Strategic Planning
One of the primary outcomes of our discovery work was around improving user experience and information architecture.
Emphasis was placed on moving site navigation away from “internal language” that only city employees understood, and instead focusing on the terms better known to the public.
Once the new site navigation was decided, we moved on to discussions about content planning, key landing pages and site sections, user flow, and hierarchy of content on each page.
UX/UI Design Improvements
Using existing branding, we designed a new look and feel for the site, using mobile-first and accessibility as our guides. The homepage was dedicated to important announcements, links to social media, and a series of helpful 'quick' links. We identified other key “landing pages” of the site, such as the Events Calendar and Parks and Recreation, dedicating special attention to each.
Custom Web Development
We worked closely with the Bloomington team building custom modules and functionality specific to the city’s unique needs. This work included:
- Custom Feedback system for end users/residents
- Highly flexible city-wide Alert system
- Snow Emergency alert system easily activated by city staff at any hour
- Migration of historical plats data and custom search tools
- Easily managed A-to-Z Index to supplement search
- Custom search tools and weighting options using Apache Solr
- Custom development for pulling in daily city cable schedules
- Searchable parks database
- Bid management system
- Development tracking system to track city projects
- Job and volunteer management
