Case Study
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GO-Live Date
September 2, 2026
Trusted Web Experts
Caleigh Pickard
Web Solutions Consultant
Stacey Horton
Project Manager & Design
Nikki Vanderkooi
Content Strategy & Integration
Imelda Sotiri
Design Strategy
Mehran Aziz
Web Development
Zeeshan Aziz
Web Development
Heather Clark
Quality Assurance
Annie Watson
CMS Training
Leanna Thesken
Design Intake & Marketing
Beth Leffel
Website Launch
Deanna Frimann
Resource Allocation
Jakob Scheetz
Website Content Inventory
Goals
Overview
Powering a Growing Community
Clatskanie People’s Utility District (PUD) has served northwest Oregon as a publicly owned, locally controlled electric utility since 1940. Its mission centers on creating economic advantage for its communities by providing strong energy value to customer-owners. Having partnered with Powerful on its previous website, Clatskanie PUD returned with new priorities shaped by an evolving community and the changing role of its website.
As more people move to the area from Portland and surrounding communities, Clatskanie PUD wanted to make it easy for newer customers to understand their utility, find answers, and connect with services online. The team also wanted to strengthen awareness of the programs, resources, and community efforts that reflect its role as a PUD. The new website brings those goals together through a refreshed design built to support everyday service while giving Clatskanie PUD more opportunities to communicate with the people it serves.
A Familiar Look, Reimagined
Clatskanie PUD’s previous homepage focused heavily on helping visitors complete common utility tasks, an approach that had served the district well. As its communication goals evolved, the team saw an opportunity for the homepage to take on a broader role. It still needed to make essential services easy to reach while creating more room to highlight programs, timely information, and Clatskanie PUD’s connection to the community.
Powerful and Clatskanie PUD selected the Alder blueprint to shift the homepage from a primarily task-oriented layout to a promotional approach. A task-oriented homepage centers the experience around direct pathways to common actions. A promotional homepage keeps those pathways prominent while giving the organization flexibility to feature changing priorities throughout the year. Buttons for Start/Stop Service, Conservation & Rebates, the Outage Center, Payment Assistance, and the Digital Rural Magazine remain highly visible near the top of the new homepage.
The visual direction also builds from an identity Clatskanie PUD’s community already knows. Its established green remains a defining part of the website, while a yellow accent introduces a fresh element that draws attention to buttons, details, and featured information. Curved shapes throughout the design offer a subtle nod to the “C” in the Clatskanie PUD logo, carrying the brand through the page in a way that feels intentional without becoming overly literal.
Together, these choices give Clatskanie PUD a website that feels current without losing its sense of familiarity. The Alder blueprint provides room to shift featured content as seasons, programs, and priorities change, supporting the district’s vision of innovation and adaptability. At the same time, essential information remains easy to reach, allowing the website to continue serving as a dependable resource for customer-owners.
Programs With Purpose
As a publicly owned utility, Clatskanie PUD has a close relationship with the communities it serves. Customer-owners elect the board that oversees the district, and its work extends beyond delivering electricity to include conservation programs, payment support, safety education, community giving, and public meetings. The new homepage gives those efforts greater visibility, helping visitors understand the many ways Clatskanie PUD supports the area.
That connection begins near the top of the homepage, where important resources appear alongside everyday service options. Payment Assistance, for example, has its own prominent call-to-action button. A customer looking for help can quickly identify where to go without needing to know how the website is organized or searching through several pages. Outage resources, conservation programs, service requests, and district publications receive the same straightforward treatment.
The promotional structure also gives Clatskanie PUD space to respond to what is happening in the community throughout the year. As fall and winter approach, the homepage features Share the Warmth, its community-supported energy assistance program. A dedicated section pairs an image with a short explanation and direct link to energy bill assistance, giving the program meaningful visibility during a season when it may be especially relevant to customers.
News, upcoming events and board meetings, safety resources, and community impact statistics continue that story farther down the page. Together, they help communicate Clatskanie PUD’s role as a local resource and community partner while creating additional reasons for customer-owners to return to the website. The Alder blueprint gives the district a flexible way to connect people with practical services, timely programs, and the work happening throughout their publicly owned utility.
Challenges
Clatskanie PUD wanted to encourage more customers to complete common tasks and find answers through the website, especially as the area continued welcoming new residents, including people relocating from the Portland region. For someone new to the community, the website may be one of their first interactions with the PUD. That created an opportunity to consider what those customers would need to know first, from establishing electric service to understanding the local utility now serving their home.A new customer may need to determine how to start service, which application applies to their situation, or what information is required. They may also be encountering a People’s Utility District for the first time. With those needs in mind, Clatskanie PUD and Powerful identified high-value pages where stronger organization and visual presentation could make information easier to understand, encourage online action, and create a positive introduction to the PUD.
Solutions
Through content strategy and collaboration, Powerful and Clatskanie PUD identified pages that would benefit from visualization, including Start or Stop Service and Who We Are. Thoughtful layouts, icons, imagery, clear headings, and focused calls to action help break information into approachable sections and guide visitors toward what is most relevant to them. Each page supports a different point in a new customer’s experience: one helps them take an immediate action, while the other introduces the organization behind their electric service.The Start or Stop Service page organizes pathways for moving into an existing property, new construction or service upgrades, co-applicant requests, and stopping service, with requirements, applications, contact information, and FAQs grouped alongside each need. Since establishing electric service may be a new resident’s first direct interaction with Clatskanie PUD, the page helps make that introduction straightforward and welcoming. The Who We Are page builds on that experience by visually presenting the PUD’s mission, public ownership model, history, service area, and power supply through statistics, imagery, icons, and a timeline. For residents coming from areas with a different utility structure, it provides useful context about who Clatskanie PUD is and how it serves the community.
Results
The visualized pages give customers clear starting points for both action and understanding. Someone ready to establish service can identify the process that fits their situation and move toward the appropriate online form, while a visitor getting acquainted with Clatskanie PUD can learn about the district and its role in the community from one organized resource. Visual elements such as icons, statistics, timelines, and defined content sections also make detailed information easier to scan and navigate.As Clatskanie PUD continues serving a growing community, these experiences help position the website as a dependable first stop for questions and routine needs. The visualized pages support Clatskanie PUD’s goal of increasing engagement with its online tools while helping new and longtime customers connect with the district.
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Quotes
Team Comments
This being their second website with Powerful, the Clatskanie team wanted the new design to be modern, approachable, and most of all community-focused. By going with one of our promotional blueprints, they were able to prioritize access to top tasks for their customers while clearly communicating the unique programs and services they offer in the larger promotional sections. Specifically with the Alder blueprint, they could combine playfully curved design elements with crisp colors to make their information clear and welcoming on every page. The team was so fun to work with and I’m super excited for them to have a refreshed look!
Project Manager
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