‘City Of’ … We Like the Sound of That

Over the past 18 years, we’ve been crafting custom-tailored website solutions for a wide variety of clients. As you might imagine, we’ve developed a knack for certain types of organizations. We’re not playing favorites, but when you find a strategy that works, the end product is better – and you enjoy doing it that much more. One type that falls squarely in this category is municipal websites.

Inherently, sites for city governments can be pretty complicated. A combination of high-functionality, precise navigation, large amounts of content, multiple layers of content editors and heightened security take municipal websites to another level of complexity. Fortunately, tdg has created a lot of them. We know the best solutions for holding together all of these moving parts. Here’s a quick glance at some of our work and key highlights:

• Rapid City, South Dakota – The largest city in a 300-mile radius, Rapid City dominates its immediate geographic area. As such, the city needed a very large site to be able to effectively communicate the right information and quickly get people where they needed to be. Much planning and preparation was put into overall site structure and navigation. In addition, the site needed to accommodate dozens of content editors on staff.
• Dixon, Illinois – Like Rapid City, Dixon had a very large website with a ton of information. However, that content would need to be managed by only a few staff members. Fortunately, tdg’s content management system gives our clients the flexibility to add a handful of editors with varying levels of access to content. Customized security permissions are an important feature for a lot of small city governments.
• Fulton, Illinois – The City of Fulton is a hybrid municipal/tourism site, so the challenge was to strike a balance between government information and visitor information. On the surface, the site seems more promotional, but audience segmentation comes via the menu structure. Content is organized to quickly filter people where they need to be on the website.
• Rochelle, Illinois – Like most small city sites, content organization is key. For Rochelle, this is done through a variety of tactics – menu structure, design, imagery, white-space, graphic elements and much more. We did this all while incorporating a new brand standard for the community.

Of course, website development isn’t the only service tdg provides towns and small governments. We’ve helped communities in Montana and Wyoming define and develop their brands and logos. In fact, we’re in the initial stages of such a project for a community in Vermont seeking to leverage its history and affordable housing into an economic revitalization plan.

In the end, municipal websites and projects require a very specific set of tools to make sure the user experience is beyond expectations. Our team are experts in bringing those tools to the table.

Written By:

Chad Blair

Director of Accounts

I am the Director of Accounts at tdg. In short, my job is to make sure our clients are well taken care of. I also lead much of our strategic marketing and creative efforts on behalf of our clients. Outside of work I enjoy being active, building things and spending time with family.