HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 246-09TO: HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: CITY MANAGER
DATE: May 18, 2009
REPORT TYPE: Reports of Officials
DEPARTMENT: ADMINISTRATIVE
SERVICES
CMR: 246:09
SUBJECT: Direction to Implement Recommendations of the Website Advisory
Committee
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As part of the City's ongoing commitment to improve the City website, staff has enlisted a group
of community volunteers to serve on the Website Advisory Committee with the goal of
producing a set of recommendations to address concerns raised by citizens and enhance the
overall website user-experience. The Website Advisory Committee, comprised of a select group
of dedicated community volunteers, has met regularly during the past four months to develop a
list of approximately 70 recommended items to improve the current City of Palo Alto website.
The recommendations focus on creating a more user-friendly and interactive site that is
compatible with rapidly changing technologies, such as Web 2.0 and mobile surfing. Some of the
suggested fixes can be addressed in the short-term, while others are longer-term solutions and
enhancements that require further analysis and additional resources to accomplish. The
recommendations encompass (but are not limited to) adding valuable content that citizens
frequently look for, as well as:
• providing information on schools, health organizations and facilities, and volunteer
opportunities
• modifying the design to include greater background/text contrast and larger fonts to
improve readability
• reorganizing information for better search-ability and easier access to content
Several members of the Committee have expressed a willingness to provide voluntary services to
take immediate action on the recommended changes. Some efforts have already begun and
changes have been implemented. For example, the City switched from WebTrends to the free
Google Analytics tool for analysis of website metrics. This will save the City $5,000 annually.
The collaboration between staff and the Website Advisory Committee has been an example of
effective civic engagement.
CMR:246:09 Page 1 of5
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the Council direct staff to work with members of the Website Advisory
Committee to implement the recommendations in bucket one and to develop a plan for
addressing the recommendations listed in buckets two and three.
BACKGROUND
The City of Palo Alto launched its new website in 2007 with all new features, structure and
design. Concerns were voiced by community members on the search capability and user-
friendliness of the new site. As part of its ongoing effort to enhance the City of Palo Alto
website and meet the Council's civic engagement priority, the City enlisted a Website Advisory
Committee, comprised of community volunteers, to provide recommendations to the Council on
how to improve the City website.
Since the October 29, 2009 initial meeting with potential committee members, the committee
membership (see Attachment B) has been finalized and 20 hours of general meetings have been
held since December. In addition to general committee meetings, subsets of the group have met
to discuss and prepare recommendations within specific categories. These subcommittees are as
follows:
• Design -The subcommittee reviewed the website from a graphic design and layout
perspective.
• Content -The subcommittee reviewed the relevance and substance of information
provided to users of the website.
• Information Architecture -The subcommittee evaluated the structure, organization and
search functionality ofthe information on the server.
• Developer Coding & Technology -The subcommittee assessed the use of technology on
the website.
• Marketing & Analytics -The subcommittee considered the website's user statistics and
future roadmap.
The Committee has met with Civica, the web development contractor, to discuss the structure of
the current website and to understand how the Committee's priorities and changes would need to
be incorporated into a work plan.
The entire Committee also reviewed the beta version of the upcoming utility customer billing
website whi~h is part of the new utilities SAP system. Specific suggestions from the Committee,
where possible, have been incorporated into the beta version that will be launched to the public
in June.
DISCUSSION
The City of Palo Alto is committed to continuing improvements to its Internet presence as a vital
source of information for those within the community, as well as the face of Palo Alto for
everyone. The Website Advisory Committee has been meeting over the past four months both to
evaluate the current City website and to evaluate potential solutions to user complaints and to
envision ways to further enhance the capabilities of the website to meet the needs of the
community.
CMR:246:09 Page 2 of 5
The team has developed a set of recommended priontJes. The recommendations have been
prioritized into three "buckets" and a "parking lot"-user feedback as well as existing web traffic
data has been taken into consideration in categorizing the recommendations.
The first bucket of recommendations contains high visibility, short-term items that can be
addressed by staff, volunteers, or are within the scope of the current Civica contract (which does
not require undergoing a new bidding process or contract revisions). These items add enhanced
functionality to the website and improve the user experience. Staff expects to accomplish the
recommendations in bucket one within three months with the assistance of members of the
website committee. A condensed list of the bucket one recommendations is shown in the table
below. The full list of recommendations and current status is provided in Attachment A.
Item
Number Area Addressed Recommendation Description Comments/Status
Need for a planning tool to map Initiated phase one with the website
I Release Roadmap out phases for long-term web committee plan; future phases will be
development addressed in the IT Strategic Plan
2 Launch Plan Need process for moving from Initiated an incremental process for revising
development to production the website; launch to be considered
Information is too hard to find; I) The committee will provide a site map
3 IndeX/Site Map need an enhanced index and design for 4-column layout; 2) automating
Pages site map the new site map may become a bucket 2
item, since Civica will need to be involved
Elevate top viewed pages to
home page especially those in Will be addressed with additional input from 4 Links Elevation "departments" and change to the website committee drop down menu on home
page.
Search Box in Missing sophisticated search Initiated. Search within search capability
5 added; additional modifications will be Banner capability discussed with the website committee.
Color and Low color contrast between the Final decision needed, but most likely the
6 Contrast text and the background makes direction will be to have black text on a
it difficult to read white background.
7 Font Size Font size is too small Final decision needed on specific font sizes,
but the goal is to increase font sizes
e-Government Initiated. Utilities online bill pay added in
tools (making Expand opportunities to create May. Additional changes are needed to
g payments online, online access to services and enhance the organization of online options
filing police facilitate transactions on the page. The IT Strategic Plan will
reports online, layout a plan for additional e-Government
etc.) tools.
Education Missing information on Initiated. Additional work w/Committee 9 Information schools, university, other needed. educational institutions
Health
10 organizations and Missing information on health Initiated. Additional work w/Committee
facilities organizations and facilities needed
information
CMR: 246:09 Page 3 of5
Volunteer Potential opportunity to list Initiated. Additional work wlCommit!ec II laformation ongoing volunteer opportunities needed in Palo Alto
Phone directory on homepage Initiated. Phone directory link is on the
12 Contact List and contact us home page and the link will be added to the
contact us page
13 Council Page Streamline access to bios with To be completed. direct link from pictures
The second bucket of recommendations, while important, requires further analysis and
discussion thereby necessitating more time to design and implement than the first group of
pnontles. These include non-governmental content (e.g., entertainment, business, K-12
activities, organizations); nomenclature of uploaded documents; further data clean-up and
standardization; enhancing the use of user statistics; and improving layout and aesthetics.
The third bucket contains items that require more time or logically occur after other workflow
items; these create additional functionality such as Wcb 2.0 capabilities and better site tracking.
Some of these issues are tied to user feedback and data analysis, but are mentioned less
frequently and have less impact than some of the other items in the first two groups. These items
could incur further costs and resources.
The parking lot is a list of improvements that has less visible impact on the local community, but
would be beneficial in cleaning up data, tracking more detailed usage patterns on the website,
and reaching out to the extended web community.
Staff expects to rcturn to the City Cotmcil in the fall or earlier with a timeline and plan for
addressing items contained in bucket two and three as well as with an update on the
implementation of bucket 1 recommendations.
RESOURCE IMP ACT
Many of the recommendations for improving the website can be accomplished with current
resources. These items are in bucket one. Other recommendations contained in buckets two and
three may require funding commitments. As part of the Information Technology Strategic Plan,
due in 2009-10, staff will identify needed funding for website improvements along with other
City technology initiatives.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
The recommendations included in this report will be incorporated into the upcoming information
technology strategic plan that is planned to be presented to Council in 2009-10.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This is not considered a project under California Public Resources Code Section 21065
(California Environmental Quality Act).
CMR:246:09 Page 4 of5
PREPARED BY: 'D ~frD RA~;R7i LILA YOUN
Assistant Director,
Administrative Services
Management Fellow
DEPARTMENT HEAD:
LALOPEREZ
Direetor, Administrative Services
CITY MANAGER APPROVAL: -::-;-:-;:::::-::::tl::-=---F
ATTACHMENT
Attachment A: Website Advisory Committee Recommendations, Full List
Attachment B: Website Advisory Committee Members
CMR:246:09 Page 5 of5
Bucket
I"" •
I' .. '.
'.,
Item
Number Area Addressed
I Roadmap
Attachment A
Website Advisory Committee
Full List of Recommendations
Recommendation
N_eed for a planning tool to map out
phases for long-term web development
!Initiated phase one with the website
committee plan; future phases will
be addressed in the IT Strategic
1-::·"', -,' )-"' •. :,-·i'~: Initiated an incremental process for
";'\/ I ~. ,~~h "1"" .... process for moving from
Plan
Sub·Commlttee
Marketing & Analytics
Marketing & Analytics 2 LClUI 11..01 I Plan 1."le"v"e"lopmenl revising the website; launch to be
-.--;':' ,'" ",-1\ -, to produclion considered Iy;','r-----+---------+----------------~------------~----------~ I-,-::>~/:--·-<,: 1) The committee will provide a site
"., 3 Iin,de)USlite Map Pages "'~""<>"~'_' S 00 ar 0 In ; nee an automating the new site map may "".: 'erlhaneo,d index and site map Design
1
1;/,%.".::'.".,/.:,. I t h d t fi d d map design for 4·column layout; 2)
:'~:_,::_:<: I' become a bucket 2 item, since 1~"F,:;",:(:;,:;;,i;j:'~'1:r--~~--~~=====-----~~~~::~~~~~~~11~CiV~lca'W~i:lI:ne:e:d:tO~b:e:in~V:OI:ve:d::~r-~====~====~1 ::::~-'::)' I ~ .~o~. viewed pages to home page
4 I those In "departments" and 1\A11i1 be addressed wllh additional Links elevation "h~nn<> I;' I:v~,',~, Marketing & Analytics """""t:!";; IV drop down menu on home 11"1"' ..... from the website committee
page.
:'.\:."i I Initiated. Search within search
':i{:'V' 5 Search Box In Banner '''oo'nn hi tl t d h b'l·t i '. ddded; additional ,m",,,,, '::I sop s ca e searc capa II y ~ wlli be discussed wilh Design
Ithe website i
<?; I nw Final decision needed, bul most ;~11ilif _____ 6 ____ -+C __ 01_0_r_an_d __ c_0_nt_ra_s_t __ ~_~ __ -'.:_C_o_lo_r_c_on_t_ra_s_t_b_en. __ e_e_n_t_he __ te_x_t_an_d __ +.11I~lk~eIIY_'t~he~d~lre_c_t_lo_n~w_I~II_be __ to __ ha~v~e __ ~ ________ D_eS_I_gn ______ ~ " the background makes It difficult to read Iblack text. on a white background,
1~lnal decision needed on specific
7 Font Size Font size Is too small Ifont sizes with the goal 10 increase Design
:)/}W:\?!;:i.'; Ifont sizes overall.
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
tools
I (m.aklng" lonlin~:fil'~~ police
Ireports online, etc.)
Education information
I Health I
I and facilities
Ivolunlteer Information
I Co,ntact List
Icouncil Page
""""0'" Order
IVISltors
Expand opportunities to create online
access to services and facilitate
Missing information on schools,
university, other educational institutions
Missing information on health
organizations and facilities
~' ""iol "ee' '"' ":1 to list ongoing
"', , In Palo Alto
Phone directory on homepage and
Icontact us
""I.,eu, Utilities online bill pay
added i May. Additional changes
are needed to enhance the
10r!lanlzatll, >n of online options on the.
~~~e.~ The IT StrategiC Plan will
~YOUI a plan for additional e-
IGo,vernmel""tt ,ools,
nlti,,"". Additional work
WI" needed.
InlUolorl Additional work
IW/(~Onnmllttee needed.
' ... , i work·
i' ,needed
I Phone directory link is on
the page and the link wilt be
added to the contact us page
. .. . . i Phone directory link Is on Strea~lltne access to biOS With direct link the home page and the link will be
Ifrom PIC ures added to the contact us page
I i t':~~~I~~: Ilogically To be completed
IMissl~g i':events e:c~n Need to be 'v, e"liv,
IAdd link from visitors section to the new To be completed
~ ....... i, ""'"v' Palo Alto Visitor's Guide"
.
Developer Coding &
Technology.
Content
Content
Content
Full Committee
Content
Design
Content
Content
Page 1 of 4
Item
Bucket Number Area Addressed
17 PDF File Names
18 Usable PDFs
19 Parks
I
20 Neighborhoods
21 Cost/Benefit Metties
22 Emergency
Preparedness
23 K-12 camp actlvities
24 Business
.. 25
i
Organization Chart
" " 26 Trail Information til
27 Search Box
28 Content Organization
29 Page Layout
30 Primary Navigation
31 Visual Element in
Banner
32 Redo CPA In Banner
33 Popul.r PDF Docs
34 Inside/Outside
35 Pollee Redundancy
36 What's Our Name
37 Cookies
38 High Interest Short Ufe
Attachment A
Website Advisory Committee
Full List of Recommendations
Recommendation Description Comments/Status
Ali PDF file names should use consistent
format for naming (descrlpUve title piuS To be completed
date, etc,)
Searchable, smaller, accessible PDFs To be completed
Enhanced parks section -each park To be in!llated wlth coordinating listed. specific services/amenities
Iprovided for eaCh department
Update PalO Alto neighborhoods need
pagelsectiOn to highlight neighborhood To be evaluated programs and maps, and content should
be enhanced.
Perform cosllbenefit ana~lysls of switch Completed, The City now runs
from WebTrends to Google Anallllies Gooale An.llllles,
Enhance emergency preparedness To be completed section
Potential to list activities offered by To be evaluated Stanford, local .chools and Srd partl ••
Business in PA, click on avallable
property, get broughllo white page wllh
white type On It (illegible), then must re~ Completed
type same. information again on following
website
Add city or9 chart -hierarchical text with To be completed links to department website pages
Enhance trafllnformation with maps and To be InlUated with coordinating
pictures, department
Search box shoUld be on every page of Completed the site
Need to organize contenl by user needs
rather than just city departmental To be completed
organization
Wasted and misused space on pages To be completed
Potentia! to uSe navigation tabs or items To be completed with sUckv droD down menus
'Need visual element representing the City To be completed of Palo Alto In banner
Wasted space by oversized ~jty of Palo To be completed Alto" name, and no branding logo
Technical solution naadad to Idantlfy
which PDF documents are rObe eYaluated with vendor
viewedldownloaded
Clearty Identify Internal and a>dernallP
addresses and develop monitOring Initiated
system
Combine police home and police To be Initiated with coordinating
information pages department
Consolidate 3 legacy home page URLs to
show up as main homepage in Google Completed
Analytic.
AnalysiS of how cooides are used on the
site and how Google Analytlcs IdentUles To be completed
new and returning visitors,
Design updateable area of horne page for
high interest documents such as courses Initialed
which have short shelr life
Sub-Committee
Content
information Architecture
Content
Content
Marketing & Analytlcs
Content
Content
Content
Content
Content
Content
Design
DeSign
Design
D.slgn
Design
Marketing & Analytlcs
Marketing & Analytlcs
Marketing & Analytics
Marketing & Analytlcs
Marketing & Analytlcs
Marketing & Analytics
Page 2 of 4
Bucket
Item
Number Area Addressed
Attachment A
Website Advisory Committee
Full List of Recommendations
Recommendation
i by department. Creek cam
Sub·Committee
Potential use of webcams to bring ....... ~
;,. 39 Live webcam feeds pertinent up-Io-date visual information to QIII,I Fire Station 8 cam Developer Coding &
,":;c:-' ,l __________ +-______________ -+c::tiz:e~n:s ________________________ ~~~c'~"o""~o'''~=o~,u .. ~N~e~e~d~to~e~va!l~u_at_e __ _4-------T-e-ch-n-o-lo_g_y ____ ~ • ," i I use 01 webcams.
: ,_'< ::, , 40 IVirtual meaningful IAIIOWS useful bookmarks, and URLs for Information Architecture -.'--,"-" --:-:' URLs IVlrtual dynamic web pages
,,;2,c·r-------+-------------+------------------------~------------------~---------------~
\(,~:'~',:\[~; IAd~ public works and utilities projects
I ~j\iti:~! 41 IDl.IlJlI~ YYUI"'~ Projects ~~rd~~~:~nee~ :~~;a~Oe~ ~ ~~~~rogram ~o be Initiated with coordinating
I r~'~~:;~~:I;o;~f street closures/detours due to I c I projects
:':'
Content
Content 'ii,<:" l~t~,~:,::~~Content ""' needed lor project !,,'~i;;i:; 42 IS Metadata In Keywords field"
O@;Xr __ -r ____ ~I~above~~~~~--------_+------~ {~:"~ ;,.\',::::: IEncod.:_~.X!~tl_n~g_Webslte with metadata !i·~t)X:.~i:)·'i 43 ~o<>r"h and Ac.cess I"'-'''''''''''hi,,~ content standards. Support Content ..... ..,~'''''', I;''''''"'''''' access of website content 1~~n0G:r--------~----------/----~I~c~--ate~dl--slln~ce-la~u~nc-h~0~I~n~e~w~w-e-b-sl-te----+_----------------------+_----------------~ 1;,):iA~:,:il~~; C,v I !Need for easlly-Idenllfiable filenames;
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
'----:1' Download I Useful also.for project "Virtual Meaningful Ilnlltlalled
IURLS" above
Mir,
IE",ployee Directory
Creek Monitor
I ,Font Size
'-1lr, links on City
Icouncil . , shouid link directly to
:.: ,.page,. not to Interim
i J page that
Idoesn't Include the actual documents
Add directory -this used to be
on the old PA webslle (indexed by last
Iname and
~~~~~ek monitor I I data to the
No ,to chanoe lont size
To be Initiated with coordinating
department
ITO be evaluated
ITo be evaluated
fo be I
I~:;:~~()~u:~s,e~s,of Web 2.0 Lack of Interactlvlty and modern It I I that epitomize Palo Alto ITo be completed
Easy and quick page Every ~age should be accessed within 2 ITo be completed
access
Initiated with recent launch of new IPcltenltiallorWeb 2.0, personalized
"'''''<><><> utility customer account access and ,.."''''''''''~ i settings tailored to bill pay. Additional applications to User login
Content
Content
Content
Content
Deslon
Developer Coding &
Technology
Developer Coding &
Technology ,rlh,'rl, 'I" interests 11!~i;)f~tf\r~,---;5~2----1StrQh;;ct;;;~,1M flel;;;;ddai;;ln~i;;:;::~,~,Se se;;;;;arc;h'~.b~;;c;r;ea~t;;ln~g~S~y;st~e~m~a~tl~c--t~~ne~lt~:av:t:~:u~a-te-d-·----------------I~ln~l:or~m~a:I:lo~n~A~rc~h~lt:e~c~tu:re:-1
~~~~~'"'-of structured Adop~ lexicon support to translate external
53 Ol;:Cllvll searc~' to internal metadata Initiated Information Architecture
Sll~~~.1 ~;, a web page listing all the reports
i;~~l,~f and for a meeting, or a web "iri"",1 dynamic web page I all documents associated with
54 ~~~:: 8.p-roperty-address across all bodies, or Initiated
1';':·i";';V ,-.--all document. associated with a topic
1(.: ::.<';'.:" across I J. Allows easIer 104~~Sr~;:~,r---:---i~~--~-----i~~;m""o,;","'ln,'~,gOvlcU,0;ntden"'l~msrOrmliula.IiPwle~u~s-es--~~~~~~--------_t--~~~~~~__l I'N~,f{\:{,; 55 Links removal pages ,rarely used links on landing ITo be completed Markellng & Analytlcs
Information Architecture
Page 3 of 4
Item
Bucket Number Area Addressed
;.;.:fR
56 R, .i, Practices \ < ......•
•• • 57
·Ti'~·~,:
Metrics Decision Ci ......• 58 Making
:,..".' . ;:<> 59 Google Search
1~1f)I~~ii~~; 60 PDFs
61 Marketing Plan
':;;i:i i l,:'
>:i'i! :;;1; 62 Revised Homepage
~ 63 I ~~r.~~,~~;:,olice and
64 Printable web pages
65 Breadcrumb trail
-66 Data Clean Up
0 ..J
tI) c: Icouncll Member Voting t! 67 co IRecord 0..
68 Navigation consistency
land ease
69 Palo Altans
Attachment A
Website Advisory Committee
Full List of Recommendations
Recommendation 1« •• ,
Ensure Ihallim.ely. I of mosl
~~~c~~~~:~ne~h~S~'~'"O'" 1
To be completed
Dashboard (for websile "health"]
whic~ is shared across all departments Initiated
and Executive levels once/month
Metrics Based Design decislon~making to
be to explain to stakeholders Ira be evaluated n~'!'n~?_ not their page is not on landing
page or persistent links
Allow Internal Google search terms to be
ported 10 Web Trends
INot applicable now that the City is
Ina longer using Web Trends
Key historical PDFs made searchable ITO be completed
Need Strategy and Tactics for Increasing I <?,ity coordination process
I I I .OJ and community/press acceptance I rll, .1, needed
in b!nn~;:u~;~~r"O; (I.e. rolallng plclures ITo be, I wilh olher
~:~er Alerts should be placed on Ihe ftrsl
lamber al:~;~~o~~~~ p~~: for
"'0"0 .. ou pages formated for easy ITO be completed nolnlinn
I~::der i trail/breadcrumb trail to ITo be evaluated with vendor
One Time Dala Scrub 10.ld~n~~_data
anomalies, orphan pages, inconsistent To be evaluated nomenclature, technical Issues, tagging
lissues, elc .
Provide table of motions and how each !,:, I to be evaluated.
Vo'ting results exist in minutes. Icouncil • v~ted
Inconsistencies In font, justification
(alignment); highlight active menu item; To be evaluated with other remove "previous page"; make I recommendations.
menu/submenu fixed place (freeze pane)
as user scrolls down
Potential to list famous Palo Allans from To be evaluated
IPalo Alto or >"v residing In Palo Alto
Sub·Commlttee
Marketing & Analytics
Marketing & Analytics
Marketing & Analytics
Marketrng & Analytlcs
Marketing & Analytlcs
Full
Content
I r ~oding &
Content
Marketing & Analytics
Content
Marketing & Analytlcs
Content
Page 4 of 4
Attachment B
WEBSITE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Community Volunteers:
Philippe Alexis, Mark Eden, Sheri Furman, Carol Gilbert, Bob Harrington, Lori Heyman,
Arthur Keller, Gaty Lindgren, Sean Momeny, John Raftrey, Joe Villareal, Dave Voelker
Council Liaison:
Sid Espinosa, Council Member (former Council Liaison: Pat Burt, Council Member)
James Keene, City Manager; Lalo Perez, Director of Administrative Services; David Ramberg,
Assistant Director of Administrative Services; Glenn Loo, Chief Information Officer; Chris
Caravalho, Sr. Technologist; Kelly Morariu, Interim Deputy Manager; Linda Clerkson, Public
Communications Manager; Julia Pollard, Administrative Assistant; Lila Youn, Management
Fellow