Verizon SmartCities

Staying connected to the community in an ever-changing world

(  Services  )

  • Tech & Data


Verizon SmartCities approached DEPT® to create VDK, a digital kiosk designed to rejuvenate communities across the United States.

The Verizon Digital Kiosk is built on a singular belief: every city has a unique story. VDK was designed to unite communities to connect, discover, and celebrate the places, people, and stories that make each city special.

The challenge was to create a digital kiosk that would transform how people perceive their local communities, offering many services such as store recommendations, local news updates, and even real-time bus schedules.

We brought the digital kiosk to life, from strategy to design and code

Our goal was for VDK to empower citizens—to help them understand what’s happening in their neighbourhood and reconnect to their cities. We envisioned VDK as a utility tailored to each city, designed to provide a seamless, informative, and engaging experience. 

Our strategy involved building an intuitive platform with features like Wi-Fi, phone calls, community resources, and access to local emergency services. The custom content management system (CMS) was at the core, allowing cities to tailor VDK to their unique needs, offerings, and attractions.

A flexible system that adapts to a community’s changing needs

Alongside our partners at LQD Wifi, we built the original VDK software in three months. As the project progressed, LQD Wifi was acquired by Verizon and grew into a $60 million project. We worked from the acquisition through installing the first VDK units in the Spring of 2018. 

With the arrival of Covid-19 in 2020, the idea of keeping communities connected took on greater significance. VDK kiosks were updated to provide information regarding government guidelines and local regulations. We’ve seen that the system can keep pace in dynamic, real-world environments—and help people along the way. 

From strategy to design and code, we meticulously brought VDK to life. Experience, visual, and user interface design teams crafted VDK’s personality, translating complex features into a purposeful and visually striking experience. We streamlined processes and team structures, delivering production-ready features every two weeks. This established an authentic connection between our creative and engineering teams to support the app’s rapid delivery.

A first for Verizon 

We were the first team for Verizon to implement a microservices-based architecture, pioneering a serverless, scalable solution for their Smart Cities Kiosk solution VDK.

Leveraging AWS services, including Lambda, API Gateway, S3, Route 53, SNS, and SQS, we built a highly resilient and cost-efficient system that powers the Verizon Developer Kit (VDK) and Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising platform.

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