The updated website will include a more mobile-friendly platform and a streamlined navigation structure designed to better meet the needs of county residents, area businesses, and visitors to Boulder County

(Boulder County, Colo.) -- The Boulder County Web Governance Committee, a group of county communication and web specialists, has been working for the past six months with Boulder-based firm Insight Designs to refresh and revamp the county’s public website.

The updated bouldercounty.gov website, which will be unveiled to the public on the morning of Wednesday, April 19, will include a more mobile-friendly platform and a streamlined navigation structure designed to better meet the needs of county residents, area businesses, and visitors to Boulder County.

“It’s been five years since Boulder County last revamped its website, and with technology advances and the growing number of mobile devices in use, we felt it was time to transition our website to a more mobile-friendly, services-based platform that is easier and more productive for members of the public to use,” said public information officer, Barb Halpin.

The effort was implemented by a project team that included representatives from every county department and elected office. This collaborative approach is designed to ensure a better user-centered experience for members of the public seeking access to county services and information on the website.

“Pulling together the knowledge and resources of county staff closest to the user’s experience will lead to a more personalized experience for visitors to our updated website,” said project manager, Justin Rowe. “The team did a great job working together to ensure that all of the services the county has to offer are easily available for the public to find online.”

The updated website provides:

• Better access to information on mobile devices
• Streamlined navigation that helps improve the site’s usability
• Enhanced display features that weren’t supported on the old platform
• More service-based transactions that can be accomplished on the web
• An encrypted platform to allow for more secure transfer of information between members of the public and Boulder County

Background

Boulder County issued a request for proposals last spring to find a vendor to assist the county in transitioning its current website from a SharePoint platform - which is no longer supported by Microsoft - to one built in WordPress. Through a competitive bid process, Insight Designs was selected to help guide county staff in implementing the 6-month web platform transition project.

“We couldn’t be happier with the final product and the professional design and functionality support that Insight Designs provided to us from day one,” said Halpin. “Insight’s team was a pleasure to work with, and they helped us create an inviting new home for our web content that staff will be able to maintain and enhance in-house going forward.”

While the transition to the new website is expected to be seamless from a technical standpoint, the county anticipates that there may be some questions about where to find information once the new website is launched.

Bookmarked links from the current website will initially redirect to pages with similar content on the updated website, but the county encourages members of the public to delete old bookmarks and make use of the enhanced "Search" feature available on any page of the new bouldercounty.gov website.

Issues that cannot be resolved by using the Search feature should be directed to webmaster@bouldercounty.org.

Boulder County welcomes feedback as it strives to provide the best website experience possible. Visitors to the site can provide their input by completing a survey using the right hand side "feedback tab" found on every page of the new website.