The Company

El Paso County Public Health's mission is to promote and protect public health and environmental quality in the community through people, prevention and partnerships. Based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the Health dept serves the estimated 622,263 residents of El Paso County and visitors.

El Paso County includes the cities and towns of Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Calhan, Fountain, Green Mountain Falls, Monument, Palmer Lake and Ramah. The median age of El Paso County residents, according to the 2010 Census Bureau, was 34. Seventy-two percent of residents are white, 15 percent are Hispanic, 5.8 percent are black, and 7.3 percent are other race and ethnicities.

The Challenge

Several challenges faced us throughout the design and implementation process. El Paso County Public Health provides its citizens with a vast array of services and information. Organizing and presenting this information on their website proved difficult, as each piece of content could potentially be useful to a wide range of people.

Most visitors to the Public Health website have a specific problem to solve or need to fill. All of the content needed to be as easy to find as possible, with an emphasis on reducing the number of clicks for all 50 services provided to just one click from the home page, and two clicks from any other page on the entire website.

In addition to improving the website's design and functionality, Public Health administrators wanted to streamline their administrative tasks, and shorten the amount of time and effort and training required to maintain and administer the website. They also wanted the ability to delegate certain editorial tasks to other members of the Department, something which was impossible with their previous website.

The Solution

Sandstone Media crafted El Paso County Public Health's website using Drupal 7 and Open Public, a CMS platform tailored to the needs of government. We worked closely with County administrators to help them re-organize their website content to make the most intuitive sense  for the citizens of El Paso County.

All 50 of its core services are placed prominently on the home page, and in a custom-styled dropdown navigation menu. Numerous additional features were added, including a news room which showcases news releases & announcements, media coverage, and includes a calendar of events. 

The Result

A powerful, service-oriented county government website with a design that is intuitive for citizens to navigate and easy for administrators to manage.