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| http://dunwoodyga.gov |
On July 8, 2013 the City of Dunwoody went out with a Request for Information for proposals on City Website Design and Replacement and we received a fair amount of interest with nine companies putting forth formal proposals. On December 9, 2013 the Council approved the staffs recommendation to hire Jesse James Creative to create the new website. Here is the powerpoint presentation given by City staff setting the expectations of the new website and the recommendation of Jesse James Creative.
On December 22, 2014 the City announced that the new web site was launched and as with any website update it takes awhile to work out a few kinks. This evening the City Council received an email from Mr. Bob Mullen, Director of Marketing & Public Relations asking for our (and your) feedback.
I reviewed the RFI, specifically section 3 the scope of services and asked a few questions on what was provided vs what was contracted for and I welcome you to do the same. Comments on the new City of Dunwoody website can be posted in the comments on this blog entry where I will send them to staff, they can be sent directly to me or they can be sent directly to staff and Council via email by clicking on this link.
Dear Mayor & Council,
We just recently passed the 30-day mark of our new city website being live and we wanted to connect with you to get your feedback and input.
While we initially experienced a few challenges and issues after its launch, we have been working with the site designers to make appropriate corrections and modifications related to updated content, layout and site functionality. We continue to scan the site daily to determine and pinpoint snags or errors and are using advanced web governance software to manage and maintain the website to address attributes such as quality assurance, accessibility, web analytics and search engine optimization (SEO).
If you have any questions or specific feedback you’d like to share on the new site, we’d be grateful for your input. We’d also be interested in hearing any citizen or community feedback people may have shared with you so we can be sure to address relevant items. As for the type of input we are seeking, the more specific the better as detailed concerns provide us with an opportunity to appropriately identify a solution.
Thanks in advance for your input and feel free to contact me with any questions.
Kind regards,
Bob Mullen
Marketing & Public Relations Director
City of Dunwoody
It's good design, except for the homepage image. It is a good picture, but too big and not aligned to the purpose of the site. I think this is a government site which should be more efficient and to the point - finding information and completing tasks are more important.
ReplyDeleteI perused the City of Dunwoody's new website and discovered the data organization allows for efficient and intuitive browsing - found everything I attempted to access swiftly and with ease.
ReplyDeleteI'd say it's a triumph of aesthetic and functional design!
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ReplyDeleteI removed my comment because I would rather spend more time on the site before commenting :)
ReplyDeleteHi John,
ReplyDeleteOverall, I like the ease of use, ability to navigate & find content quickly.
#1: There should be no need to use the vertical scroll bar. Each page's content, including the home page should be designed to be read without scrolling down. At the present, you have to scroll down too far to get content.
#2 - Multi-Language. It's specified in the scope of services that up to 5 languages will be supported. I don't see any available. The "cheap & cheerful" way is to simply add something like a Google Translate plug-in. This will help people get the gist. The multi-language "flag" needs to be kept to usability standards. Usually there's a country flag to select or a simple checkbox or dropdown.
#3: Mobile User Interface & "Responsive Design". If you resize the home page on a browser & make it about 1/2 smaller, you'll notice in the top right-hand corner a small box with 3 horizontal bars. That's supposed to be a dynamic menu that is activated when rendering in a smaller screen, such as a smart phone when oriented in the portrait mode. It's not working. You can see it, but it's not activated. The whole idea is that as the screen gets smaller, the "normal" menu items drop off, but are still available through the dropdown menu.
I tried it on an iPhone. The small horizontal menu seems to work. But the menu items are nearly transparent with the photo image in the background washing it out. That would not be ADA/508 Compliant.
#4: Went to a calendar item. The Share button is not working (Would be to share on Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
#5: Glad to see the the search results from Google are now returning correct pages from the new website!
I don't like the photo of the women eating lunch. We are not a tourist destination. Getting women to dine here for lunch is the CVB's job. How about a photo of men and women in business attire?
ReplyDeleteDunwoody could have been a tourist destination if y'all had listened to my proposal as a write-in candidate for the 2011 mayoral election - I was the only aspirant that was bold enough (as well as wise enough to appreciate the tax revenue that could be accrued) to propose a city ordinance to legalize marijuana. Imagine a Dunwoody dotted with quaint hash cafes and in addition to the direct tax revenue the city would gain, the collateral emolument for the non-drug related Dunwoody small businesses would be enormous.
ReplyDeleteBut y'all feebly compromised and merely allowed beer growlers. Beer growlers? What kind of tourists are y'all attempting to attract with beer growlers? The surviving veterans of the 1923 Munich Beer Hall Putsch?!
Now a ordinance legalizing marijuana is how we true progressives roll. Screw this "Save Dunwoody" crap. Save Dunwoody from what? Save it from thriving - both financially and socially?! I'm guaranteeing y'all that if Dunwoody doesn't pull its head out of the collective ass of its most antediluvian citizens, then expect it to eventually become nothing more than a city-wide retirement community of dour old trolls without any type of public amenities that could possibly coax their grandchildren to visit.
I agree with Jack Zheng and Dunwoody Talk about the cover photo. Odd choice.
ReplyDeleteQuestions raised and answers by staff.
ReplyDeleteQ - I have huge issues with the agenda search page as I cannot get the internal Agenda page to scroll down.
A -The scroll function on the Agenda and Minutes page now appears to scroll in Chrome, Firefox and IExplorer. We made correction requests on this through SIRE as this is not specific to the website design/coding but due to SIRE I-frame functionality.
Q - Any improvement to the video playback? I have attempted to play the video from the 26th with little luck. I have used every browser available but can’t get past a few minutes in.
A - The video playback appears to work in Internet Explorer 11. However, in moving away from Silverlight, what we’ve found is that the new video streaming/playback requires the latest windows media player plug-in to be installed (wmv video player plug-in) when using browsers of Chrome, Firefox and Safari. We are attempting to work to find a solution and in doing so also found some plug-in help via the following links on plug-in installation assistance (Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/play-windows-media-files-in-firefox Chrome https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/142064?hl=en )
Q - Why is that main picture so big what story is the city trying to tell?
A - We have added additional images to the main page scroll and plan to use new photos and images (community, quality of life, live-work-play, etc.) on a regular basis to refresh the look and reinforce the many assets and amenities of the city.
Q - Any idea what the final cost of the website was? Given that there was a promised delivery of May/June 2014 with a budget of $62K, I'm curious what the final cost was since the website didn't go live until 7 months later than planned.
A - The cost of the website design, development and content migration is $62,060. Staff does not anticipate deviation on the final costs of the website in excess of the agreed contract amount.
Q - Multi-Language. It's specified in the scope of services that up to 5 languages will be supported. I don't see any available.
A - We are currently in the process of implementing the language translate plug-in and the pages will appear in the browser’s default language. We are also currently looking into the flag option and functionality.
Q - Mobile User Interface & "Responsive Design". If you resize the home page on a browser & make it about 1/2 smaller, you'll notice in the top right-hand corner a small box with 3 horizontal bars. That's supposed to be a dynamic menu that is activated when rendering in a smaller screen, such as a smart phone when oriented in the portrait mode. It's not working. You can see it, but it's not activated. The whole idea is that as the screen gets smaller, the "normal" menu items drop off, but are still available through the dropdown menu. I tried it on an iPhone. The small horizontal menu seems to work. But the menu items are nearly transparent with the photo image in the background washing it out. That would not be ADA/508 Compliant.
A - We are aware of the layout and usability issues on mobile devices and tablets is still experiencing some display issues. We are working through rendering issues to correct this display and testing across multiple devices. We will continue to work with the designer on this rendering issue until resolved and are hopeful it can be addressed in by mid-week (week of 2/9).
Q - Went to a calendar item. The Share button is not working (Would be to share on Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
A - We have found the Share function works properly in Chrome and in Firefox but does not work properly in Internet Explorer 11. We will continue to try and determine how to correct the issue in Internet Explorer 11.