As Maple Grove is the City that Prime Advertising and many of its employees call home, it is very important to us to stay connected with all the many wonderful and exciting things happening. That’s why we were very excited to be awarded the redesign of their new website (www.maplegrovemn.gov)!

The old website was rather cumbersome and it was often difficult to locate the information you were looking for. The goal of the new website was to make the user’s experience on the website stress-free, interactive and even fun!

Prime’s designers gave movement to the homepage with a rotating slideshow that showcases resident and city activities in Maple Grove. To clear the stuffiness that some city sites fall victim to, Prime went with a fresh, up-beat look, using rich greens and blues, and the latest technology allowing for a wider screen display. User-friendly drop-down navigation and highlights that “pop,” create multiple ways for users to navigate to each service or specific page inside the site.

The task of re-organizing the abundance of information on the Maple Grove website was a large undertaking indeed! Once everyone agreed on the look of the site, a large portion of the project’s time was allocated to streamlining all of Maple Grove’s information so that it was much easier to find on the new site.

It was very important that the city stay connected with residents and able to provide the most recent news and city developments in simple, easy-to-update ways. The new site integrates three channels to achieve this goal. First, Prime introduced the City of Maple Grove to the idea of blogging as a means of keeping residents current, sharing updates on new business activity and city events like Maple Grove Days and National Night Out. Second, a “Latest News” area was incorporated into the site, where short city, county and district announcements are rotated in a small area of every page. Lastly, a Calendar page was created, allowing the City of Maple Grove to log City Council meetings, commission meetings, special performances, farmers market dates and much more. Residents can click on individual calendar events for more information, times and directions.

Using the Element^Z Content Management System, the individual departments are now able to manage and update their city services and resident resources easily. As a team, Prime Advertising and the City staff were able to get this fun and informative website live in time for summer festivities!

We are pleased to see that all of the hard work that the City of Maple Grove and Prime Advertising have put into this project is paying off, with wonderful reviews from residents and employees alike. “When I go to a website, I get frustrated easy when I have to spend so much time trying to figure it out…In our website, it’s just such a smooth flow,” says Al Madsen, Maple Grove’s City Administrator.

See for yourself how the City of Maple Grove’s website has transformed!