The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
City’s website getting upgrades
The city of Avon Lake is in the process of updating its city website to improve the user experience.
In a June 8 work session, Barb Cagley, director of Avon Lake’s digital media department, said the new website is focused on enhancing navigation and visibility along with highlighting community events and services for residents.
Cagley said 95 percent of the content will be directly visible on the homepage at avonlake.org and the city will work to integrate its social media and video components to make the experience more interactive.
Residents will see a face-lift to the community calendar, which Cagley said was the core highlight.
“We have a lot going on in the city, so we want to make it present so people can see what’s going on and maybe increase participation or involvement in the city,” she said.
Residents also can look forward to detailed ward maps and information on city parks and their respective amenities with a more organized layout and easier to find.
Cagley said the digital media department is ready to go in making the changes and residents can look forwarded to an upgraded website in the near future.
Ward 1 Councilwoman Billie Jo David, chair of Council’s Natural Resources, Environmental and Public Media committee, said the upgrades will make a difference.
“This is just going to be a lot more user friendly because the users are going to have to click a lot less to find what they want,” David said. “Typically, users come in and it’s hard to find something and they’ll bounce off a page pretty quickly.”
The site is more Americans with Disabilities Actfriendly, with an accessibility menu located on the main page, she said.
The site has the capability to read out content orally and change font sizes and brightness to assist individuals with hearing or sight difficulties, David said.
“How we’re going to be able to use this in the future, is really link it to our social media strategy and have the answers and the videos that people want to hear on our hub, which is our website,” she said. “And then when we post on social media, we’ll be able to bring them back to our hub.
“And in doing so, they might click on three other features or find an event they want to do. So, it’s a lot more integrated and a lot of work over the last two years that went into it to make it that way.”
Council members are previewing the changes and adding feedback as the city continues the review process.