster Council.

We would like to discuss the need for the tool, how research shaped and informed its design/functionality, how we are continuously measuring its success through analytics and qualitative research, and lessons learned from researching with GenAI.