City favours search style over drilling down through endless menus
Log on to the City of Calgary’s new website and you won’t see the usual text-heavy, drill-down-the-tree-to-the-roots site favored by most governments.
The new $3.2 million website launched Monday is built around a Google search application and utilizes keywords that allow users to quickly access city information and programs, said David Watson, general manager, planning, development and assessment, and project sponsor.
“You just type in keywords the way you do in Google” to access everything from interactive maps to pet licences to tax assessment information, he said.
The city had long wanted to modernize the design of the website it first launched in 2002, so it convened focus groups to find out what Calgarians wanted in a new version.
Sixty per cent of group participants wanted a more convenient way to contact the city, while 40% wanted online access to services like licensing and bill paying.
With the help of Ottawa-based Infusion, which also has offices in Calgary, the city redesigned the site using Google and Microsoft Share Point. Watson said the new site is “a major re-visioning” rather than a simple upgrade, and is state-of-the art, fast and user-friendly.
“It looks good, it feels good and it’s something we can build on,” he said, adding the city’s plan is to increase its e-services for everything from permitting to licenses.
Google was sufficiently impressed with the final result to invite Watson to write about it on its Google Enterprise blog.
The new website uses Google’s Double Click technology to support advertising on the right hand side of every page. So far, ads are limited to internal marketing, explained Lexie Bexson, communications advisor, web leadership and renewal program.
“We had banner ads on the front page only of the old site, but 55% of our users never saw them because they accessed content pages directly via a search engine. Now people actually see the ads.”
For now, said Bexson, there are no plans to open the website to commercial advertising. “However, the functionality is there should we ever decide to go that way.” Bexson said the city may consider expanding access to advertising space to city partners like the Calgary Zoo and Heritage Park. Tourism Calgary is already talking to the city about leveraging the new website.
