Baltimorecity.gov, Baltimore City’s municipal website, receives over 40 million pageviews and 12.5 million visits every year.
Whether visitors are paying a parking ticket, requesting a pothole repair, or browsing the latest news about the City, the website is an important tool filled with essential services. With residents, businesses, and tourists visiting the site every day, it needs to be usable and functional for everyone.
Our new 9-month contract will meet these needs and result in a complete website redesign. This revamp will focus on ease of use and visitor experience. We're partnering with the digital services agency XCell and the design agency Points North Studio. Together, we’ll be supporting Baltimore City and its residents by creating a robust and functional online experience.
Prioritizing customer experience in the website redesign.
Robert Testerman, Fearless' Federal Civilian Portfolio Director, says that a large focus of this project will be on “customer experience. This will help us ensure positive interactions with this government website.” This project will also “directly help local government staff as well as Baltimore City residents who turn to the website every day.”
Baltimorecity.gov is an important resource for residents, businesses, and visitors. But, it’s not currently meeting its full potential. The website lacks a cohesive look and feel. And using the search function can be confusing and lead to the wrong results.
Overall, it’s in need of a redesign that centers usability and improves online functions. It will also need to be usable on all devices and browsers.
Fearless will help make Baltimorecity.gov a one-stop shop for citywide information and services. We’ll take an iterative, agile, and human-centered approach to update their content management system (CMS) from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10. We’ll also prioritize an intuitive and search-friendly design for all visitors. And, to make sure Baltimore City residents are at the heart of the website's design, we’ll establish a User Engagement Community. This will be made up of Baltimore City website redesign stakeholders and real users.
“What’s unique about this contract is that we’re taking what I call a ‘resident design approach,’” says Felix Gilbert, the founder and owner of XCell. “This means that we’ll be focusing on the residents and the community of Baltimore.” This will allow Baltimore City residents to “influence how the government meets their needs. It will also demonstrate how other cities can better meet the needs of their communities.”
“Whether it’s trying to pay a parking ticket or finding out about road closures, everyone knows what it feels like to not have access to the information you need,” says Jessica Watson, the CEO and Creative Director of Points North Studio. “We’re excited to take a deeper look at user behaviors and interactions with Baltimorecity.gov. But we’re also committed to going right to the heart of the matter, having important conversations with Baltimore City residents and stakeholders.”
Fearless is proud to support Baltimore City in its efforts to make Baltimorecity.gov a usable one-stop shop. With this project, we’ll ensure that the website meets the needs of the City’s businesses, residents, and visitors. We’ll also directly effect the lives of Baltimore City residents and create an experience that inspires change.