Designing for Citizens: Lessons from the City of Rochester redesign

As showcased by Promet Source at DrupalCon Atlanta 2025, the City of Rochester’s website, redesigned by Promet Source, transformed its outdated platform through human-centered design, creating a user-friendly model for municipalities aiming to deliver better online services and enhance community engagement.

Does your city or county website truly serve your citizens, making it easy for them to find information, access services, and engage with local government? Or is it often a source of frustration, with confusing navigation and hard-to-find content? Many government websites fall into the latter category. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The City of Rochester faced similar challenges with its outdated and difficult-to-use website. By prioritizing human-centered design during their redesign process, they transformed their digital front door into a valuable resource for the community, offering powerful lessons for other municipalities.

Diagnosis: What Wasn’t Working?

Before the redesign, Rochester’s website suffered from common ailments plaguing many government digital platforms:

• Poor Navigation: Menus often reflected the city’s internal departmental structure, not the tasks citizens were actually trying to accomplish.
• Ineffective Search: The search function was unreliable, failing to return relevant results and frustrating users seeking specific information.
• Outdated Design and Technology: The look and feel were dated, and the underlying technology hindered performance and flexibility.
• Difficult Content Management: City staff struggled with a cumbersome backend system, making timely updates a challenge.

The impact was clear: citizens struggled to find what they needed, leading to increased calls to city hall and decreased satisfaction. Staff wasted valuable time battling the content management system instead of focusing on delivering quality information.

The Prescription: A Human-Centered Redesign Process

Rochester’s success stemmed from a fundamental shift in approach: putting the needs of citizens and staff at the center of the design process from the very beginning. This involved several key strategies:

• Deep User Research: The project team invested time in understanding who used the site and why. They identified top user tasks, pain points, and information needs.
• Modern, User-Friendly Interface: A clean, intuitive design was developed to improve visual appeal and ease of use across devices.
• Component-Based Design: Building the site with reusable components (using Drupal) ensured visual consistency, streamlined future updates, and increased development efficiency.
• Task-Oriented Navigation: Website navigation was completely restructured based on user research, focusing on the services and information citizens seek most often.
• Robust, Intelligent Search: The search function was significantly upgraded, incorporating features like synonym recognition to deliver more accurate and helpful results.
• Improved Content Editing Experience: The backend was simplified, empowering non-technical staff to manage and update content more easily and efficiently.
• Integrated Accessibility: Accessibility wasn’t an afterthought; it was woven into the design and development process to ensure the site was usable by people of all abilities. This is crucial, as 16% of the world’s population has some kind of disability, making accessibility a key factor in serving all citizens.

The Results: A Measurable Transformation

The commitment to a human-centered approach paid off significantly. The new City of Rochester website delivered tangible results:

• Increased Usage and Satisfaction: Analytics showed higher engagement, and user feedback turned overwhelmingly positive.
• Easier Task Completion: Citizens could find information and access services much more quickly and easily.
• Improved Public Perception: A modern, user-friendly website reflected positively on the city government itself.
• Streamlined Staff Workflow: Content updates became faster and less burdensome for city employees.

Key Takeaways for Your Agency’s Next Project

The City of Rochester’s experience offers valuable blueprints for any government agency planning a website redesign:

• Invest in Upfront User Research: Don’t guess what your citizens need—ask them! Understand their goals and pain points before you start designing.
• Design Navigation & Search Around Citizen Needs: Structure your site based on how users look for information, not based on your internal org chart. A powerful search is essential.
• Embrace Modern, Flexible Technology: Platforms like Drupal, combined with component-based design, offer the flexibility and scalability needed for today’s digital demands.
• Don’t Forget the Content Editor Experience: Empowering your staff with easy-to-use tools is crucial for keeping website content fresh and accurate.

How BlueMelon Enables Citizen-Centric Design

Achieving results like Rochester’s requires expertise in user experience (UX) design, modern web development (including platforms like Drupal), and a deep understanding of government needs. At BlueMelon, our "Smart Governance" solutions are built on these principles. We partner with government organizations to conduct user research, design intuitive interfaces, build robust and accessible platforms, and ensure your team is equipped for success.

Conclusion: Build the Website Your Citizens Deserve

The City of Rochester’s successful redesign demonstrates that creating effective, user-friendly government websites is achievable. By shifting the focus from internal structures to citizen needs and embracing human-centered design principles, municipalities can deliver digital services that truly serve their communities. It’s an investment that pays dividends in citizen satisfaction, staff efficiency, and public trust.