CATATILA has been working with the City of Beaverton’s Economic Development to develop a variety of marketing tools. The most dynamic change to their visual identity is through the design and launch of their new website in July of 2010.
Purpose
The purpose of the site was to promote unique business development programs and resources available by the City of Beaverton. Online viewers can learn about the business environment, programs, and information about free services to the business community in and around Beaverton. One of its newest programs is Economic Gardening—implemented by Rob Pochert, Economic Development Program Manager. “Our focus is to provide tools and resources to existing businesses so they can grow, while promoting the vibrant community for those looking to relocate and develop right here in Beaverton.”
Who benefits from this site?
Business Start-Up & Entrepreneurs
- Explore the Business Start-Up Guide.
- Review General Tax Information, City, County and State Business Regulations.
- Meet Business Development’s Partners.
- Learn about opportunities to improve your downtown storefront.
- Make connections and get business leads with Economic Gardening Program.
- Consider financing opportunities available.
- Review the community profile data, such as Area Employers and Workforce Education.
- Learn about what makes Beaverton stand out, such as The Arts, the Beaverton School District, and Sports, Tualatin Hills Parks & Recreation District.
CATATILLA worked with Rob and his team to redesign and expand the website to include descriptions about the programs available. New and improved functionality is now available through an interactive Site Guide—a decision tree comprised of carefully developed questions and results to guide the user to the information that would be most helpful.
A Blog provides City staff the ability to post the latest information on new programs and events connected to the new Calendar of Events. Subscribers can be kept up to date through the new RSS Feed, announcing site updates. An internal Search box provides viewers with a targeted search tool to quickly find information about the City’s business programs.
What the average user does not see is the custom built CMS—a web content and design management system that was created to facilitate this project. The system, named LEXA™ (Lightweight Extensible XML & AJAX), allows the Economic Development team to update and add content to the site—without worrying about the design.
Each piece of new content is automatically formatted to fit their brand identity. The CMS manages consistency of the look and feel of the site. With a variety of automatic features and built in controls, LEXA™ is suitable for non-developers to administer a site of this size.
Other features included are data upload, large data table management, image/file management, automatic system back-up, and more.
In-depth documentation has been provided to support the administrators of the site. The Standards and Guidelines provide design specifications, hosting environment, LEXA™ instructions, and content creation and management recommendations.
For more information on LEXA™ and/or our web design services contact us.
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