The new website puts the focus on YOU the user, similar to a choose your own adventure, the user experience journey was designed using website data, online behavior, industry trends and best practices to improve: 

• Accessibility including alt text for screen readers and the use of plain language
• Mobile experience with pages that automatically adjusts to any size screen or device, allowing you to effortless scroll through content increasing readability
• Navigation using the mega menu, prominently placed search, and popular links
• Security and stability with the new CMS increasing website capacity and speed while protecting the county and users from cybersecurity threats
• Service Finder that connects you with information about county services including how to complete certain online services 

Yes, the update includes new features, such as: 

• Service Finder
• County Calendar
• Advanced Search
• New pages such as Sustainability

• The county worked diligently to ensure that no information was left behind, but it may have moved locations, been combined with other content, or changed how it displays in order to improve accessibility, enhance the mobile experience, and/or improve the user experience.  
• Many PDFs and Forms were changed to webpages for increase ADA accessibility.  
• Old news articles, documents, and forms may also have been removed that were no longer relevant tor functional. If you can’t find a specific one you are looking for, use the contact us feature to report it.  

This is a known issue for some browsers and devices, please see how to troubleshoot below: 

• In Firefox, the Facebook and Instagram feeds may not load properly to see the feeds, turn OFF “Enhanced Tracking Protection.”
  • To do this, click on the shield icon just to the left of the URL https://, this will open a drop down menu and “Enhanced Tracking Protection is ON for this site” will be slid to right and blue; click on the blue slider to turn this OFF. You will then see that “Enhanced Tracking Protection is OFF for this site” and the shield will have a diagonal line through it now to indicate it’s off.
• In Edge, the Facebook and Instagram feeds may not load properly to see the feeds, adjust your tracking prevention to Balanced instead of strict. 
  • To do this, click on the lock icon just to the left of the URL https://, this will open a drop down menu and that says “Tracking Prevention for this site is strict” with a blue slider icon to right of it; click on the blue slider to turn this this down to (balanced). You will then see that “Tracking Prevention for this site is (balanced).”  
• In Safari on mobile devices, there is a setting in Safari that will prevent users from seeing the Facebook feed load as expected on the homepage.
  • Change your settings in your mobile device to:

    • Settings/Safari/Privacy & Security section/ Hide IP Address field >> when set at ‘From Trackers’ >> update to ‘Off’ 

• Alternatively, you can visit our social media directory.

• Oakland County has been consistently recognized as one of the most digitally advanced counties in the country. Since 2005, the County has ranked in the Top 10 Digital Counties Survey by the Center for Digital Government as well as received numerous “Best of the Web” and “Overall Experience” and National Association of Counties Achievement awards. 
• The county is committed to continuously improving the digital government experience for our public while making government services and information accessible to all. The new website features updates to make OakGov.com more accessible and mobile friendly. This will help you find what you’re looking and connect you with county information and services faster no matter what you’re trying to do on any device.  

• Additionally, the county’s existing content management system (CMS) was reaching it’s ‘end of life’ where it would no longer be supported and would result in a less secure and stable website, negatively impacting the user experience. This was the ideal opportunity for the county to put out a request for proposal (RFP) in May 2021 for a new CMS platform, to begin the process of securing the site and enhancing the user experience. 

   

GovAccess is the Government CMS provided by Granicus. Granicus responded to Oakland County’s RFP for a new CMS and was the winning bid after a robust selection process including interviews, demos, and cost/ROI analysis led by the Information Technology and Public Communications departments in collaboration with all the county’s departments and Elected Official offices.

GovAccess has worked on more than 1,500 government websites and uncovered user behaviors that guide the most effective digital experiences for each unique community; informed by data and citizen behavior that also provides an easy-to-use website for both the public and for government employees.

GovAccess offers Industry-leading security features, such as their state-of-the-art infrastructure with greater than 99.9% uptime, backed by 24x7 customer support and regular health checks.