When Snohomish County decided to redesign its website in 2013, change was long overdue.
“We were all shocked and amazed that we did not upgrade, redesign, or do virtually anything to the site for 10 years,” said Dave Stroble, information services project manager.
For Stroble, 10 years seemed like the equivalent of two centuries in Internet years. Not only was the site behind the times with its visual presentation, but it also failed to meet modern expectations of accessibility. Thirty percent of the county’s web traffic was coming from mobile, but its site had no mobile component to meet this demand.
The Snohomish County story is hardly a unique one. Many municipal websites fail to meet the needs of their citizens. Redesigns just aren’t a priority, and when they do happen, they don’t always address the true usability problems head-on.
