In March 2021, residents of Pueblo County, Colorado, found it challenging to access up-to-date COVID-19 information, particularly vaccination sign-ups and information about testing. Pueblo County’s website lacked translated, culturally and linguistically responsive webpages to share vaccination information with its bilingual community. Additionally, Pueblo County’s website was not highly publicized as a source of COVID-19 information, and residents primarily received COVID-19 information from their healthcare providers. The County, along with the State, was overwhelmed by phone calls from community members asking questions that were answered on the county website.
Pueblo County needed to quickly communicate ever-changing COVID-19 information to the community while also freeing up staff time to address other local concerns. To improve its external communications, the County wanted to update its website to be informative and accessible, with a particular focus on sharing how to get a vaccine, explaining vaccine eligibility, and delivering public health information, with a simple and helpful user experience.
The U.S. Digital Response (USDR) team partnered with Pueblo County to perform and deliver a user experience and content audit on Pueblo County’s COVID-19 pages. The County had two main goals for the pages:
- Make community members’ experience of the pages more straightforward, with minimal development time and cost
- Provide clear content to help users understand their options and make informed decisions
The audit provided tactical design and communication recommendations for navigation, content organization, plain language, visual design, and taxonomy. USDR worked with Pueblo County to get their feedback and input to clarify the scope, requirements, and desired deliverables for the project. Using those recommendations, the team then designed new webpages and mobile experiences for the County.
The new webpages launched in April 2021 and were expected to provide an improved experience for more than 168,000 people. An improved digital journey for COVID-19 vaccines reduces the number of clicks from the home page to the vaccination page from five to one. Furthermore, the webpages reduced the number of callers asking where and when to get a vaccine, and improved people’s satisfaction with and attitudes towards signing up for a vaccination appointment.
