By Gary Mays
gmays@themonroetimes.com
MONROE — Hoping to improve the way citizens interact with their city government, Monroe officials are eying a website redo, the first such effort in five years.
One major change from the effort is likely to be that it may be easier to navigate on phones, officials said.
According to City Administrator Brittney Rindy, addressing the issue at the Finance and Taxation Committee meeting on Aug. 26, the existing site — with its bold logos, fly-around splash images and pull-down menus — was built and rolled out more than five years ago by the national company, Revize.
Revize, founded in 1995, has 3,000 governmental clients and bills itself in promotional materials as the “Government Website Expert.”
Its clients include cities large and small — including Des Moines, Iowa, Machesney Park, Ill., Arlington Heights Ill. and Arcadia, Calif.
Revize has submitted a proposal to continue their contract for cityofmonroe.org with another 5-year subscription at the continued rate of $4,950 annually. The staff is also recommending an update to incorporate curated searching for a onetime fee of $1,750.
“I’m not an expert in that realm, so I would welcome your input,” Rindy told the committee, adding that the contract does not rise to the threshold financially to require advanced common council approval. “Obviously a lot has changed with technology over five years.”
Among the ideas from officials, was to further optimize the city site for use on phone screens.
“The website needs to be optimized for mobile” use, said Ald. Mary Jane Grenzow.
In addition, city staff are “looking to incorporate improved search options and location, quick links and page links,” according to Rindy.
Indeed, central to the site refresh, Rindy added, will be a more robust, functional, and prominent search tool to get users to the city services they seek more quickly. She called it a “curated search” function.
“We want the search to be more direct and open,” she said.
Other suggestions included more updated photographs and graphics, detailed descriptions of Monroe and its services; and quick links to popular areas.
There is no timeline yet in place for the refresh effort, but officials said they will be gathering input from as many stakeholders as possible before rolling out anything new.