New look and read Council site

Council’s website has a refreshing look after the first phase of a website redesign went live yesterday.

“We’ve given the homepage a refresh making it easier to see key topics and information,” says customer engagement manager Anita Reedy-Holthausen.

“The new skin makes the landing page better visually and easier for people to navigate.”

www.gdc.govt.nz receives on average 80,000 – 90,000 hits a month.

“With the rain event this week, so far we’ve had 93,700 page views for September.”

The ‘Current Status’ including the Civil Defence button has a high-profile position on the homepage and will be updated during events.

The new homepage also features the latest Council news, road updates, Facebook feed and popular links like property searches, public notices and e-fix request for service.

“The site is mobile-friendly and we’ll be running a weekly poll through the website to gather quick feedback on Council issues or projects.”

The site also features a read speaker application that allows users to listen to a page or selected text read aloud.

The way information is structured under headings has not changed,” says Ms Reedy-HoltHausen “the content and structure is as before.”

“There’s more than 1500 pages and thousands of reports and documents on the website. We’ll be reviewing the architecture and content of the site in the next phase of work.”

The next phase will also include our use of online services which is aimed at delivering smarter services to our customers.

“This could include better online capability for reporting faults, making applications or payments, and community notifications for things like closures or events.

“We welcome any feedback from users to continually to improve the site.”

“Take our poll on our homepage at www.gdc.govt.nz and make suggestions for how we can improve functionality.”

ENDS

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