Cobb County

Cobb County is the second largest county in Georgia, home to roughly 750,000 residents, and their county services and infrastructure are sprawling. Before they rebuilt their site, nearly one third of visitors were unable to complete the purpose of their visit, including nearly 60 percent of first-time visitors. They knew they needed to create clearer pathways for their users and update their technology, but they needed a strategic partner as well as web development support. 

Bright, bold, and built to last

Our partnership with Cobb County started with a collaborative content strategy and user experience workshop, where we settled on a plan to reorganize the site by user needs rather than mirroring the county’s departmental organization. From there, we built out an information architecture that uses an “I Want To” menu and home page buttons to bring the most common and important tasks—like bill payment—front and center. 

Cobb County’s visual design includes options that allow independent agencies or departments to customize the look and content of their landing pages including color selections, layouts, and functionality. A detailed style guide created for the client documents the ideal use of these elements and how they can be mixed and matched in ways that don’t sacrifice ease of use and navigation. As a result, individual departments were empowered to keep their individual identity and create rich content, all while staying within brand guidelines. Users enjoy a consistent experience across the county website but still have clear visual and content cues as they explore within a specific department.  

This built-in extensibility has added enormous value to the county’s site, enabling them to even develop a complete library website within their county brand after-the-fact. With only minimal technical support and functionality upgrades, the county was able to leverage the power of their existing technology and design to create a new online home for their popular county library services. 

Success factors 

• Flexible design with the ability to customize while remaining on brand 
• Custom large file upload functionality 
• “I Want To” menu for easy access to most common tasks 
• People-powered and A.I. chat capabilities 

Innovation in action: Leveraging chat functionality

Cobb County’s site also features a people-powered chat functionality to enhancement county residents' user experience. The county employee-powered chat proved extremely valuable in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing the county to connect with residents who could not access the county’s physical offices and also giving county employees a way to continue employing their expertise and helping residents while working from home.