TOWSON, MD—County Executive Johnny Olszewski on Thursday announced the launching of the first phase of Baltimore County’s newly-redesigned website—BaltimoreCountyMD.gov—which features a completely revamped homepage, improved accessibility options, and streamlined access to the most frequently used services.
Visitors are encouraged to provide feedback about their experience, which will help shape additional improvements over the coming months.
“Government should be open and accessible for all our residents and Baltimore County’s newly designed website will empower visitors to easily access the critical services and information they need to be engaged and informed,” Olszewski said. “This new site will provide all users—on any device—with a better online experience so they can more easily access the full menu of County resources so that we can better serve the residents of Baltimore County.”
New Features and Functionality to Improve User Experience
In addition to the new look and feel, the Beta launch of the website released on Thursday provides a more user-oriented experience, offering visitors access to information that follows current best web practices, mobile optimization and ADA accessibility standards.
Throughout the development process, County officials prioritized the following principles:
- Clear, straightforward content that answers questions of Baltimore County constituents
- Easy to use navigation and site search to quickly find content
- Interaction over narrative content
- Minimum page elements with maximum convenience of use
“I’m really proud of the work that our team put into this project. We know that more than 60 percent of Baltimore County’s website users access the site using a mobile device, so we prioritized developing an interface that allows for easier interaction,” said Baltimore County Chief Information Officer Rob O’Connor. “After the Beta release, the team will continue to review feedback and conduct user testing so that we can provide an optimal experience for anyone wanting to interact with Baltimore County online.”
Completely Redesigned Homepage
Upon accessing the Baltimore County homepage, constituents and visitors are presented with the most commonly requested services on the County website. With nearly 6,000 pages and millions of visits annually, the County’s web team identified the most commonly used services to feature, which include:
- Pay and View Property Taxes
- Pet Adoption
- Police and Fire News
- Careers with Baltimore County
- Schedule Lookup for Trash and Recycling
- Jury Duty
- Pay a Ticket
- County Parks Directory and Information Page
- County Code and Zoning Regulation
- Directory of All County Services Offered
Extensive, constituent-driven research and analysis of hundreds of sessions helped drive the first phase of the redesign. Over the next year, Baltimore County will continue updating all sections of the site and modifying the design based on user feedback.
Constituents are encouraged to look through the site and provide feedback.
