The city of Blaine has launched an updated website, which is intended to make key information more readily accessible for Blaine citizens.
The new website at cityofblaine.com went live on April 25. The city worked with its website provider CivicPlus to redesign the website after reviewing what information people tended to look for the most.
The goal is to make as much information available as possible right on the front page. “We’re trying to eliminate clicks,” said Jason Watson, information systems specialist with the city. “We’re eliminating time on the site to get to information.”
One of the biggest improvements is a more prominent search box on the home page, which allows visitors to search for what they are looking for. “A lot of times, when we go to a website, we lose that Google mentality,” said Watson. “When people come to the city website, we wanted to keep that mentality going.”
On the top left side of the home page, there are new links to the three most popular things that people search for: utility billing, municipal court and the police department.
The FAQs section is now more prominent, allowing people to easily find answers to their pressing questions.
Also, the website is now ADA-compliant. People who are visually impaired and use screen readers (software that reads aloud the text of a website) can more easily interact with the website compared to the previous version.
The website now includes a “Have a Suggestion?” link at the bottom of the home page, which allows visitors to email the city with any feedback they have regarding the website specifically.
The city’s logo is retained at the bottom of the home page, but for the top of the page, the city decided to incorporate a new graphic featuring the trawler and wave from city’s logo. “It’s not as cluttered and we’re able to make it bigger,” said Watson. “But the city logo certainly hasn’t changed.”
According to Watson, it has been a smooth transition to the new website. “It’s been one of the smoothest website transitions I’ve been involved with,” he said.
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