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Solano County launches redesigned solanocounty.gov with accessibility, search and resident-focused navigation
Summary
County staff and contractors demonstrated the new solanocounty.gov, describing two-plus years of work to improve accessibility, mobile use, search, language support and clearer service pathways for residents and businesses.
Solano County officials on Tuesday demonstrated a redesigned solanocounty.gov aimed at faster search, stronger accessibility and clearer “resident-first” navigation for services such as birth certificates, marriage licenses and property-tax payments.
County Principal Management Analyst Megan Richards and project manager Monique Schafer led a live demonstration at a Board of Supervisors meeting, saying the project took roughly two-and-a-half years of active work after a longer planning history. “Today’s the day. I’m very excited,” Richards told the board as she began the demonstration.
Why it matters: County staff said the old site scored 4.5 out of 10 on user satisfaction during discovery work and carried inconsistent and outdated content across many department pages. The redesign is intended to reduce calls and frustration by clustering common services — for example, a single “vital records” path that explains where to order different certificates and how to do so in person, by mail or online.
What officials showed: The home page features cards for top tasks (pay property taxes, order records, sign up for alerts), a refreshed color palette and photography, and an improved calendar and news feed to be maintained by departments. The site meets WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standards, Richards said, and includes auto-translation into county-priority languages including Spanish, Tagalog, Chinese, Vietnamese, Arabic, Korean, Hindi, Punjabi, Portuguese and German. Richards said the team also implemented the ability to override auto-translation for locally curated text.
Project background and process: Monique Schafer summarized the project’s three phases: discovery and content inventory, user-focused design and writing workshops for county staff, and a recent build-and-migration phase that included training more than 150 county staff. Richards said the team performed a soft launch on June 9–10 and worked through bugs before the public rollout.
Board questions and follow-up: Supervisor Brown asked staff to add floor or directional information (for example, “Second Floor”) to pages such as where to pick up a birth certificate. Richards agreed and said departments will continue updating content after the launch. The board discussed secure payment; Richards said payment portals are integrated and hosted separately but are secure.
Next steps: The county said it will continue iterative improvements — adding department-managed news and events cards, improving the calendar and elevating emergency notices such as wildfire alerts. Richards thanked an executive steering committee and an interdepartmental governance team for guiding the work.
End note: Officials asked residents to try the new site and report issues to county web governance for further tuning.
