Watch above: Don’t like the current City of Saskatoon website? A new one is on the way and the city is looking for feedback before the official launch in the new year.
SASKATOON – If you’ve ever tried to find some information on the City of Saskatoon’s website, you know it’s not always easy to find information.
“Our current website is really set up around the corporate structure, so if you don’t know who offers what services, it’s kind of hard to find things,” said Rob Gilhuly, project manager for the new website.
The city is getting ready to launch a new website, and a “preview site” was launched Thursday afternoon to get public input.
“Our new preview site gives you the opportunity to go in and try out the menu and see if you can find things,” Gilhuly told Global News. “We really want people to go in and have a look and tell us about the feel and how it works for them.”
For months now, a team has been working to develop the new site, including a steering committee of city staff and citizens. The cost is estimated at just over a million dollars, and it’s on budget. The project was started in 2012 with an audit of the city’s existing website, and plans were approved last year to go ahead with a new site.
Gilhuly said making the site user friendly is key.
“We’ve had a lot of really good citizen input,” he said. They are also planning some targeted testing with different groups to see if people are finding the site easy to use, and they are encouraging people to fill out the online survey after they check out the preview site.
Watch below: City of Saskatoon preview video of the new website
One big difference from the existing site is making it more accessible for mobile devices.
“One thing that the new website will be is accessible on mobile devices,” said Gilhuly. “The new website is really user friendly on mobile devices … we encourage people to go in and test it on their mobile devices.”
“There’s still lots to do,”said Gilhuly, “but it’s pretty exciting right now.”
The preview site will be up throughout December. They plan to launch the new site at the end of January.
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