Durham County

A vibrant and diverse community, Durham County is known for its rich history, innovative spirit, and thriving economy. Home to more than 330,000 residents, it offers a high quality of life with access to a wide range of services, including public health, environmental management, social services, and regional transportation. 

Durham County's previous website had grown disjointed over time, struggling to serve the fast-growing, multi-faceted municipality. With Northwoods' guidance and a data-backed UX strategy, the redesigned site gives residents a faster, more intuitive experience where every department page feels intentional and connected. 

The Situation 

• A collection of department microsites and sub-domains had grown organically over time, creating technical debt and making it difficult for residents to find key information in one place. Most visitors navigated directly to individual department pages, yet each operated as a siloed experience with inconsistent navigation, varied page layouts, and mismatched design. 
• Site search was a persistent pain point, with cluttered results from outdated content, inadequate filters, and duplicate page titles that made it nearly impossible for residents to surface results relevant to their needs. 
• The homepage featured a rotating image slider intended to highlight county news and events, but heatmap testing revealed that users were not clicking on, or even noticing, its content. 
• On the previous website, 76% of all pages required more than three clicks to access, creating unnecessary friction for residents trying to complete simple tasks. 

Research at Scale 

Before a single page was redesigned, we went deep. Our research included:  

• 20 focus groups with 109 total participants,  
• An employee survey that generated 182 responses, and  
• Direct input from 42 residents through a dedicated resident survey.  

That qualitative foundation was paired with hard behavioral data. This included Google Analytics, heatmap testing across key pages, and a competitive analysis benchmarking the site against peer government websites. 

The result was a website redesign grounded in what real people actually needed, not assumptions. Every navigation decision, content recommendation, and structural change that followed was traceable back to early input from a resident, employee, or data point. 

The Data-Backed Solution 

• Northwoods provided an audit of associated microsites and sub-domains to identify which properties could be consolidated into the main site, simplifying site management and making it easier for residents to find content without leaving the primary domain. 
• We developed nearly 40 individual sitemaps, each one tailored to its respective department to simplify navigation, remove outdated content, and minimize clicks. 
• Our team recommended unique page titles for every department and provided governance documentation to prevent duplicates from recurring, improving site search usability. 
• We redesigned the homepage to replace the underperforming image slider with a layout proven by heatmap testing to better surface important information and drive engagement. 
• Additional content recommendations included removing outdated documents, cleaning up search filters, and limiting events and news articles to the past three years.  

The Outcome 

• Under the new navigation structure, only 25% of pages require more than three clicks to access, down from 76% on the previous site. 
• We reduced the overall total number of pages by 75%, from 1,913 to 561, streamlining the experience for residents and significantly simplifying content management for county staff; despite the leaner footprint, overall site traffic has increased 18%. 
• Time spent on search result pages dropped by 31%, meaning residents are finding what they're looking for faster and with less effort than before. 
• The consolidated microsites and sub-domains brought all departments under a consistent, resident-first experience, with navigation organized around what Durham County residents need rather than internal org structures.  

Take a deeper dive into the Durham County website design strategy and specific design elements. 

 

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