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Launched: New website for a Vermont ski town

Posted Tuesday, April 9, 2024
— Municipalities, Website Launch
screenshot of the Town of Waitsfield website home page

We are pleased to launch an efficient and beautiful new municipal website for the Town of Waitsfield! This small town is located at the heart of Vermont's historic Mad River Valley, beneath the rugged Green Mountain skyline and near the ski areas of Sugarbush and Mad River Glen.

What problems did Ecopixel solve?

Branding and Municipal Web Design

  • A web design with a sense of place: The old website had a dated design that didn't reflect this vibrant community. The new municipal web design uses colors and themes are consistent with the branding guide produced by the local Chamber of Commerce. This approach provides cohesion for the various community websites in the Mad River Valley region.
  • A logo that blends past and present: The town's old logo had a classic design and featured the town's iconic covered bridge. Unfortunately, the old logo looked like it has been photocopied 100 times. Ecopixel designed a fresh logo that blended the old logo's historic feel with crisp, modern look.

A Secure New Dot Gov Domain

The town had previously used a .US domain name. Ecopixel handled the registration and migration to a new Dot Gov domain, waitsfieldvt.gov, to increase security and provide validation of its status as an official government website.

Migration to a Robust New Platform

A reliable and easy-to-use content management system (CMS) is key to efficient municipal operations.

  • A robust content management system: The old website's WordPress platform could be cumbersome to edit. The archives of meeting minutes were  overly long and buried the minutes of the town's elected Selectboard. To solve this problem, Ecopixel migrated the town to the robust and secure TYPO3 CMS platform. Now, staff can keep content up-to-date, and use town-friendly features to add meetings to the calendar and keep meeting documents organized.
  • Content reorganization: The old site was was severely disorganized due to lack of proactive maintenance by the old provider. Ecopixel worked closely with town staff to design a new content structure, and coached staff through the process of identifying outdated content. Ecopixel imported and designed all of the new site's pages, ready for ongoing staff editing.
  • Mapping old pages to their new locations: Typical redesigns break old links causing visitors to get lots of "page not found" errors. Ecopixel takes the time to create redirects so that visitors clicking on links to pages are forwarded automatically to their new locations on the new website.

ADA Accessibility

The new town website focuses on ADA compliance by following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) at the stringent AA level. Ecopixel provides staff training and proactive checks to ensure the site is meeting its obligations and serving everyone in the community.

Personal, Prompt Support

The town had long been receiving lackluster support from their previous WordPress-based national provider. Ecopixel solved this by providing a helping hand at every step of the way:

  • Hands-on training and onboarding: Ecopixel provided instructor-led Zoom-based training to staff on specific day-to-day tasks. Staff across several departments are empowered to edit their own section of the website. Ecopixel provides a new staff with a personal orientation session so they can get quickly up to speed.
  • Support and documentation: These orientation sessions supplement Ecopixel's extensive written documentation and training videos and prompt support via phone and email.
  • Ongoing administration: Ecopixel provides complete, worry-free ongoing administration of the town's new website.
  • Proactive website maintenance: Ecopixel ongoing service includes proactive website maintenance to make ongoing improvements that keep pace with accessibility requirements, visitor expectations, and evolving technologies.

Check out the Town of Waitsfield's new municipal website at: www.waitsfieldvt.gov

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Ecopixel creates and sustains robust and effective websites for towns and cities. Contact Ecopixel today to learn about working together.

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