isp.idaho.gov
Project Overview
The Idaho State Police (ISP) was in need of an updated, cohesive website. The goal was to create a modern, user-friendly, comprehensive, and resource-driven website. The previous website had many different web parts creating an inconsistent look and feel. The various web parts create confusion for our end-users when navigating which then creates questions and concerns populating more phone calls and emails.
My Contributions
Researcher, Designer, Project Manager, Developer
Timeframe
Research & Planning
In April of 2023, the Idaho State Police (ISP) reached out to Tyler Idaho (formerly known as Access Idaho) to discuss how our staff could lead the way in updating the ISP website. The previous ISP website was set up as a large multi-site with many different pieces and people managing the website. Because of this, the website was not very cohesive across all of the divisions and was not set up in the easiest way for the staff to maintain the content.
I began by reviewing the current website and I worked with the department to determine overall project goals based on their answers to the website design questionnaire ( website questionnaire). Once we had a good understand of what they were looking for in the new website, I began homepage mockups in Sketch.
First, I presented them with 3 options for the homepage, as seen below.
We gathered feedback on the mockups and we decided on the final homepage version (on the right). At the same time, we were working on a new website for the Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) (https://post.idaho.gov/), and for further cohesiveness, the decision was made to integrate some features from the POST site in the new ISP website too, so the final, final design varied a bit.
We worked with ISP to create new features on the website:
- Alert custom post type that would allow ISP a place to post active amber, missing endangered persons, or blue alerts. This was a valuable addition to the website for citizens. Previously, they just used Twitter or Facebook to distribute the information. Adding a designated, easy way for staff to post these made for a more reliable way for the public to access the information and for media to link to it as well.
- Integrated press releases and emails to subscribers. Subscribers can sign up for the categories or districts they want to receive emails about news releases from, and once they are posted on the website they will be immediately emailed the news release.
- Custom shortcodes were created to allow ISP to quickly and easily display documents by folders, list, or table. This allows ISP staff to save valuable amounts of time manually adding multiple documents to a page.
- and more!
