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Oak Park unveils new branding and revamped city website
Summary
Communications director Britney Toff previewed a refreshed Oak Park brand and Tim Durer demonstrated a redesigned, ADA-aware city website that centralizes forms, event listings and an automated YouTube feed. Officials said the legacy city seal will remain in formal uses while a new digital logo and an OP monogram will be used online.
Oak Park’s communications director previewed a new digital logo and an expanded branding package at the July 6 City Council meeting, saying the changes are intended to add options for online and small-format uses while retaining the city’s existing official seal.
“We rolled out the new monogram, via Facebook last week without enough context because we were just working a little too quickly after a long busy week, and it led to a lot of questions from some of our residents online,” Communications Director Britney Toff said, explaining the decision to bring the council up to date. Toff added the city seal and the longtime leaf logo will remain “a permanent fixture” for formal and regulatory uses.
Tim Durer, who led a live tour of the redesigned website, said the site represents a complete overhaul of look and function intended to reduce clicks and make services easier to find. “What we have now is a complete overhaul of the look, functionality, and end user focus,” he said, pointing to consolidated forms, an events hub and analytics-driven action buttons designed to surface the most-used services in two or three clicks.
Durer said the site includes an accessibility button that allows users to customize font size and display options and that Oak Park is ahead of state ADA deadlines. He told residents the address remains www.parkmi.gov and urged anyone with old bookmarks to delete them because interior page URLs have changed.
Council members praised the design’s usability during questions. Council member Stephanie Crawford said the five top-level headings make it easier for nontechnical users to find the services they need. Officials asked staff to publicize how residents can send feedback; Durer said a white envelope icon at the top of the site links to an email form that will route messages to the web team.
The city said it will monitor analytics and adjust action buttons and navigation based on usage. The website also includes an automated YouTube feed to centralize council meeting videos, a citywide calendar with filters for boards and commissions, and a dedicated page for licenses and permits.
