Garland’s Public & Media Relations Director, Dorothy White, provided a preview of the new city of Garland website to Mayor Scott LeMay and the City Council members at the May 20 work session. The new version, which is a complete redesign, will debut Wednesday, May 21. White expressed gratitude for numerous employees that have worked on the site for many months.
The vendor contracted to develop the new site, Civic Plus, has developed more than 3,500 government site and White said that their experience was helpful.
The new look of the website is livelier, more colorful and easier to use with navigation buttons on the homepage and a much-needed improved search function. The site is also good on all devices and ADA compliant. Calendars have been added for public meetings and city-sponsored events. For the time being, privately sponsored events will not be included on the calendar.
Another new feature, Notify Me, will allow visitors to subscribe to various content and E-newsletters will continue to be available on the site.
Even more impressive, a new function called My Garland, an interactive page for residents, will be included. By inputting their addresses, citizens will have access to extensive information such as what council district they live in, the closest park or recreation center to them, crime in their neighborhood, information on services such as trash pickup and code enforcement and much more.
There will still be subsites for some departments that need individual navigation like Parks & Recreation, Economic Development, Arts, Nicholson Memorial Library System, Utility Customer Service and others.
Another important feature is There will be an opportunity to send feedback.
The vendor trained designated employees in each of those departments to keep the sites updated. Each department will manage its own content.
There might be a few glitches at first, as it takes time to iron out problems that can sometimes only be found after the site goes live. As they come up, each will be corrected.
“A website is always a work in process,” White said. “We will always be reviewing how we are doing things, reviewing how things are presented, how accessible they are, and tweaking that.”