Title
City of Gainesville Website (B)
Communications and Marketing Office (CMO) staff will present and briefly review enhanced features of the new City of Gainesville Web site.
Explanation
In March of 2007, at the request of the Communications and Marketing Manager, Vision Internet, a nationally recognized leader in municipal website design, presented its plan to the City Manager to revise the City website at an estimated cost ranging from $50,000-$70,000. In May 2007, Communications and Marketing staff submitted an interim solution for the redesign of the City website at a substantially reduced cost. In July 2007, the City Manager approved a proposal from CMO staff to redesign the visual appearance of the primary level pages of the City's external web site and to develop subordinate level templates for it.
The redesign would allow city agencies additional flexibility to customize and update content on their pages. This project proposal also emphasized improvement of navigational toolbars to enhance site usability for internal and external users and the increased decentralization of website information content management functions to the department and division level. In concert with technical support provided by the Information Technology Department, site development proceeded in three phases.
The first phase consisted of a review of the site map to plot appropriate navigational outlines, including appropriate groupings of various departments and services. This phase also included a review and revision to the navigational language and topical headings used on the website. This phase was coordinated through the City's Communication Advisory Group which is comprised of Communications & Marketing staff and volunteer representatives from selected City Charter Offices and departments.
The second phase was design oriented. Following the graphic rational that features the City's new logo and brand tagline, "Every path starts with passion." The styl...
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