Agenda item

To receive a presentation on the new Leicester City Council website – www.leicester.gov.uk - which is scheduled to go live on 16 March 2015.

The Project Manager for the Corporate Website redevelopment project reminded the Commission that the content of the Council’s website had not been reviewed, but consideration had been given to how its structure could be improved.  The main change was that, having considered user feedback, the new website would be aligned to “top tasks”.

The Project Manager advised the Commission that the focus of the redevelopment project was to construct a new website that was more aligned to the user experience than to the Council’s structure.  Content therefore had then been built around this.  A particular focus of the new site would be on “top tasks”, which were those activities most frequently carried out by users of the website.

The Project Manager then gave a presentation to the Commission on the website, a copy of which is attached at the end of these minutes for information.  During the presentation, the new website was demonstrated.

Particular attention was drawn to the following points:-

·           The current website contained a lot of information that was out of date and it was not always clear which pages were current;

·           The beta test website had gone live on 20 October 2014.  The new website would go live on 16 March 2015;

·           Instead of aligning the new website to the Council’s departmental structure, it was aligned to tasks, (for example, paying a parking ticket);

·           The web design team did not create the content for the new website, but made sure that it was appropriate; and

·           In the future, Heads of Service would own the content of the website and would delegate responsibility for its maintenance downwards.  However, the quality and suitability of all pages would be assessed by the Digital Media team before they were published, to ensure adherence to the desired standards and consistency of style and approach.

The Commission welcomed the new design of the website and the control processes being put in place, but questioned whether planning applications would be subject to these controls, as this could create unacceptable delays to their publication on the website.

In reply, the Content Migration Manager explained that a small centralised content management team would assess proposed website content for day-to-day routine updates and new website developments, but this would not include planning applications.  In this way, there no longer would be many people in the Council doing a small amount of updating, although it was recognised that over time this could be devolved again to some extent.

The Commission also queried whether information on the website relating to complaints had been clarified.  The Project Manager confirmed that information on how to make a complaint would be included on the home page of the new website, under “Report it”.  Members noted that the Council’s Standards Committee had considered a new approach to complaints, which that Committee felt was an improvement on the old one.

It was noted that the on-going effectiveness of the website would be monitored through continuing evaluation of performance metrics and statistics to improve the site for users.  It also was hoped that user testing could be undertaken on at least one day per month, when officers would sit with users and discuss the users’ experience of the website.  Feedback obtained in this way would then be used to help improve the website.

The following points were then made in discussion:-

o    The visual impact of the Council’s website was important, so the impact of the new one was welcomed;

o    The new website not live yet, so it was difficult to say how effective it would be;

o    When users had engaged with officers, feedback on the new website had been good;

o    The main focus of the design of the website needed to be customer requirements and business objectives;

o    The new website included links to social media; and

o    The accessibility of the new website was graded as triple A.  (For example, the font size could be changed, rather than having to expand a page.)

The Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance advised the Commission that the Corporate Management Board had considered that the current website was not fit for purpose and recognised the corporate benefit of having a website that was fit for purpose and on which people were able to do as many things as possible.  Service areas therefore were happy to meet the cost of the Content Migration team, as it was cheaper to action things through the website than over the counter.