Oxnard, CA: From Project Initiation to Site Launch on WordPress

The average lifespan of a website is three to five years. Government agencies face additional hurdles in keeping up with updates, which often leads to security vulnerabilities and user frustration in a demanding technical climate. 

The City of Oxnard, home to 200,000 people in Southern California, had a 10-year-old website. Built on a legacy WordPress framework, the site suffered from outdated design, insufficient security guardrails, and a complex architecture that hindered users from finding the information quickly.

To address these issues, the City partnered with Aten Design Group, leveraging their expertise in WordPress and user-focused design. This case study outlines the project’s development goals, the strategic decision to use Pantheon and WordPress, and the transformative impact of WordPress’s block editor on the work of content creators.

Top four municipal website development goals

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The project’s overarching goal was to deliver a modern, accessible and user-friendly website. To achieve this, Aten worked closely with Oxnard’s small, dedicated project team of four, ensuring efficiency and alignment throughout the process. Key development goals included:

The CMS choice: The City’s internal team needed the ability to create and update content without relying on developers. Given their familiarity with WordPress, the decision to continue using the platform was straightforward.

Intuitive authoring interface: Aten prioritized creating a user-friendly content creation experience. A component-based block library allowed authors to build pages using drag-and-drop tools, reducing the need for technical expertise.

Flexible and accessible design: Modular development enabled dynamic page layouts while adhering to the site’s design system. Accessibility was also a priority, ensuring the site was navigable for users with assistive devices and translatable for Oxnard’s bilingual community.

Improved hosting and security: The City transitioned from self-hosted servers to Pantheon’s managed hosting platform to address prior downtime issues, enhance data redundancy and strengthen security measures. Pantheon’s containerized infrastructure ensured 99.99% uptime and robust quality assurance processes.

Choosing to move hosting to Pantheon has ensured that not only is the City’s website available to the residents at all times, but also that the site and its data are protected against both server outages and any potential bad actors.” 

- Eli Frigoli, Senior WordPress Developer at Aten

WordPress made simple for the content team: intuitive editing and no code

WordPress was the ideal choice for Oxnard due to its flexibility, ease of use and familiarity among the City’s content editors. To simplify editing and provide handy visual cues, Aten utilized Full Site Editing (FSE), a block theme leveraging Gutenberg’s block-based editor. 

Aten developed custom blocks for specific content needs, such as call-to-action elements and department-specific pages. This approach allowed authors to maintain design consistency while creating unique layouts without any need to code.

Thanks to the preview function, authors could see changes as they worked, ensuring accuracy and confidence in content updates.

The block-based approach streamlined content creation and empowered Oxnard’s team to adapt the site to evolving community needs.

Accessibility for a Latino-dominant municipality

Accessibility was a core value that shaped the project’s design and development. In the discovery phase, Aten’s team met with representatives across the City, from librarian and recreation program managers to bi-lingual senior citizens and local business owners. 

A key takeaway was the population diversity in Oxnard. For the city with the majority of Latino residents, a bilingual site was a must. Google Translate was chosen for an automatic translation.

“With the click of a button, users can seamlessly translate the site without any impact to site speed or URL structure,” shared Aundrea Billings, Director of Project Management at Aten. 

The other accessibility feature was the Mega Menu navigation. Aten’s team enhanced keyboard navigation beyond the Mega Menu plugin’s capabilities out of the box. They based the keyboard navigation on patterns in use by the Blind Institute of Technology to ensure that users navigating via assistive devices can access all levels of the menu.

Results: increased site visits, decreased bounced rate

The new website delivered measurable improvements in usability and engagement. Key results include:

1. Increased site visits: Over five months, the new site experienced an 83% increase in visits compared to the same time frame in 2023. Monthly traffic grew by an average of 55%.
2. Reduced bounce rate: The bounce rate dropped from 35% to 10%, reflecting a more engaging and intuitive user experience.
3. Improved task completion: A new utility menu, prominently featuring a “Pay” option, simplified navigation for users. This change led to a 33% decrease in traffic to the “Services” section, as users could now access the payment feature directly.
4. Streamlined content management: The integration of department-based permissions and PublishPress tools allowed city departments to manage their content independently. This not only improved efficiency but also enhanced site security.
5. Enhanced accessibility: The site’s translation features and keyboard-friendly navigation ensured inclusivity for Oxnard’s diverse population.

Any large website redesign project represents a significant investment of time, money and energy from the client and their organization, and this was no different for the City of Oxnard. A serious risk for any digital project is building the wrong thing. I’m glad Oxnard’s redesign focused on the right things prioritizing user experience and stakeholder input from the beginning of the project.” 

- Aundrea Billings, Director of Project Management at Aten

Read more about Aten’s design work for the City of Oxnard in Aten’s case study.