Creative Arcade is proud to have been a part of the St. Louis County website redesign, earning the St. Louis County website a MAGC (Minnesota Association of Government Communicators) award. Along with the design, Creative Arcade also provided guidance on a menu system to better organize the new site and worked with several departments in the county to handle the site’s content migration. Lastly, Creative Arcade provided the initial development of page templates.
In a 2016 Residential Survey, the county asked the community how they preferred to learn about their services. They found that their website lacked the community’s expectations for finding information regarding services and resources easily and efficiently. With one of the main goals being a mobile-friendly design, the county found that they were in need of a complete redesign to increase the number of web visitors.
The website was a multi-phase project that spanned more than 18 months, involving staff from 17 of the St. Louis county departments. The new website launched in June 2018, with a 42% reduction in pages, and 75% reduction in content, compared to the old site. We incorporated a clean look and a responsive design that adapts to all screen sizes, from smart phones to desktop monitors. With an updated design, we also incorporated an enhanced search functionality and custom CMS.
Website analytics have recently show that users now spend triple the amount of time per page (02:15 on the new site vs. 00:45 seconds on the old) and are visiting half as many pages per session (2.02 pages on the new site vs 4.36 on the old.) We believe this indicates users are getting to the page/content they need faster and finding information they feel is valuable. The county has seen more than 140,000 sessions from more than 56,000 each month because their content is easier to find.
We are proud to have worked closely with St. Louis County Departments and IT staff to build this website. It has been a privilege to work on a website that has improved the experience of our citizens looking for information about county services, while working closely with the county itself. We achieved our goal, which was to improve the county’s ability to communicate with the public and provide a stronger online presence with a professional and polished look consistent with brand consistency, while also forging a great relationship with St. Louis County.
