Village’s new website to debut Monday

Residents logging on to wellingtonfl.gov next week will be met with a bold, new look.

The village website underwent an extensive overhaul this year, and the result — which debuts Monday — is a more user-friendly and intuitive site that should help residents and business owners find information they’re looking for more easily.

“We’ve heard residents’ complaints,” said Sue Yap, the village’s Web and social media manager. “Hopefully, we’ve made everyone happy.”

The Palm Beach Post got a sneak preview of the new design this week in advance of its debut, and frequent visitors of the website should expect to see a huge improvement.

The blue-and-gray look is replaced by a more modern, gold-

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and-green theme, in keeping with the village logo.

The simpler layout is also easier on the eyes and much easier to use.

“With the website now, nobody knows what to click on,” Yap said. “This way, everything is grouped together more logically.”

Information that visitors are most looking for — community events, upcoming meetings and recent news — is displayed more prominently on the homepage, and the menus are less bulky.

The design also is mobile-friendly, which will be a noticeable improvement for residents trying to navigate the website from a smartphone or tablet device. About half of the village’s website traffic comes from mobile devices, Yap said.

Other upgrades to the redesigned site include a better, faster way to display emergency notices, an improved search function and a new feedback option for residents to report problems they spot on the website.

Wellington’s website was last redesigned more than four years ago, Yap said. The Village Council approved a contract last year to spend about $40,000 for the work.

Aside from modernizing its outdated look, Yap said the website needed to be upgraded technology-wise to accommodate new versions of popular browsers, such as Internet Explorer.

As users upgrade to the newer browsers, portions of Wellington’s old website would have stopped working for them, she said.