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SHIFT-Idaho, ITD website redesign earn AVA Digital awards          

Idaho’s engaged-driving program, SHIFT, earned a Platinum award in digital marketing from the national organization AVA Digital. The ITD website makeover won an Honorable Mention nod in the Government Website category of the awards. AVA Digital honors excellence in digital creativity, branding and strategy.

To help Idahoans stay focused on the drive, ITD’s Office of Highway Safety launched a new engaged-driving program called SHIFT in early November 2017. The idea behind engaged driving is to create an opportunity for Idahoans to start thinking and talking about what’s appropriate behind the wheel and in the passenger’s seat. SHIFT is designed to help share techniques and strategies to reduce distractions while growing driver engagement.

The target audience is any of Idaho’s licensed drivers, specifically youthful drivers who engage more frequently in distracted-driving behaviors and are responsible for 30% of accidents on Idaho roads, despite representing less than 10% of all drivers. To do that, OHS created a series of "personas" to relate to most Idahoans.

SHIFT also combines efforts to reach drivers directly through different media with workplace engagement. A pilot program is currently underway to develop a toolkit to help teach employers how to talk to their employees about engaged driving. The pilot sites will test different tools and review workplace distracted driving policies to see what can be done to impact driver behavior.

“We really believe this layered approach will help create safer roads and a safer Idaho,” Office of Highway Safety Manager John Tomlinson said.

The SHIFT program came together through the collaboration of several partners – including ITD Chief Deputy Scott Stokes, ITD's Office of Highway Safety, a creative team comprised of ITD employees and external resources, and ITD Research Manager Ned Parrish.

The ITD website redesign was not done without major effort and collaboration. The redesign of the site involved transportation department staff from different divisions, and included a rapid innovation team specifically assigned to the project. Team members contributed input to make the site as user-friendly as possible. The new design puts the most-visited links and top department priorities front and center. As a result, almost all content is directly connected to the Home page, only one click away.

The new site focuses heavily on usability, with the goal to create an interface both intuitive and easy to use. The results indicate that it was accomplished

 

Published 01-12-18