Hawaii Legislative Reference Bureau, NIC Hawaii Win Outstanding Website Award

NIC Hawaii and the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) have been nationally recognized with a Web Marketing Association award for Outstanding Website. The award is an extraordinary honor, and LRB received top scores in the ease of use, copy-writing, content and design criteria.

The LRB is a nonpartisan legislative service agency that provides a wide variety of services to legislators, legislative committees and members of the public. The agency’s previous website was more than 15 years old with a dated design, and any updates were difficult to make since staff were required to manually update HTML files. The site also used a “.org” address which did not denote an official government look and feel.

Led by NIC Hawaii, the redesign project included the creation of two websites: one for LRB and one for the Public Access Room (PAR), a division of LRB. NIC Hawaii worked closely with both teams to collect, develop and design the new websites through facilitated meetings. Built in WordPress, staff can now easily edit their web content. The site was also moved to an official “.gov” domain.

Additional features include:

• A responsive web design that works across all mobile and tablet devices
• Custom photos taken on-site and photos of staff members give the site a personal touch and a stunning visual design
• A comprehensive listing of all LRB publications dating back to 1949
• An improved “Guide to Government” to find agency contact info and descriptions for each agency
• A curated selection of daily news in iClips
• The ability to find information about the current legislature including the session calendar, deadlines and maps
• The option to sign up for the PAR newsletter or to attend a workshop.
• A list of tips for engaging in the legislative process

To learn more and see the new designs, visit the LRB’s website at lrb.hawaii.gov and the PAR’s website at lrb.hawaii.gov/par.