Nestled in the beautiful East Kootenays, the City of Cranbrook is known for its stunning mountain views, strong sense of community, and commitment to making life better for residents and visitors alike. From city programs and recreation opportunities to business resources and local events, Cranbrook’s websites are essential for connecting people with everything the city has to offer.
Managing three major websites—the City of Cranbrook, the recreation center, and the airport — takes a lot of work to keep everything running smoothly. That’s where we come in.
We began working with the City of Cranbrook in 2019, providing ongoing development and maintenance for its websites.
Our first big project was upgrading their ExpressionEngine CMS to version 5.0 (the latest at the time), migrating their hosting, automating forms, refreshing key landing pages, and improving accessibility.
To make managing all three sites easier, we set up multi-site management so everything could be handled within a single CMS installation. This approach creates a consistent user experience across all sites, makes it simpler to add new sites down the road, and boosts efficiency by allowing shared resources, templates, and workflows.
Since then, we’ve kept Cranbrook’s CMS current with upgrades to EE6 in 2021 and EE7 in 2023. These regular updates keep the sites stable, secure and running smoothly while minimizing technical debt—which ultimately lowers long-term maintenance costs.
In 2020, Cranbrook partnered with a design agency to refresh the look of their main site, and we were tasked with bringing new prototypes to life. It’s always exciting when multiple teams come together for a project like this, and we’ve worked successfully in this way multiple times.
One highlight of the refresh was introducing a streamlined contact form that automatically routes messages to the right department. It sounds simple, but getting it built right made a big difference in simplifying communication for both residents and city staff.
We also built and launched one of the site’s most popular features: a solid waste and recycling tool. Residents can search by their address to learn their collection zone and schedule, plus there’s a handy “what goes where” search that makes it a snap to figure out how to properly dispose of any material—it’s a huge list.
We wanted to make sure the City of Cranbrook felt comfortable managing their own content, so we simplified and customized the site’s backend (ExpressionEngine makes this possible with minimal effort) and provided training sessions on how to navigate ExpressionEngine, upload assets, and maintain pages. There’s nothing more rewarding than empowering a client to confidently manage and use their digital tools on their own.
As a major tourist destination, Cranbrook’s digital presence needs to be welcoming and accessible to everyone. We were proud to support Cranbrook in enhancing web accessibility and ensuring compliance with WCAG 2 AA modern standards, thereby providing better usability for people of all abilities.
Some of the key accessibility improvements included:
- Adding descriptive text to links, buttons, and videos for screen readers
- Improving colour contrast for users with low vision or colour blindness
- Removing focusable elements from ARIA-hidden sections to improve keyboard navigation
- Ensuring all interactive elements have clear hover and focus states to enhance navigation
These updates make the sites more inclusive while improving the user experience for all visitors.
Now Cranbrook’s websites are faster, easier to navigate, more accessible and truly reflect the vibrant and inclusive spirit of the community itself. We’re thrilled to continue supporting the City of Cranbrook as their websites grow and evolve alongside this vibrant community.
Looking to improve your digital presence? Send us a message, we’re ready to help.
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