Title
Discussion of issues relating to the City website re-design and usability study.
Body
Summary:
The City website, deerparktx.gov <http://deerparktx.gov> is a vital information and community engagement tool. Residents are able to obtain current information about city meetings, events, programs and activities, as well as conduct certain business on-line. The current website, created through CIVICPLUS in January 2013 had a total cost of $49,774. After forty-eight (48) consecutive months under the terms of our contract and associated pricing, we are now fully eligible for a basic redesign at no cost.
The original site and now the re-design, is steered by the Website Committee. The committee has seventeen (17) staff members representing all departments across the city. The role of the committee is to examine strategies for making the most effective use of the City’s website focusing on the latest innovation and user satisfaction. Some important features of the redesign include a cleaner, sleeker look developed following a survey of dozens of other CIVICPLUS sites and their mobile applications. The group considered changes to the site’s mega-menu, news panels and overall layout.
Integrated into this process were the results of the website usability assessment conducted late 2016 through early 2017 through a partnership with PR/Marketing. The suggestions collected during the assessment - centered largely on mega-menu organization, cross-promotion and intuitive links - were integrated into the existing site content during May 2017.
Discussion:
This is an informational item only. We will present to Council an update on the website redesign process and share the concepts chosen by the website committee. We will also discuss the website usability study.
Fiscal/Budgetary Impact:
There is no cost for the re-design.
Recommended action
Discussion only in Workshop.