To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
Through: David L. Corliss, Town Manager
From: Kristin Read, Assistant Town Manager
Melissa Hoelting, Communications Manager
Title
Update: Town Website Redesign
Body
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Executive Summary
The overall appearance of the Town’s main website, CRgov.com, last was updated over seven years ago, in fall 2015.
Since that time, a tipping point has occurred, and more people now access the website using a smartphone than using a computer. This fact, combined with impending accessibility requirements under State law (on which staff has briefed Council under separate cover), makes now a prudent time to refresh the site’s appearance and functionality.
For nearly a year, staff across Town departments have been working to refine and update the site’s content in anticipation of its relaunch. These efforts will culminate later this month, when the redesigned website is set to go live.
The importance of these efforts can be underscored with some statistics: CRgov.com had more than 1.1 million visits in 2022, an average of nearly 96,000 per month, and the highest visitation the site has ever logged. By comparison, the site was seeing 50,000 visits monthly on average at the time of its last redesign in 2015.
In addition to improving the site’s accessibility and appearance - including with unique looks for and better access to sections for individual Town departments - other goals of the redesign were to improve the site’s navigation and search function to make the wealth of information it contains easier to find. The updated design also will be responsive across a range of devices and device sizes, further improving users’ experiences.
At tonight’s meeting, staff will provide Council a preview of the redesigned website. Staff welcomes any feedback Council has and will be continually working to improve the site after it goes live.