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EPA OW: Making It Easy For Content Owners To Manage Web Content
A PaperThin customer since 2008, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Water protects millions of miles and acres of America's rivers, streams, lakes, estuaries and costal and marine waters by developing polices, programs and regulations relating to water quality and security. EPA OW helps ensure that the nation's water is safe to drink, swim in and enjoy. The agency's website had thousands of pages of static content and the agency's web leadership desired a way to provide content owners with the direct ability to manage and maintain content.
EPA OW desired to leverage the success that the other federal agencies had experienced with the CommonSpot Content Management System (CMS) so they engaged PaperThin partner Fig Leaf to implement the agency's new public website design templates and work collaboratively with the technical team and content experts to implement the new site.
The Solution
Fig Leaf hosted numerous discovery sessions with EPA stakeholders to develop a new vision for the redesigned public site. The agency wanted to provide an easy way to navigate the site which would enable users to quickly find information about the Office of Water and would include easy to use navigation for key issue and topic areas.
Fig Leaf created functionality for visitors to quickly and easily navigate to key issue areas via a low profile, tab-based interface and Quick Finder section. A rotating Flash banner highlights key issue areas and new information as visitors browse the Office of Water home page.
Visitors can quickly find regional information through a clickable map on the home page or by entering their zip code. Visitors can also subscribe to RSS news feeds, listen to podcasts, access widgets, subscribe to news by email and view the site on a mobile device.
The Results
Prior to launch, Fig Leaf Software developed a content migration strategy which culiminated with the migration of tens of thousands of website content pages being moved from the static environment to CommonSpot. The new EPA OW public website has received positive reviews for its easy-to-use interface and wealth of information presented on the home page. This site was developed on CommonSpot Enterprise version and the EPA has a CommonSpot site license which will enable other EPA offices the ability to launch their sites on CommonSpot with no additional software investment.
Fig Leaf Software helped to improve the EPA OW internal processes by simplifying the website maintenance process, establishing efficient content management workflow and enabling ubiquitous browser-based updating for authorized users nationwide. The results enabled the EPA Office of Water to easily update, produce, publish and maintain information in a timelier manner for their stakeholders and the public at large.