The Key Principles of Great Local Government Website Design: Enhancing Community Engagement and Trust

1. Start with User Needs

Effective website design begins with a deep understanding of your users’ needs. Conducting thorough research to identify what residents are looking for—whether it’s information on local services, event updates, forms, scheduling, tax calculators, or emergency alerts—ensures that your website delivers relevant and valuable content. Empathy-driven design focuses on creating user experiences that genuinely address the concerns and preferences of your community.

2. Do Less, Achieve More

In government website design systems, simplicity is key. Avoid cluttering your site with unnecessary elements that can overwhelm users. Instead, focus on the essential services and information that residents need most. A streamlined design with clear, concise content facilitates easier navigation and task completion, enhancing overall user satisfaction.

To this end, take time during the web design planning phase to consider what’s most important. Prioritise this, make it perfect, and then, as needed, build out complementary pages.

3. Design with Data

Leveraging data and analytics is critical to making informed web design decisions. By analysing how users interact with your website—such as which pages are most visited, common search terms, and user demographics—you can make informed adjustments to improve usability, engagement, and overall effectiveness. Data-driven design ensures that your website evolves in response to actual user behaviour and preferences.

Gaining this clarity can guide budgetary decisions and allow you to invest in cost-efficient solutions that get the right results.

For example, if you notice that a significant number of people are visiting a specific service page (or they’re calling your team because they can’t find that page), you might consider reducing the distance between the home page (or a service landing page) and that page to reduce the clicks required to reach that destination.

4. Make it Simple

Simplicity in design translates to intuitive navigation and user-friendly interfaces that are both easy to use and simple for your team to update, helping you keep your website accurate and up-to-date.

Use clear headings and ensure that important information is easily accessible to both residents and employees. These headings should share a consistent naming function that allows someone to browse lists and links to find what they’re looking for.

A well-organised navigation system is crucial for helping users find the information they need quickly and effortlessly. Implement intuitive menus, clear categorisation of content, and a robust search functionality. Highlight key services and frequently accessed pages to guide users effectively through your website.

Identify and prominently display the most sought-after services on your homepage. Whether it’s applying for permits, accessing public records, or finding contact information, making these services easily accessible improves user satisfaction and reduces the time residents spend searching for essential information.

5. Have a Plan to Keep it Simple

Creating simplicity in a website design is one thing. However, what happens as you inevitably need to add layers of information, tools, events, and forms to your website? That’s where a once simple site can become a complex website of conflicting information and broken pathways. It’s vital to consider how your website will scale and incorporate more and more pages. How will you branch out from core locations without creating a jungle of pages to navigate and update?

First, you’ll want to avoid duplicating information on various pages. Instead, centralise information and direct relevant pages to that source of truth. This streamlines future updates and ensures accuracy.

To accomplish this, a simple website design is structured so that many pages and paths can lead to a single page, form, or application. It has clear naming functions that make updating the right pages easy for your team. They can update information in one location, and all pages using that information have access to it.

6. Iterate and Improve

Website design is not a one-time task but an ongoing process of improvement. Regularly update your website based on user feedback, analytics, and emerging best practices. Iterative design allows you to refine features, enhance functionality, and continuously meet the evolving needs of your community.

Apply what you learn from tracking visitor interactions to optimise user experience, increasing the usefulness and appreciation of your local government website.

7. Inclusive Design for All

Designing for inclusivity means considering the diverse backgrounds and abilities of your residents. Use plain language, provide multilingual support where necessary, and ensure that all interactive elements are accessible. An inclusive design approach makes your website welcoming and usable for everyone, fostering a sense of belonging and participation. It demonstrates your commitment to serving all members of the community.

Features such as screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, translation services, and adjustable text sizes are crucial in making your website accessible to everyone.

8. Understand the Context

Contextual awareness is vital in creating a website that meets the specific needs of your community. Consider factors such as the local culture, prevalent technologies, and common user scenarios. Understanding the context in which your website is used enables you to tailor the design to better serve your residents.

9. Build Digital Services, Not Just Websites

Your website should function as a comprehensive digital service hub, integrating various functionalities that allow residents to complete tasks efficiently—without interactions with your team when possible. This not only makes more efficient service delivery possible. It also frees up your team to manage more complex resident services and interactions.

When they do not feel overwhelmed by repetitive enquiries that could just as easily be managed online and automatically, they feel empowered to provide exceptional community experiences.

This includes online forms, service requests, appointment bookings, and access to public records. Building digital services enhances the convenience and efficiency of your website, making it an invaluable resource for your community.

10. Consistency Over Uniformity

While maintaining consistency in design elements such as colour schemes, typography, and navigation structures is important, it should not come at the expense of flexibility. Allow for variations that reflect the unique aspects of different departments or services within your local government. Consistent yet adaptable design ensures a cohesive user experience while accommodating diverse content needs.

This not only allows each department to exert a little creative freedom. The department-specific design elements can become a guidepost to visitors that they are still on a particular department’s pages. That’s important since many local services often share a single local government website.

11. Maintain Transparency and Openness

Transparency is a cornerstone of effective governance. By making your website open and transparent, you provide residents with easy access to information about council decisions, budgets, and initiatives. Open data policies and accessible reporting features enhance accountability and foster trust between the council and its residents.

Automated systems support transparency and accountability by tracking all communications and generating detailed reports on engagement metrics. This transparency not only builds trust with residents but also provides clear evidence of the council’s efforts and achievements, reinforcing its commitment to serving the community effectively.

12. Choose a User-Friendly Content Management System (CMS)

A flexible CMS allows your team to manage and update website content with ease. Choose a CMS that offers scalability, customisation options, and integration capabilities with other government systems. A robust CMS, such as Drupal or WordPress, ensures that your website remains current, relevant, and capable of evolving alongside your community’s needs.

13. Engage Stakeholders in Design Decisions

A collaborative approach to website design involves actively engaging various stakeholders, including council members, staff, and community representatives, throughout the design process. Gathering input and feedback from these groups ensures that the website meets the diverse needs of the community and aligns with the council’s strategic objectives.

14. Tailor Design to Unique Community Needs

Every community has its unique characteristics and priorities. Customising your website design to reflect these unique aspects fosters a sense of ownership and relevance among residents. Whether it’s highlighting local events, showcasing community projects, or providing tailored services, a bespoke design enhances the connection between the council and its constituents.

15. Make It Mobile Responsive

With over half of all website traffic coming from mobile devices, ensuring your website is mobile-friendly is non-negotiable. Responsive design adapts your website layout to different screen sizes, providing a seamless user experience regardless of the device being used. Prioritise fast loading times and easy navigation on smaller screens to cater to mobile users effectively.

The need for mobile responsiveness is yet another reason to maintain a simple, responsive design that guarantees that your website performs well across all devices.