Judging Criteria

Civic Benefit (20%)

The Civic Benefit criterion indicates the degree to which a submitted project could increase the efficiency of City operations.

Questions to consider:

  • Does the project demonstrate a clear benefit to the City of Buffalo?  
  • Could the project improve the customer experience?
  • Could the project reduce repetition?
  • Could the project help the City deliver services in new, efficient ways?
  • Could the project facilitate collaboration?

Scalability (20%)

The Scalability criterion indicates the degree to which a submitted project demonstrates potential for future upgrades to improve upon the solution and expand to other cities nationwide.

Questions to consider:

  • Does the project demonstrate room to expand in scope, service, and function?
  • Does the project have the ability to incorporate and support additional business processes (or a clear path and ability to build this capacity with additional seed funding)?
  • Does the project have the capability to handle an enhanced level of operations without constraints or structural bottlenecks (or a clear path and ability to build this capacity with additional seed funding)?
  • Is the project physically sustainable (stable and reliable) or on a path to become so given additional seed funding?
  • Does the project address a civic challenge that applies to other cities?
  • Could the project supply enough value to potentially win prospective contracts with other cities?
  • Could the project supply enough value to receive a testimonial from the City of Buffalo?

User-Friendly Design (20%)

The User-Friendly Design criterion indicates how positive the emotional, cognitive and physical interactions are with the submitted project. 

Questions to consider:

  • Does the project communicate efficiently and effectively?
  • Is the solution polished? 
  • Is the interface clear and simple?

Functionality (20%)

The Functionality criterion gauges the level to which a submitted project performs for a user. 

Questions to consider:

  • Is the project feature complete (or have a clear path to become so given additional seed funding)?
  • Does it work in a way the user would expect? 
  • Is navigation intuitive?
  • Is it accessible? 
  • Is it usable?

Demo/Description (20%)

The Demo/Description criterion evaluates the clarity and comprehensiveness of a submitted project’s required demonstration or description.

Questions to consider:

  • Did the entrant clearly identify the civic challenge addressed by the project?
  • Did the entrant describe the solution? 
  • Did the entrant explain their project’s ability to solve the identified problem?