Description
When the City of Victoria came to us in May 2001, they felt that the their website's dated look and cumbersome navigation required a redesign that would represent the City more appropriately. They still needed the site to communicate a large body of information to a wide variety of constituents and stakeholders, but they no longer wanted to give up visual appeal to do so.
Our goal at Atomic Crayon was to migrate this content into a new, improved navigation structure while also adding new content from a variety of other sources. In order to get this project completed with maximum efficiency, we partnered our efforts with the City's own website committee. Together we established our criteria for success and documented clear pathways for achievement. At Atomic Crayon, we produced new navigation models and layout concepts that were well received by the committee, and the project proceeded quickly to its intended goal.
Our team developed a hierarchical navigation system that directly targets information to four identified user groups: Residents, Business, City Hall, and Visitors. While there is significant overlap between the sections, changes to redundant information has been simplified through the use of a document management system. This means a change is now only required to a single document to effect change throughout the web site. We have made updating the site quick, easy and mercilessly efficient.
To further increase productivity, a customized content management system was developed that enables City staff to add, delete, modify sections of the web site themselves. These include: Job Postings; Council Minutes and Agendas; Tenders; What's New; Streetfax; and more. All these changes can be made through a web browser, making updating the site both simple and global. Comprehensive training was also provided to staff members over a two-day session to demonstrate how to effectively use the management system.
The City was extremely pleased with our final product and due to the success of that project we have an ongoing relationship to update their website and advise them on new web technologies.
