The Town of Penhold will be getting a new look website over the next few months.
During its Oct. 14 regular meeting council approved new ideas for web page improvements, and the development of budget and tender documents. Council voted unanimously to put the project over to administration for tender and budgeting.
“Three years ago we redesigned the existing website at a cost of $10,000,” said Mayor Dennis Cooper. “If we approve the concept, then we will essentially be throwing away our old design, which is getting more cluttered and difficult to navigate.”
Melissa Grant, website committee member at large, presented a three-click model layout for the town's website in response to frustrations she herself experienced looking for information.
“I wanted to build a deck and when I went to the Penhold site, it led me to a 72- page document instead of right to where I wanted to go, so I gave up,” said Grant. “If I gave up, and I am computer literate, what about members of the community or someone wanting to move to town.”
The committee looked at websites of other communities and found elements they liked and those they did not. The new proposed design includes the best of what the committee found.
“We liked a static image on the home page instead of a rotating series of pictures, some of which were outdated anyway,” said Grant. “That will decrease loading time for older computers and portable device users. Just like when I looked for building information, we will break down the bylaws and forms into task-related categories instead.”
She noted the top bar will read from left to right: Home, How Do I, Visitors, Res, Bus, and Government, with an up/down box to the right which will include categories named Event, Calendar, and Forms.
“For instance, with my deck I would go to How do I, and look for ‘build a deck', which would take me to the appropriate section of the bylaws and then to the forms,” said Grant of the more logical process. “It will take training for town staff to work with the site to keep it updated, but as it is now we have to send emails to the administrator to get them to do it for us. We should not have to.”
Cooper requested that the new website allow users to fill out forms online if possible to speed up user times.
“We have looked at forms and the technology to modify PDFs and the technical term is eService,” said Julie Dallaire, community services manager. “That would include town personnel changing the way they handle documents as well. It is a matter of training.”
Dallaire also noted the Town of Penhold owns the domain and website so authority to change the portal is not an issue.
“We had to make the new website easy to navigate and use,” said Coun. Mike Walsh. “The committee has done a good job to make it more user-friendly.”
