Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

As we close out 2011, we wanted to highlight some of the work we have been doing in the last quarter and announce some of the new items coming in 2012.

Iconography, Know before you Click - We added PDF, word, email, etc icons to our links. The icons are a simple way to let you know what to expect from the link. No more, surprise, you downloaded a word doc!

New News, Plus Events - Yes, new news is a little redundant, but not when you have reformatted the look of the news. The news items have a standard format, embedded map and better RSS descriptions. Events shortly followed the news. With its day calendar look, you can quickly see what's ahead. Parks and Recreation has started adding their news and high-level events to the Arts and Parks landing page.


I Want To...have Categories - The 'I Want To' lists with the same headings across all the landing pages left people wondering if the list ever changed. Only people familiar with identical twins can ever tell them apart, so we went with fraternal twins. Each left navigation list has unique categories that align with the landing page. We hope the categories stand out from page to page.

Do My Eyes Deceive Me? - You are not getting younger and your eyesight isn't improving...we changed fonts and sizes. The move to the Verdana font and increasing the font size is the first step in a series of design changes. If you are really attune, you may even notice that the center column font is slightly larger than the left and right columns.


Design changes...?
Yes, we are updating the look of the site.
But you just...?
Yes, while the new site just celebrated one year, the actual design was older than that. And as we all know, design trends can date a person, which is why we should periodically clean out our clothes closets!
I just got use to...?
Yes, you have become familiar with the current look. We are going to gradually introduce the new design. The new design will give us more space for the content you want to read.
Oh yes...the mood boards!
You remember the four design mood boards. Do you remember the one you liked? There was one that stood out among the rest and it served as the basis for the new design.

2012, Happy New Year

The font change is the first of a series of changes. In early 2012, you will start to see the header area change as follows:

• no more flash movement
• gets taller
• gets more functionality (search, weather, text size move in)
• accolades will relocate above a revised footer

Late January 2012, the new header will move into place with additional functionality (calendar, maps, directory) in place. The color scheme will change as the new header appears. Moving functional elements into the header will open up valuable real estate on the page.

As the year continues, other landing pages will start to have news and events emerge on them, and then we will cut over to the new look for the main and landing pages. Scrolling images, news, events, more navigation links, departments and service links are coming with the new layouts.

We will also be rolling out new layouts for recreation programs and park pages based on usability testing and staff design sessions. We will have opportunities in the new year to see the new layouts and to assist with usability testing before the final pages are displayed on the site. We are always looking for citizens to help with usability tests, so if you are interested, just sign up!

Service Information Made Easy

When is my new recycling bin coming?
What city council district am I in?
What day is my trash being picked up?

These are questions Raleigh residents ask everyday. Previously, we directed residents to the City's iMaps application to get these answers, but for some users, the iMaps interface has too much data and information. It was overkill for basic questions. Building upon the same GIS data, we have released a non-map way to find City service information.

Residents can now use the 'Find My Service' button on the City Services or Neighbors pages to get information about council districts, recycling, garbage, CACs, voting districts and more.

Citizen Collaboration

It has been about a year since the City of Raleigh launched their redesigned website. While the redesign made improvements upon the previous site, it was not without its share of flaws. The team here has been working hard to add various changes since the launch with limited citizen input.

My name is Chris Geyer and I recently relocated to Raleigh to become an Experience Designer for the City, with the goal of enhancing the experience on the raleighnc.gov website. I want to let all of you know how we are planning to change the site for the better and that we want to invite you along for the ride. From now on, we plan on listening to citizen feedback during the design process. This represents a change in culture for the city that will only work if citizen involvement can educate employees about why this is a better approach.

So take a good look at the current site as it is, because it won’t be staying that way for long. I am bringing a change in perspective, innovative processes and above all passion for creating the best experiences for citizens to the City of Raleigh. We have a small team that manages the website, so don’t expect a huge change right away. Our goal is to treat the site as a living thing, changing and updating things slightly over time. Hopefully this will start to change the public perception of local government here in Raleigh, by listening to our citizens to ensure your experience on the web is a great one.

How are we going to accomplish all of this? Well, we have a long journey ahead of us, and while some things are already underway, the best way this can work is if we get citizens like you involved. We have already heard from a small number of you through our recent website survey that was up in June. While designing new pages for Parks & Rec, we have done some usability testing with a small group of citizens. These usability testing sessions allow us to hear what isn’t working on the current site, identify missing information and learn about how citizens want to find the information they are looking for. We plan to implement a feedback system in place on the website. We are going to interact with groups like CityCamp Raleigh to hear what you have to say and turn the tide against current elements on the site which don’t work.

To me design is about solving problems, and to do that to the best of my ability, I prefer collaboration so ideas can thrive and solutions can be much better for it. I am not some designer here to save the day. I am just someone who gets that working together can produce a much better result versus the traditional way of going at it alone.

So what we are doing is starting a call to arms, if you are a citizen in Raleigh and want to get involved in changing raleighnc.gov please let us know. You can volunteer for usability testing, so that we can understand what you need and are looking for on the web. Don’t be shy and feel free to drop me a line, by email or through twitter. I look forward to sharing more of the new directions we are heading in when the time comes and cultivating a relationship with as many of our citizens as I can.

The first step in the new open process being championed by the City is to meet up with citizens at the next CityCamp Raleigh group meeting this Wednesday night 6:30pm at Cafe Cattura in Cameron Village. Come join us and see what we have been working on and give us feedback. 

Embedding GIS

The Web and GIS teams have been working together to bring GIS to the web portal. Many of you have probably been using iMAPS, but now GIS is reaching deeper into the web.
The community center pages for Parks and Recreation now have the facility map embedded so that users can get an overall vicinity map of the area. The maps also contain zoom in and out buttons so that you can zoom out to see a more regional view or zoom in to see more park details such as buildings, fields and trails. More embedded maps will be coming to other content soon.
Did you know the portal has its own light weight version of iMAPS? It doesn't contain all the in-depth tax data as iMAPS, but it does show users the City attractions around an address (museums, parks, government offices, fire stations, police districts, etc) and lists the City services for an address (waste collection, recycling, CAC, council district, etc). Look for a non-mapping version of the City service information coming to the Neighbors and City Services landing pages soon.