The City of San Dimas commissioned us to redesign their web site to provide more effective communication between city administration and the citizens of the surrounding community.

Our goal was to create a site that would enable users to easily locate information on City services, functions, and processes -- without assistance from city staff. The site had to accommodate frequent updating by multiple administrators with limited technical knowledge while maintaining a consistent look that reflects the unique identity of San Dimas.

Solutions

Working in close collaboration with the City Manager and key staff, Highpoint designed a site that was focused on meeting citizens' information needs. Our primary goal was to enable visitors to take full advantage of the all of the site's resources. Site-wide features provide one click access to useful content (news, calendar, directory, web links, city jobs) anywhere on the web site. Site-wide utilities provide easy access to specific kinds of content such as forms, public documents or FAQs. In addition, citizen feedback channels are available on every page. The unique site design reflects the old western architectural theme of the city's downtown shopping area, as well as its geographical setting in the foothills of southern California's San Gabriel Mountains. In addition to providing city staff with web-based content management tools, Highpoint integrated certain sections of the site that could be updated using Microsoft FrontPage, which was already in use.

Other site features:

• Quick links drop down menus provide one click access to selected pages from anywhere on the site. The site administrator can change link selections as current needs may require.

• Floating navigation palettes make it easy to view available page destinations before you click.

• Home page content can be dynamically published according to rules established by the site administrator.

• Site content can be organized by department or sub-department so that it makes sense to city staff, then cross-indexed by topic or information type so that it can be easily found by the public.

• A dynamic calendaring system allows staff to enter event information for their area or department and have it published as part of a searchable master calendar containing varied views and formats. Advanced scheduling tools make it easy to enter repeating events.

Results

The new web site has met with high levels of approval from San Dimas city staff, City Council and local residents.

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