Agency engages citizens in website redesign process to ensure a mobile-friendly, easy-to-understand website

SALEM, Ore. -- (Business Wire)

The newly redesigned Oregon Department of Agriculture websitewww.oregon.gov/oda makes it easier for citizens to interact with the agency online. By collecting feedback from regular visitors to the website and simplifying structure and language, the agency has reduced the number of pages on its site by 75 percent while maintaining relevant and useful content. This reduction of clutter, combined with responsive design technology, makes the website more accessible to Oregonians using mobile devices or using low broadband Internet.

“Our priority for this effort is to help Oregonians find the information they need and conduct business with our agency online more efficiently,” explained Oregon Department of Agriculture Communications Director Bruce Pokarney. “We asked citizens to give us feedback, the result is a more intuitively structured website that has been modernized for smartphones and tablets.”

Usability tests with over 300 Oregonians guided the design, helping to simplify categories, naming conventions and structure. This usability feedback, combined with analytic data from the old website, allows ODA to provide services more efficiently to Oregonians. By making use of the state’s E-Government Program, the new website was deployed with no additional impact on Agriculture’s budget.

The website was developed through Oregon’s E-Government Program with the assistance of Oregon Information Division of NICUSA, Inc. who is under contract to provide services.

About the Oregon E-Government Program

Enterprise Technology Services’ E-Government Program was established through Governor’s Office Executive Order in 2001 and is administered by the Department of Administrative Services. The Oregon Legislature further supports the Program by enacting legislation in 2011 that established an Electronic Portal Advisory Board to advance the effectiveness and delivery of new online services to the public. The Program works with Oregon government organizations to enable them to conduct state business online and improve public access to government information. http://www.oregon.gov/epab

About NIC

Founded in 1992, NIC (NASDAQ: EGOV) is the nation's leading provider of official government websites, online services, and secure payment processing solutions. The company's innovative eGovernment services help make government more accessible to everyone through technology. The family of NIC companies provides eGovernment solutions for more than 3,500 federal, state, and local agencies in the United States. Forbes has named NIC as one of the “100 Best Small Companies in America” five times, most recently ranked at No.11 (2013), and the company has been included three times on the Barron’s 400 Index. Additional information is available at http://www.egov.com.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20140825005792/en/

Contacts:

Oregon Information Division of NICUSA, Inc.
Suzanne Jorgensen, 503-967-5519
sjorgensen@egov.com

Source: Oregon Information Division of NICUSA, Inc.