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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...

ProudCity Payments

Posted on January 11, 2019

ProudCity Payments makes it easy to set up, launch and manage every aspect of government web and mobile payments. Uses Permits Tickets/fines Event registrations Taxes and more Features Mobile-friendly: Adaptive to phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, kiosks. Dashboard: Views into payments, payouts, transaction history. Recurring transactions: Create recurring payments transactions. Forms: Unlimited, easy-to-build online payment forms....

Post/page checklist

Posted on December 17, 2018

There are several key components of a government website post or page that should be addressed when publishing either. These include: Title Body Categories Featured image Meta description Keywords Slug Title The title of the post/page is the heading (h1) of your web page. This is the blog post/page title. ProudCity automatically formats the title...

ProudCity login

Posted on December 6, 2018

ProudCity Platform login is managed through Auth0, a security-compliant leader in user account authentication and authorization, ensuring privacy and identity protection when accessing web and mobile applications. Through Auth0, ProudCity login features includes: Single sign-on Universal login Breached passwords detection User management Multifactor authentication These are important features for government, as they seamlessly provide and...

Information architecture

Posted on October 24, 2018

Information architecture is the critical first step to ensuring your digital government content is findable and usable by those seeking the desired information. According to Usability.gov: “Information architecture (IA) focuses on organizing, structuring, and labeling content in an effective and sustainable way. The goal is to help users find information and complete tasks. To do...

HTTPS and government websites

Posted on October 23, 2018

Protecting user privacy is an important aspect and duty of any public service organization, and Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a fundamental component of online digital government security. HTTPS HTTPS is web security protocol or security certificate that validates and ensures privacy protections are adhered to. As the U.S. federal government states, HTTPS guarantees:...

Post/page duplication

Posted on October 21, 2018

All posts and pages created using the ProudCity Content Management System have features that allow for duplication, saving time on re-creating frequently-published content types with similar information and formatting. To duplicate a post or page: Find this feature in the 'Publish' block on the right sidebar of the create/edit content page Select the 'Copy to...

Post/page expiration

Posted on October 21, 2018

All posts and pages created using the ProudCity Content Management System have features that allow for date expiration, which automatically removes the desired content from the pubic-facing website. To find this feature, locate the 'Post Expirator' block on the right sidebar of the create/edit content page. To create a post or page expiration date: Check...

ProudCity Analytics

Posted on October 10, 2018

ProudCity Analytics is an integration with Google Analytics that allows government website managers to easily view visitor activity data within the ProudCity Platform. Data visualizations in the ProudCity Analytics dashboard include: ProudScore Visitor sessions Form submissions Hearts (pages found helpful) Popular pages (by pageviews) Popular search (by autocomplete clicks) Device types Browser types Popular Answers...

Google Analytics and government websites

Posted on October 10, 2018

Google Analytics is a powerful website data and analysis tool that lets government web managers view detailed insights into visitor activity, such as: Number of visitors Most visited pages Exit pages Device types Demographics And much more Setting up Google Analytics Google Analytics is free to set up and use. Once you create your Analytics...

Government website analytics and metrics

Posted on October 10, 2018

A primary objective of your government web strategy is to quickly direct visitors to the information or services they need and web analytics and metrics is a critical aspect to this success. About web analytics As Usability.gov states: Web analytics is the collection, reporting, and analysis of website data. The focus is on identifying measures...

Color, web accessibility and government websites

Posted on September 25, 2018

Color is often an overlooked aspect of web accessibility, especially for brands and particularly governments, that have designed style guides and color palettes prior to accessibility becoming a priority. To understand how color and accessibility intersect, it’s first important to distinguish between “color dependence” and “contrast.” As 18F states in it’s accessibility guide: Color contrast...

Government web accessibility

Posted on September 21, 2018

It is becoming more critical that governments understand and execute on website accessibility standards. Web accessibility, particularly for non-technical government leaders, can be overwhelming, both with the amount of information available, as well as the many technology nuances related achieving conformance. Here is comprehensive but condensed information on web accessibility -- terms, guidelines, tips, tools,...

ProudCity Accessibility Checker

Posted on September 20, 2018

The ProudCity Accessibility Checker helps governments using the ProudCity Platform understand and stay abreast of pertinent accessibility issues and continue to maintain AA conformance. PAC lets government website managers run accessibility reports, view errors/warnings, and resolve these issues immediately. Features PAC features include: Dashboard to manage page(s) accessibility status Page pass, error, warning reports Viewable/exportable...

Fonts and government websites

Posted on September 7, 2018

When choosing fonts and typography for your government website, it’s important to account for aesthetics and accessibility. Terms There are three key terms you should know to better understand the font landscape: Fonts: Typeface style used to display text, numbers, characters, glyphs (ex: Lato, Merriweather) Font family: Fonts categorized by certain characteristics (ex.: sans-serif, serif,...

Welcome to ProudCity Help!

Posted on September 7, 2018

Welcome to ProudCity Help! We're here to ensure you get the ProudCity Platform and digital government support you need. ProudCity customers All ProudCity support issues are addressed through the ProudCity Dashboard. Three ways to get support: Online chat (8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time) 24/7 ticketing Public knowledge base If you are using online...