Join us today, Monday Feb. 27, at Third Place coffee shop in Five Points. Chris Geyer will be there from 10a to 1p looking for eager volunteers to walk through some simple site usability tasks, provide some feedback on recent site releases and some new site layouts. It won't take up much of your time and it will provide us with good information to keep growing the site.
Can't make today but still interested? Chris will be frequenting other coffee shops around the downtown area in the coming weeks. Still won't work for you? Sign up to be a usability tester. We are always looking for people for usability testing and it can be done from the comfort of your own home or office via webex.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Our Look is Evolving
Our look has started to evolve, did you notice? We have started the process to slowly update the look and usability of the web. Some small changes have happened since the start of the year, but more noticeable changes are coming...starting next week.
You will see an updated feature image rotator on the main page which eliminates the thumbnail photos and streamlines the look. We are expanding the News and Events to the Government landing page. We have added print templates to make printing our pages easier.
The next set of changes will be header and footer changes that start to pave the way to the updated design. (You remember the design survey...you voted, right?) We will also be adding News and Events to the other landing pages as well.
We want you! The changes up to this point have been low impact as far as visual and data organization, but we do have changes coming that are high impact. We need you to help us test the new content with high impact. We want the opportunity to show you the new pages, see how you navigate them and provide valuable data for making them user friendly.
How? We have a couple ways to get this usability data. Starting later this month, Chris Geyer will be visiting coffee shops along Fayetteville Street and enlisting volunteers to preview new pages and test drive them. We will be calling on the usability volunteers that have gathered through our usability testing form. And, we will be hosting open meetings for anyone who wants to come, preview and test drive the pages. We will communicate all of these opportunities on the blog.
What can you expect to see and test? We have some exciting new pages for you...new main and landing pages; new parks pages which bring parks, playgrounds, community centers into one page; recreation programs and CAT bus route pages. All of which are some of our most highly accessed content.
Usability Testing Dates:
You will see an updated feature image rotator on the main page which eliminates the thumbnail photos and streamlines the look. We are expanding the News and Events to the Government landing page. We have added print templates to make printing our pages easier.
The next set of changes will be header and footer changes that start to pave the way to the updated design. (You remember the design survey...you voted, right?) We will also be adding News and Events to the other landing pages as well.
We want you! The changes up to this point have been low impact as far as visual and data organization, but we do have changes coming that are high impact. We need you to help us test the new content with high impact. We want the opportunity to show you the new pages, see how you navigate them and provide valuable data for making them user friendly.
How? We have a couple ways to get this usability data. Starting later this month, Chris Geyer will be visiting coffee shops along Fayetteville Street and enlisting volunteers to preview new pages and test drive them. We will be calling on the usability volunteers that have gathered through our usability testing form. And, we will be hosting open meetings for anyone who wants to come, preview and test drive the pages. We will communicate all of these opportunities on the blog.
What can you expect to see and test? We have some exciting new pages for you...new main and landing pages; new parks pages which bring parks, playgrounds, community centers into one page; recreation programs and CAT bus route pages. All of which are some of our most highly accessed content.
Usability Testing Dates:
- late February to March
- Main/Landing pages
- Park pages
- April to May
- Recreation pages
- CAT bus route pages
Friday, December 23, 2011
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:
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!
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!
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!
Monday, October 3, 2011
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.
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.
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