The city of Toronto’s local government maintains a comprehensive website known as Toronto.ca. It offers a tremendous amount of information on many different subjects. A few examples include the municipal budget, road closures, and energy efficiency grants. Among other things, residents can use the website to contact city officials or apply for parking permits. However, some people find it difficult to locate and access certain material on Toronto.ca. Officials have responded by initiating the Web Revitalization Project.
What is it?
The main goal of this endeavor is to enhance the design and functionality of the city website. One way to accomplish this is to develop a better navigation structure. Programmers also intend to redesign the search feature so that it returns more accurate results. They plan to make the website fully accessible on many different computing devices as well. It was originally created for notebook and desktop PCs, but about one-third of its traffic now comes from smartphones, tablets and similar machines.
Feedback
Many organizations make the mistake of redesigning their websites without learning about users’ needs and preferences. This can result in new designs that are actually less popular than their predecessors. Toronto’s government is taking a different approach by emphasizing the importance of feedback from local residents. The Web Revitalization Project information page includes a phone number and an email address that users can contact when they want to make suggestions.
Advisors
As part of this redesign project, the city is giving people an opportunity to join its Digital Citizen Advisor program. Participants will take part in focus groups, consultations, interviews and surveys. Some of this communication will occur online, but citizen advisors will also be invited to provide feedback in person. If they decide to leave the program, members can easily unsubscribe via email at any time.
Locals who want to sign up as digital citizen advisors can do so by completing a short registration form on the city website. It only asks for an email address, first name, age group, and a few other details. No phone number or mailing address is needed. The form also requests very basic information on the type of Internet device that a person prefers to use, such as a desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone.
Basically, the Web Revitalization Project is a major effort to improve Toronto so that people can use it more easily. It highlights the city government’s commitment to provide detailed local information on the Web and enable residents to request various services online. The city is working to make this process as effective and efficient as possible by collecting extensive user feedback.