Table of Contents
Introduction
For small towns, the municipal website is a crucial source of information for residents. From updating residents on events to giving them important information on businesses or services, having a clear municipal website is a must.
Drayton Valley came to Simple Connections with a request for a brand-new website for the town. They needed to communicate a wide range of information to residents with a design that was clean, modern, and easy to navigate.
The Simple Connections team sat down with Drayton Valley to learn more about their town and their needs. In the end, we delivered and hosted a fresh website that keeps residents connected to the important information and events in their community.
The Problem
Like many smaller towns, the town of Drayton Valley had not updated their website in many years. The design was outdated and difficult to navigate. Residents were finding it challenging to find the information they were after. Since their website contains a wide range of information, a new design was needed to make the site a snap to navigate.
Their website also lacked a content management system (CMS), which made updating the site time-consuming and awkward. The town needed a CMS that would allow them to manage, update, and add new content to their site in minutes.
At the same time the town of Drayton Valley approached Simple Connections for a new website, they were rebranding the town logos and other visuals. So, it was critical that the new website fit their fresh branding and show Drayton Valley as the vibrant, thriving community it is.
The Solution
The team at Simple Connections began the project by meeting with the town of Drayton Valley and learning about the town and their needs.
Once the team understood the unique demands of a municipal website, we worked up designs and wireframes that showed how the site would look and function. This allowed the town of Drayton Valley to collaborate on the design and ensured the result matched their needs exactly.
Our solution was to design a website from the ground-up that would present a large amount of information in a way that’s intuitive to navigate. The town had over 100 different pages of content, and it was vital for our team to create a design that could present this information without overwhelming residents.
Drayton Valley also needed a content management system that would equip them to efficiently update the website with new information. We chose to use WordPress as the content management system for its reliability, security, and ease of use.
In a smaller town, there are countless community events that residents can enjoy. To help residents stay up-to-date on community events, our team created a full-featured community events calendar for the website. It allows the community to self-manage their events by posting upcoming gatherings and happenings in the town. Residents can even purchase tickets for events online through the events calendar.
Transparency in government was important to the town council, and they wanted their new website to feature videos of town council meetings. The Simple Connections team created a full-featured council videos page where residents can view and download videos and access the council agendas.
We also set up nightly backups for the website, so the town of Drayton Valley will always have an up-to-date copy of their website in the rare event of a failure.
Methods
- WordPress
- Javascript
- MySQL Database
- Linux Server Management
- GIT Deployment
- Nightly Backups
- Security Reviews
Project Highlights
- Organized over 100 pages of content in an easy-to-use modern design
- Implemented security reviews to ensure site safety
- Built a community events page so residents know what’s happening in Drayton Valley
- Created a custom budget page so residents can see how town budgets affect their taxes
- Crafted the website in WordPress to make managing content a breeze
- Provided maintenance and server support for 5 years
- Offered emergency response and technical fixes in less than an hour, on average
The Result
The town of Drayton Valley now has a modern, clean, intuitive website that helps connect residents to the important goings-on in their community. From event calendars to accountability in council video, residents of Drayton Valley are now more connected than ever to their town.
Leaving behind awkward, arduous content management and using WordPress as the framework means that information can be updated or changed on the website in minutes. And, with our reliable hosting services, residents never have to deal with website downtime or slow load times.
Now, the town of Drayton Valley can connect residents to what’s most important to them, and offer world-class services to both permanent residents and visitors.
