County Overhauls Its Website to Engage Citizens in the Ways They Want

Maintaining an online presence that meets the expectations of today’s smartphone-carrying, Facebook-loving public isn’t easy. But Nevada County (CA) tackled this challenge head-on with a revamped website that lets users find content via guided navigation, content tabs and search — including public documents in the county’s document management system.

Users will also get information they’re seeking via pop-ups, rather than journeying through the site. “It’s no longer a postcard on steroids. It is now behaving more like an application,” said Bruce Gauthier, the county’s information systems analyst. The county, Gauthier said, hopes to deliver 80 percent of desired content to users from its home page, and is laying the groundwork for an online presence that will let users receive personalized information on the site, as well as via social networks and on mobile devices. The overhaul of Nevada County’s near-decade-old website was driven by an overall strategy to consolidate multiple back-end management systems onto a single content management platform, said county CIO Stephen Monaghan. Previously, he said, the county’s document, online content, business process and other management systems were different products, which led to a piecemeal approach in developing solutions for county departments and delivering content to the public.