Needs
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.
Our approach
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.
“During a time of overwhelming communication flow for a crisis response, U.S. Digital Response responded quickly, providing a team of highly skilled and professional assistance to focus, simplify and streamline messaging on our website. They were quick to respond to questions and provided help through every step of the process, including implementation. Our website improved drastically for the community using it.”
Sarah Joseph
Public Information Officer
Pueblo Department of Public Health & Environment
Impact
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.
“Working ‘boots on the ground’ to help build community support in response to the devastating COVID crisis has been so gratifying. Knowing that you are helping to design systems and pathways to support people getting the help they need is deeply meaningful AND impactful. I have thoroughly enjoyed dedicating time and space to do this work with USDR and their partners.”
— Pilar Strutin-Belinoff, USDR Project Lead
