Latest

‘Good Services’ in government

Posted on May 26, 2020

In their new book "Good Services: How to design services that work," former UK Government Design Director Lou Downe offers the public sector an invaluable playbook to delivering government services that are intentional and work for everyone. The foundation of Downe's book are these 15 principles: Be easy to find Clearly explain its purpose Set...

ProudCity government website broken link checker

Posted on May 21, 2020

ProudCity makes it easy to check and fix broken links on your government website. How it works Login to the ProudCity Dashboard. Go to 'Settings' > 'Broken Links' in the admin sidebar. Hover over the errant link and perform one of the follow actions to correct the error: Edit URL Unlink Not broken Dismiss Recheck...

How to use pre-built layouts to quickly build a page on your ProudCity-powered government website

Posted on April 27, 2020

ProudCity has a number of pre-built page layouts that can easily be inserted into a new or existing web page. The page widgets in each layout can then be customized to suit your specific design and content needs. Example layouts Homepage Landing page Connect page Directory page Contact page Events page News page Government page...

How to add Facebook and Twitter widgets to your ProudCity-powered government website

Posted on April 7, 2020

Facebook and Twitter feeds can easily be added to ProudCity-powered government websites. You can see here how we’re using these widgets at proudcity.com: https://proudcity.com/connect There are two ways to add these to your website: Set up a ‘Connect’ page using our prebuilt layout template Manually inserting onto page using the Facebook/Twitter widgets Here’s how to...

How to set up a ‘Connect’ page on your ProudCity-powered government website

Posted on April 6, 2020

A ‘Connect’ page (proudcity.com/connect) is a great opportunity to centralize official ways your community can stay informed with official government information, such as newsletter subscriptions, notifications and social media accounts. Here’s how to set up your ‘Connect’ page on your ProudCity-powered government website using our prebuilt layout. NOTE: If you want to override your existing...

U.S.-based government organizations should get official .gov domains. Here’s why and how.

Posted on March 19, 2020

It should be easy to identify governments on the internet and -- as the U.S. federal government says on many of its websites like usa.gov -- “the .gov means it's official.” For this reason alone, ProudCity recommends all U.S.-based government organizations adopt the .gov domain, especially as there is an increasing need for the public...

How to activate the alert bar on your ProudCity powered government website

Posted on March 18, 2020

Steps for enabling your website alert bar. Step 1. Go to your ProudCity Dashboard. Step 2. Select 'Settings,' then 'Alert bar.' Step 3. Enable alert bar, write your message, select your bar color setting, then save. Step 4. View alert bar on your website. Tips Keep your message content direct and concise (1 sentence and...

Why ‘buying local’ isn’t always the best option for local government websites

Posted on February 19, 2020

City leaders sometimes tell us they use a local website vendor for their city websites. While this is commendable -- as any ‘buy local’ effort is -- it is often a short-sighted approach to delivering high-quality, sustainable, and scalable digital government services. ‘Local’ doesn’t equal ‘digital government expertise’ Local website firms generally focus on non-government...

Government product management

Posted on September 6, 2019

While the work of government is commonly referred to as service — embodied in the terms ‘public service’ and ‘public servant’ — it’s the government-as-a-product mindset that is driving the future of truly innovative and effective civic organizations. The shift in perspective to government-as-a-product doesn’t de-emphasize the mission-critical purpose and intent of government. Instead, product...

The empowered government product owner

Posted on August 27, 2019

The government product owner is responsible for setting the vision, ensuring effective delivery and being accountable for a specific product, such as a website, policy or public service program. It is a role that is becoming more critical, particularly for successful digital government project launches and continued management. Government digital service organizations who incorporate product...

Team pledges for effective digital government delivery

Posted on August 26, 2019

Team pledges are a fun way to “swear in” the team and bring everyone together in a semi-formal way to vocally unify commitment to the team agreement. ProudCity uses a team pledge at the beginning of every new project. Example pledge As a member of [TEAM NAME], I solemnly swear to uphold the [TEAM NAME]...

Team agreements for effective digital government delivery

Posted on August 22, 2019

Team agreements help set a foundation of trust and effectiveness for how project members work together to achieve a common goal. Team agreements are common in agile work environments where communicated expectations help ensure projects stay focused on delivering digital services on time and on budget. As the U.S. General Services Administration says of team...

Government website launch phases

Posted on July 26, 2019

ProudCity Onboarding provides governments with a, structured process in getting websites launched onto the ProudCity digital government platform. We follow a three-phase approach -- alpha, beta, live -- to ensure this process is as efficient as possible. In general, digital projects have four phases they go through when launching. These include: Discovery Alpha Beta Live...

How to customize colors on your ProudCity-powered government website

Posted on April 29, 2019

Customizing colors on your ProudCity-powered government website is easy. Here’s how. Step 1 Select ‘Customize’ in the left navigation of the ProudCity Dashboard. Step 2 Select the ‘Colors’ option in the customization tool. Step 3 NOTE: When selecting colors, be sure to account for web accessibility (see Color, web accessibility and government websites). Select color...

How to customize fonts on your ProudCity-powered government website

Posted on April 26, 2019

Customizing fonts on your ProudCity-powered government website is easy. Here’s how. Step 1 Select ‘Customize’ in the left navigation of the ProudCity Dashboard. Step 2 Select the ‘Fonts’ option in the customization tool. Step 3 Select your default and heading fonts and click the ‘Publish’ button. Visit your website to see the new fonts!

Tips for effective digital response and recovery efforts

Posted on April 2, 2019

ProudCity has supported digital response and recovery efforts for two major California wildfire disasters (Santa Rosa/Sonoma County and Paradise/Butte County), as well as the now-ready Marin Recovers for Marin County (Calif.). While we’re not emergency operations experts, through these experiences, combined with our expertise in digital government product design and development, we’ve learned a great...

Recovers website governance template

Posted on March 19, 2019

This recovers website governance template was adapted with permission from the original policy developed by the Marin Recovers. It was used to help socialize and get buy-in throughout Marin County (Calif.) on governance and protocol ahead of a disaster so that a plan could be acted on if needed. The Marin Recovers team has graciously...

Tools for testing the general health of your government website

Posted on February 15, 2019

There are a number of factors that go into ensuring your website meets general digital government standards and provides a great user experience for the communities you serve. If you are unfamiliar with foundational standards, there are a few tools you can use to test whether your website meets these or needs upgrading. Core areas There...

Guide to Great Government Websites

Posted on February 14, 2019

Here's a presentation deck on what local governments should look for when building (or buying) great websites. Rules for great city websites from ProudCity

Guide to Buying Government Websites

Posted on January 16, 2019

Introduction The Guide to Buying Government Websites empowers government leaders to make holistic, intelligent decisions when it comes to procuring quality online services needed to best serve increasingly digitally-centered communities. Local government leaders must be experts in all aspects of public sector management and, as technology evolves at a rapid pace, you are increasingly challenged...