The Challenge

Rowland Water District (RWD) was looking to deliver a modern, accessible and user-friendly website. Therefore, the District once again partnered with Tripepi Smith for what would be their third comprehensive website redesign. The project’s primary goal was to create a seamless digital platform by improving the site’s structure, enhancing the user experience and expanding accessibility. RWD also wanted to use the website redesign to refresh their community-focused brand. The redesign also included a secure employee intranet, providing staff with easy access to important files, documents and calendars. Guided by their mission, “devoted to caring for our neighbors and our future,” the redesigned website reflects RWD’s dedication to serving residents with clarity, connection and care.

Our Approach

Tripepi Smith and RWD kicked off the website design project with an in-person meeting to outline the District’s vision and needs for the new website, identify the timeline and roles, and discuss the latest trends that would improve the website from a user perspective. From there, Tripepi Smith’s web development team put together a Website Specification Document (WSD) that outlined all areas of the website, including key features, design, imagery, functionality updates and more. This document acts as the blueprint and plan for the next steps of the redesign process: website design, coding, content migration, quality assurance and launch.

After the WSD was developed, a Tripepi Smith senior web developer performed a thorough sitemap analysis. This involved a heavy reorganization of the website’s navigation to think critically about how a user would experience the website and using Google Analytics to pull data about top-viewed pages. This process resulted in a simple four-item menu structure with a customer service-focused “I Want To…” drop-down. All content was reachable in three clicks or less.

Once the sitemap was finalized, the design phase began. Tripepi Smith collaborated with RWD to further dive into their vision of the look and feel of the website. The design was also identified as an asset that would drive the refresh of their existing brand to be modern, abstract and outside the box of most water agencies. The abstract design includes a subtle nod to the mountain lines found in the RWD logo, introducing a fresh, contemporary design that doesn’t rely on water or wave imagery, reinforcing RWD’s goal to stand out. The softer color palette was developed with versatility and accessibility in mind, while also exploring a theme beyond the typical blue tones often used by water districts.

After the designs were approved, Tripepi Smith began programming the style and structure of the new website. This included a new streamlined form portal for both customers and contractors; a reduction of outdated content to improve performance; the introduction of a custom-programmed chatbot with frequently asked questions to help users find information quickly; and the addition of a secure intranet for staff that reinforces the employee mission.

The site was then sent to RWD for review while Tripepi Smith conducted quality assurance, resolved any bug fixes and prepared the website for launch.

Results

The new RWD website launched on May 1, 2025, and RWD was thrilled with the result of this project. They notified their customers of the new website through social media and a dedicated email blast to their subscribers.

The website receives over 189,000 visits per month on average, with an average engagement time of 1 minute and 33 seconds per active user, which exceeds many public sector website benchmarks (including federal government averages). This shows customers are engaging with the website effectively and finding information quickly.

More than 33% of website traffic comes from mobile devices, increasing to 39% since the new website launched. This highlights the importance of mobile optimization and reflects the improved usability delivered through the redesign.