How the City of Denver Empowers Citizens with Online Services and Information

Today, government agencies are bringing more services online as citizens increasingly expect convenient digital experiences. Offering services online is critical to increasing public satisfaction. According to Accenture’s 2019 Citizen Survey, 67% of citizens want government to make it easier to interact with digital services.

The City and County of Denver is a leader in bringing vital public services and communications online. In recent years, Denver has invested heavily in making it easier for citizens to do business with the city online, whether they’re applying for a building permit or paying a parking ticket.

“The goal is to create really empowering experiences for constituents online,” says Chad Menard, senior web administrator for the City of Denver. “Whether it’s through the City of Denver website, social media, or newsletters, every department needs to communicate and work with the public through digital channels.”

Bringing content and services online faster with Adobe XD

The city’s website is its most important marketing platform. Department heads and program managers create landing pages, microsites, and web pages that support and explain various services and initiatives from government agencies. The city adopted Adobe XD to help web administrators prototype web pages and landing pages faster, cutting the time required to create prototypes from three days to four hours.

Improving content velocity has a huge impact for both government agencies and citizens, because web administrators spend far less time prototyping each project and can now put information, forms, and services online much faster. This speed has been valuable as the number of online services that Denver offers grows to meet constituents’ needs.

“The adoption rates for online services have been fantastic,” says Chelsea Warren, communications coordinator for the City of Denver. “For example, in just one year, the percentage of quick permits issued electronically jumped from 3% to 70%. With the right creative tools, we’re creating new web content faster, which allows us to boost customer satisfaction by meeting the public’s appetite for digital services.”

To learn more, read the story about how the City and County of Denver is connecting with constituents online by using Adobe Creative Cloud apps.

Turning employees into powerful communicators with Adobe Spark

The City of Denver takes advantage of digital channels, including social media, websites, text messages, and email, to give constituents access to important information. The key to delivering more content across more channels lies in harnessing the skills of every employee to become a powerful content creator and communicator. With that in mind, the city decided to leverage Adobe Creative Cloud to put professional creative apps into the hands of all city government agencies.

Whether employees are design experts or novices, Adobe Spark helps them quickly create online presentations, social media graphics, digital newsletters, or even short videos.

For instance, the Office of the Clerk and Recorder creates an annual report chronicling the office’s achievements. This year, the office used Adobe Spark to create a report in half of the time normally required. Unlike a typical text-heavy report, the Spark report is full of colorful photographs, compelling infographics, and even videos that explain points in more depth.

“We want to empower people from every department to be creative communicators,” explains Kersten Arnold, digital marketing strategist for the City and County of Denver. “By making design tools more accessible, we can help people create content that will catch audiences’ attention and get them engaged.”

This project was an Adobe Government Creativity Awards entry. Learn more about AGCA today!