The renovation of the Marsac Building is not City Hall’s only makeover of 2009.
The municipal government on Monday unveiled its new look on the Internet with a redesigned Web site meant to make navigating through the numerous sections of the site easier for people searching for information about City Hall.
The Web site, www.parkcity.org, approximately six years old in its current form, had not been changed substantially in that period until the redesign that was unveiled early in the week.
“It’s better designed and organized. People can find things easier,” said Tom Johnson, who is with Vision Internet, the Santa Monica, Calif., firm tapped by City Hall to redesign the Web site.
He said the redone Web site has a “beautiful design” and many more features than the old one, including links to translate the site, an interactive map and a dynamic calendar.
Johnson said the site will provide online forms as well, such as for people who are registering their bicycles, skis or snowboards with the Police Department and for people who want to lodge a complaint about taxi service.
City Hall staffers will probably update the site more frequently with a new system to manage the content on the site, Johnson said.
Park City hired the California firm in a $36,729 deal inked in the spring. Vision Internet specializes in local-level government Web sites, designing more than 200 of them.
Meanwhile, the site will be optimized so people browsing the Internet will more easily be guided to the City Hall site. Optimizing the chances of a site being listed high in search engines is a desire of Web operators across industries.
“When you do a Google search, you’ll find more,” Johnson said.
Scott Robertson, who is Park City’s information technology director and closely monitors the Web site, said City Hall and the California firm have “done our best” to create a “very user-friendly environment” accented by graphics.
The redesigned Web site was shown to some City Hall staffers, Park City Councilors and members of the Leadership Park City training class, Robertson said, reporting that the feedback was “very positive” even as a few people shown the new site were not as impressed.
Some of the functions Robertson is pleased with are available now or will be available shortly include:
a ‘document central’ section where City Hall staff reports, development rules and municipal ordinances will be posted.
an e-mail notification system that will send to subscribers meeting agendas and staff reports. Robertson said he expects there will be “quite a few” subscribers to the notification system.
an e-mail emergency notification system that will send messages to subscribers if City Hall needs to quickly disseminate information.
The front page of the site rotates through a series of images of the Park City area, with the photos being more prominent than those that graced the front page of the site before the upgrade.
In the days immediately before the new design was unveiled, the front page of the City Hall Web site had been advertising the Monday changeover. Beforehand, the front page of the site prominently featured a ski-lift scene, a graphic touting the 125th anniversary of Park City’s incorporation earlier in 2009 and a link to the Save Our Snow environmental program.
Officials have said popular pages on the City Hall site prior to it being redesigned included those of the transit system, the Park City Ice Arena and the Human Resources Department. The Park City Golf Club, the Racquet Club and the Police Department receive lots of online traffic as well, officials have said.