Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Digital Government topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Milwaukie council previews new city website with improved search, accessibility and newsletter tools
Summary
Communications staff showed a near-final version of the city's redesigned website, to launch July 23. The vendor Revise was chosen after an RFP; the first-year cost is about $30,000 and recurring hosting about $6,750 per year.
Jordan Imlaw, the city's communications program manager, showed council a near-final version of Milwaukie's redesigned website and told members the city plans a public launch on July 23.
Imlaw said the current platform is obsolete and staff selected Revise through an RFP process. The first-year cost for the new site is just under $30,000; recurring hosting and maintenance will cost about $6,750 per year after that. The 2017 site refresh cost about $40,000, Imlaw said.
Why it matters: the website is the primary public-facing channel for city services, agendas and public notices. Staff told council the new platform will make city content easier to find, meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA, provide on-site translation into common languages, and offer a built-in newsletter tool so departments can produce richer email communications.
Imlaw described several user-facing features: a Google-style search to replace the site's poorly performing internal search; a more visual calendar that tags city meetings, library events and community events separately; an accessibility widget that saves user preferences; and an easier document and media upload interface for staff. He said the site will allow video on the homepage, provide an upgraded news/projects area and make it simpler for staff to update pages without submitting service tickets.
Staff said two content managers and several departmental contributors have already been trained; the old website will remain available for two months after the switchover so nothing is lost during migration. Imlaw also said the migration team is doing quality assurance to fix broken links and template mismatches that surfaced during content transfer.
Council and staff asked about translation accuracy, library calendar volume, and how the city's Engage Milwaukee civic-engagement platform will connect to the new site. Imlaw said his team previewed the new pages with the city's Equity Steering Committee and with department users, and that Revise offers a translation and accessibility widget as part of the package. He said Engage Milwaukee will remain a separate tool under the city's existing contract but staff will investigate tighter integration in future.
Ending: staff said they will begin using the site's newsletter function and further tune department pages after launch. The city will issue a public announcement when the new site goes live on the same URL.
