Posted 1:10 am Friday, February 10, 2012
Chandler Unveils ‘User-Friendly' Website
By BETTY WATERS
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
CHANDLER -- A recently developed website for the City of Chandler offers greatly expanded information and interactive pages for communication between the city and citizens.
Mayor Ann Hall said she was "floored" by how many people responded on a city survey that they never went to the city's old website.
"We felt that if we could put up a better, user-friendly website, that would help a lot with communication," Ms. Hall said. "Now our big challenge is getting people to go there."
City officials felt they were trying hard to communicate with residents with an electronic message board in front of city hall, the city's old website and through articles in newspapers. But a city survey revealed that "people obviously thought we needed more," Ms. Hall said.
Taking into account that people increasingly are going online, Ms. Hall said, the new website is the wave of the future and addresses residents' desire for better communication between the city and residents.
The improved website is not just user friendly, but more productive for people, said John M. Taylor, assistant city administrator.
Taylor and other city employees worked since last October to design and develop the new website in cooperation with a company, called Civic Plus, which specializes in assisting municipalities.
Visitors to the old website could obtain some information but could not accomplish any business. "We wanted something that was more interactive," Taylor said.
More than 20 online forms are now available on the new website and people can do many things on the website.
For example, they can request police to drive by their home while they are on vacation, submit complaints and repair requests, such as for a pothole in front of their house. One form invites comments on anything.
There is a wide array of different things residents can do through the online forms, such as submit a request for public records, volunteer to be on a city board or commission and request a voter registration form.
They can now pay their water bill online with a credit card and also pay a traffic citation.
"More and more people pay all their bills online, so (providing the opportunity for citizens to pay their water bill and traffic citations online) is just one more thing we felt like made (the website) user friendly for the community," Ms. Hall said.
"I think the biggest change is it is more user friendly. You can ask it questions and it will give you information."
Taylor pointed out that the new website is more "intuitive" and "structured more the way people think" than the old website. One of the main headings is: "I want to." Click on that site and a list of possibilities appears.
For example, users can click on "I want to request a burn permit," which is required to burn inside the city limits.
Chandler's website always had agendas for city meetings, the city budget and ordinances. The new website continues to provide that, plus more detail about the different city departments and what the city has to offer, the city's new comprehensive plan and maps, calendar of events, the latest news and more.
Since people tend to go to a web page more often if they see things change on it, the new Chandler website gives city employees the opportunity to frequently update it, Taylor noted.
On the website are links to the Chandler Economic Development Corporation, the Chandler-Brownsboro Area Chamber of Commerce, federal and state government websites, agencies and news media.
"We are hoping when people go to it (the new website), they'll let us know what they think about it because there may be things that still aren't as user friendly as they ought to be and we can try to change them," Taylor said.
Fees to the city for the website are $8,000 per year for the next three years and afterward $3,000 per year.
"We feel like it's dollars well spent for that communication benefit and letting our citizens know we're doing everything that we can think of possible to get information out to them," Ms. Hall said.
Although the primary focus is for local residents, Taylor said the website can appeal to anyone considering opening a business in Chandler.
"If they see a professional, well-done, helpful website, it says something about the government and the city that it came from, so they'll likely feel more inclined to do business here. It is kind of a development tool also," Taylor said.
