Courthouse?

OK, started a new project at work for the Dickinson County, IA website.

We are going to use digital imaging to put all public documents online to reduce foot traffic in their office, and if all goes well, and traffic is cut-down, then they are going to rebuild the courthouse.

We are also going to put every possible form that we can on so that the Recorder doesn't get 500 people per day in the office asking for a snowmobile registration form.

Anways, I need some input from the public.
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What would you guys like to see on your county website?

I know this doesn't really apply to the NON-U.S. people, so feel free to continue to another thread.
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We are also considering getting the GIS information together for the site also. It will be a web application that gives you a map of the county, and you can zoom in and zoom out freely, and you can choose a land plot (property), to find out about that plot, such as land value, who owns it, the taxes for that plot, etc.

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It is a huge project, and unfortunately, I am the only person that is going to be working on it. But the nice part is that the county budgeted a lot of money for this site, and my take for doing this is quite large. As I stated in an earlier post, the economy in NW Iowa is not hurting, because I am going to make more money this year than I made in the previous 7 1/2 years of my working life.
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But before this get's unreasonably long, and in case you skipped all the stuff before this, what I want to know is: "What kind of information would you want to see on your county's web site?"
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What I currently have for a layout:
http://mattboyslim.homestead.com/files/newcourtlayout.gif

The existing site, which I had nothing to do with:
http://www.co.dickinson.ia.us
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See also:
Client-Side Code for question about layout

Thanks guys and gals,
I hope to hear some good input.

well i like the new layout and its interface. it might look good if you had roll overs for the links on the navigation menu.

As I said, see the "Client-Side Code" forum section.

Anybody?

"What kind of information would you want to see on your county's web site?"

It is simple but effective i like it. That exxsisting one sure does suck the big one. But i really cant offer much advice as i am from New Zealand

Okay. I would like to see every form neccesary for my business dealings (aps for licenses and permits), marriage certificate application, court forms (if this site handles the superior court as well), building permits, applications for birth, death and name change records, include fees for filing, etc.

CAL

I know you want opinions on what to find on the site, but I'm 16 so I could care less about my county's site. Anyway to comment on the actual layout. looks good and professional, something a county would use as a site. my screen is at 1024x768 and it looks awfully small... is it optimized for 640x480 or something? I really can't tell you might have optimized for 800x600, if so then it justs looks rather small on a resolution this high. Just thought I'd let you know.

good work, wish someone would pay me for doing somethin for a change!

I see that you have a spot for forms already, so I'd agree with whoever said that they would like all the forms available.

Also, maybe a section to talk about the current county board members? Not that I would read my county's if they were available, but hey.. some people would. And maybe a section for the "monthly minutes" from the board meetings..

Lastic

I agree with above also, on the original looks horrible. Keep up the good work.:D

Thanks for the input guys, I really appreciate it. The county is not much help at this point, not until we get "Phase 1" over-with, which is just getting the site up and going.

But from all the input I've recieved, I have this:

http://mattboyslim.homestead.com/files/CourthouseContent.gif

One of those grey boxes on the lower-right hand corner will have a quick-link to the most recent board minutes, and they will also be archived under the "Board Of Supervisors" department section.

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And another question:
About the forms: What format would you like to see those in?

PDF, DOC, TXT, etc?

We don't have many Mac users in this area. According to the current stats for the site, only .075% of the vistors are using Mac. But I suppose with the news about the new site, people will come out of hiding and we'll probably get 500 Mac users a day. I don't know if Macs use TXT, but I do know that PDFs are cross-platform. But I hate to have people have to download Acrobat Reader just to get a document to print out.

**And to 21Knight about the size. We actually have over 20% of the people coming to the site using 640x480, 70% at 800x600, and less than 2% using 1024x768, so I had to make it small. In Dickinson county, there are a LOT of old-folks. It is one of the richest counties in the U.S., by that I mean "Most money made per-capita."

The average income is:

All Numbers in ($000) unless noted
1980:
150,398
1990:
277,397
1995:
366,295
1999:
461,177
(Taken from Census data)

And most of that money is in people 60 years+. Big retirement area. And a lot of those old people have computers. And since old people often can't see worth a bent d**k, and have their font size cranked up as high as it will go, I have to design for that.
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Thanks in advance,
Matt

ok cool, can't argue with that, %20 use 640x480 surprising...it helps to have the stats :D cool stuff that new layout looks real good i'd like to see it all pimped out in graphics soon. great stuff as always. As far as format for the forms I really don't know I would say pdf but with you meantioning the fact that most there are elderly and retired I'm not sure how much will be computer literate enough to get acrobat if they don't already have it, so that might not be the best choice and may leave some frustrated. Doc sounds best to me...is that cross-platform? I really am not sure...goodluck with it.