Pattern Picks Award for Bay of Plenty Regional Council Website Design

A website that Pattern pitched for and won last year for redevelopment has picked up the Supreme Website award at the Association of Local Government Information Management (ALGIM) Spring Conference this month.

The Supreme Website award was presented to Bay of Plenty Regional Council for best web and digital practice, and for receiving the top score in this year’s ALGIM annual web audit. The audit is conducted on local government websites in July and August each year, taking into account their usability, accessibility, functionality and online services.

“Last August, we worked with the Council to revamp the site to try to improve as many aspects of the site as possible with the sole goal of lifting it from #69 to within the top 10 of the ALGIM audit. We’re thrilled with the Supreme Website recognition, and will look to continue working with the Council to improve the customer experience,” says Rowan Schaaf, CEO, Pattern.

Their task was to build a site that would help the Council’s goal of becoming a top 10 government website in 2019. To achieve this, the site navigation and content structure were overhauled to ensure users can find information quickly. In addition to a refreshed and on-brand design, the new site needed to comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, to level AA. The new site also needed to incorporate a payment gateway and a separate projects website that facilitates community engagement around public works in the region. 

A detailed analysis of the Council’s website and services was followed by a content audit to determine the new content structure (sitemap). The aim was to streamline the site for better hierarchy and display of content for fast and easy discovery. The site was built on Umbraco, an enterprise class CMS, with hosting in Microsoft Azure, and consideration given to mobile optimisation of images, touch specific interactions and use of technologies supported across Windows, Android and Apple devices. We integrated a payment functionality so that users can pay for key services online.

In 2017, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council website ranked #62 out of 78 in the Association of Local Government Information Management (ALGIM) website audit. The rankings were determined by ALGIM as part of an annual review, and took into account usability, accessibility, interactions and payments.

Pattern is a web development company based out of Auckland. They deliver open-source web development solutions based on Umbraco, .NET and Azure. Our services include information architecture, UX/UI design, front and back-end development, testing, and hosting.

For more information on custom software development company, software developer NZ, mobile application development and more, visit https://www.pattern.co.nz/