Horizons Regional Council

Developing a website to meet the councils needs

Horizons Regional Council's website had evolved the way a lot of council websites do over time: a main site plus a handful of satellite sites, each running on its own system, each needing its own care and attention. That's a hard way to keep a consistent, accessible experience for the community, and a harder way to keep a small digital team productive. The council needed a single, modern CMS that was easy to manage, mobile-first and accessible by default. It needed to be built to support the things people actually come to the site to do, paying rates, applying for consents, checking environmental data, or finding out what's happening in their community.

Integration not replacement

The council also needed the new platform to talk to the systems it already relied on. Rates information, environmental monitoring data, air quality readings, webcams and newsletter sign-ups all needed to work through the new site and needed a consistent user experience, while giving council staff a familiar, secure way to log in and manage it all.

Our approach

We began with discovery and strategy work carried out directly with Horizons: reviewing existing documentation, branding and systems, running a competitor analysis, and getting into analytics and current integrations to understand what was and wasn't working. From there we ran a structured programme of engagement, including a strategy workshop, stakeholder interviews, a councillor workshop and engagement with the council, alongside a wider user workshop to document the key tasks people needed the site to support.

That engagement fed directly into an information architecture review, combining public engagement, a content audit and card sorting to reshape how the site was structured. The new structure was validated through tree testing to help us build and improve user journeys. From there, our design team produced wireframes and a design system for the new site, before moving into high-fidelity designs.

For the build, our development team worked through structured sprints, and delivered software development, functional testing against agreed acceptance criteria, design reviews, UAT and production deployment. We coordinated go-live readiness and supported the council's penetration testing process ahead of launch, then handed over with CMS training so the team could start managing the new site with confidence.

What we delivered

A consolidated CMS platform

Effect replaced Horizons' previous CMS with a single Umbraco platform, bringing the council's environmental data site and other properties into one system instead of several disconnected ones.

Environmental data, brought across cleanly

Effect ported the existing Environmental Data website code into Effect's repository and hosted it on the council's Azure instance alongside the main site, so Horizons keeps a dedicated environmental data tool without maintaining a separate, disconnected platform.

Live integrations across council systems

Effect connected the new site to the systems THAT Horizons depends on day to day, so residents get accurate, live information in one place. This included:

• Property rates API,

• Water Matters and Enviro Data (via Hilltop),

• Air quality data through Google Maps,

• Webcam feeds around the region,

• Campaign Monitor for newsletters

Secure single sign-on

Effect implemented single sign-on with Azure AD, giving council staff one secure, familiar way to log in across the platform.

A dedicated space for Te Āpiti

Effect set up Te Āpiti (Manawatū Gorge) with its own URL and branding, running on a dedicated node within the same Horizons Umbraco instance, so it can be managed independently with its own brand identity while still benefiting from shared infrastructure and support.

Mobile-first, accessible design

Effect designed and built the new site mobile-first and with accessibility built in from the start, so it works well for the whole community, not just people on a desktop browser.

A flexible content toolkit

Effect delivered a full library of reusable page templates and content blocks, giving the council's content team the flexibility to build and update pages themselves without needing a developer for routine changes.

Results

Horizons Regional Council now runs on a single, modern platform instead of a patchwork of separate sites, with its environmental data tool and Te Āpiti Manawatū brought in under the same infrastructure while keeping their own identity. Live integrations mean residents can check their rates, look up environmental and air quality data, view webcams and sign up for updates without leaving the site. Secure sign-on with Azure AD gives council staff one consistent way to manage it all. Built mobile-first and with accessibility in mind, the new website gives the Manawatū-Whanganui community an easier way to connect with their council, and has provided council content editors with a toolkit that lets the team keep it current without leaning on developer support for every change.