NRRM

Overview

The Northern Rockies Regional Municipality (NRRM), incorporated on February 6th, 2009, is the first Regional Municipality in BC and officially combines the former entities of the Town of Fort Nelson and the Northern Rockies Regional District. The boundaries of the NRRM mimic that of the previous Regional District, encompassing about 10% of provinces landmass (85,808 km² or 9500 square miles).

Approach to Development

NRRM required an overhaul of their online presence; this meant creating a new, free-flowing design and improving their website architecture - making items easier to find, a constant challenge on a large-scale municipal website. The site required a design that hinted at the future, much as the municipality does in its decision-making for the region; they needed something that matched visuals with their governmental ethos. On top of all of their design needs, the website needed to be easily updated by their own staff.

Role in Development

NRRM concluded in early 2008 that their online presence was not up-to-date; the Municipality was very progressive in its other forms of governance and they wanted an online strategy that would match their vision. This would include a new much-needed new website, including a modern and clean new design, improved site architecture and a content management system. The system would allow municipal staff the ability to update the website themselves, thereby making updates quicker and more frequent, while saving taxpayer money of the cost of getting a 3^rd-party company to complete the updates for them.

Project Plan

This new and improved website features an inviting new design that is filled with terrific photos of the region and its surrounding natural beauty. For functionality, RSS feeds were added to the site, as was a live weather stream and options for improved accessibility, including multiple stylesheets for people using mobile devices, and text-resizing and a high contrast layout for those with vision impairments.

ElementCMS was added with custom templates and functionality in addition to its latest version, thereby allowing NRRM to be the most powerful release of the system to date. With a combination of built-in functions and new and improved abilities, NRRM staff were able to quickly and easily implement the wealth of content they needed to port over from their previous site implementation.

Website accessibility was a key for NRRM, as it is with all municipalities, seeking to create equality amongst all its constituents, including in the municipality's web presence. The site was created with a high-contrast stylesheet for visually impaired users. A text-resizing feature was also included to help people who have difficulties viewing the site at its standard text size. Furthermore, a mobile stylesheet was included for those viewing the site on a PDA or iPhone. A custom search engine and RSS fees were also including in the site's functionality.

Project Outcome

After the website went live in Autumn 2009, NRRM received highly positive feedback regarding both the look and the ease of use of the new site. Constituents, visitors and businesses alike have been very pleased with how easy it is to find pertinent information. NRRM staff have also been very happy with how easy ElementCMS has been to use and update the website.

Website: www.northernrockies.ca