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HomeMy WebLinkAbout7.1 ApprWebsiteDesign ~',~ ... f .. . SUBJECT: . Approval of Internet Web site Design m Report Prepared by: Steve Honse, Administrative Assistant 1. Proposed Web site Design 2. Preliminary Home Page Design 3. Sample Graphics /l '"' ~pprove proposed Web site design and authorize Citilinks to " \~M Y ;roceed with construction of the City's Web site EXHmITS ATTACHED: RECOMMENDATION: FINANCIAL STATEMENT: The City Council approved $4,615 in funding for professional Website Design Services on January 7,1997. The proposed Web site design can be produced within the budgeted amount and approval of the proposed design will not result in any additional costs. DESCRIPTION: On January 7,1997, the City Council authorized the City Manager to enter into an agreement with eCitilinks to design and maintain a Website for the City. Per the terms of the agreements, Citilinks will design a high-quality Web site at a cost of $4,615 and perform annual maintenance at a cost of $2,080. The agreement provides for 54 HTML pages, with up to two photo scans per page. Citilinks will prepare the HTML pages, providing all design and graphic work. It will be the responsibility of City Staff to create a design framework which outlines the information to be placed on the Website and to provide text for the HlML pages. This report presents, for City Council approval, the proposed design prepared by Staff (see Exhibit 1). Following City Council approval of the design, Staff will begin to prepare the text and Citilinks will begin their design work. The initial Web site design was created by a committee of Staffmembers, with at least one representative from each department. This design was evaluated, modified, and ultimately approved by each department head. The preliminary design was also presented to a City Council subcommittee consisting of Mayor Houston and Councilmember Lockhart. The subcommittee has evaluated the design and approved it, subject to several modifications and additions to the Website content. The subcommittee recommendations are discussed below: CITY COUNCa SUBCOMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS: The subcommittee recommended that the Website contain City Council minutes. In order to make available an archive of the most recent and relevant minutes, while minimizing storage space, the subcommittee concluded that minutes from each City Council meeting should be accessible on the Website for 6 months. After minutes are more than 6 months old, those minutes will be removed. In this way, ~~~~e_~~~~~~ the Website will be able to review minutes for the proceeding 6 month period 11'-- ------------------------------------------------------- COPIES TO: Jim Chapin, Citilinks ITEM NO.-T.l The subconunittee also recommended that separate pages be dedicated to the Planning Conunission, Parks and Community Service Conunission, Senior Center Advisory Committee, and Heritage Center Advisory of Committee. Staff believes that these additions will provide useful information to users. Finally, the subcommittee recommended that the Web site contain data regarding the City's budget. ~ Initially, the Web site will contain the following information from each year's approved budget: City -. Manager's Budget Message, revenue chart by major category, and expenditure by program. Also, the minutes from the annual Goals and Objectives City Council meeting will be maintained on a separate page, which can be selected by a single button. EVALUATION OF DESIGN The proposed Website consists of a Home Page which indexes information within the Web site, similar to a table of contents. Anyone wishing to access information, [rrst sees the Home Page Index (see Exhibit 2). Prom that point, the user selects the area of interest and is automatically taken to a directory of subjects within that area. As proposed, the City's Website will consist of directories devoted to the City Council, City Services, Recreation and Leisure, Business Opportunities, and a Community Index. Several of these directories contain subdirectories. For example, the City Services Directory has a subdirectory labeled "Community Development". Selecting the subdirectory will allow the user to go directly to Planning, Building, or Code Enforcement. This design allows functions to be grouped in a logical manner that will allow the user to go directly to the area of interest with minimal scrolling. Also, the use of a directory structure enables the design to be modified or expanded in the future. Based upon the conunents of Staffmembers and the City Council subcommittee, the design is effective and includes all of the major City functions. Although Citilinks has only performed some preliminary design work, for demonstration purposes, Staffmembers and the City Council subcommittee believe that the proposed approach will give the site a professional appearance. Of special note, Citilinks has developed a method to incorporate graphic design onto recurring pages, which significantly increases the . attractiveness of data pages without any loss in download speed. This will help present a level of consistency throughout each section of the Website (see Exhibit 3). Jim Chapin, President of Citilinks, will be present tonight in order to demonstrate the operation of the Website and to answer questions. RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends that the City Council approve Exhibit 1 - Proposed Website Design, and authorize Citilinks to proceed with production of the Web site consistent with the approved design. Following approval of the design, Staff will proceed with preparing the text for the HlML pages, with the goal of making the Web site fully operational by June 15, 1997. . -;7,.-- . .. .. . >C . ~ .11 Z " :f en UJ 0 UJ I- en a:I UJ 3= I 0 UJ ~ en ::! 0 .! a.. !I ! 0 '" c:: a.. .... I- ID >C :I: . ~ ~ !l X . l! l! i UJ :I ~ w .!! a. a. .. i . ! ,~ ~ a. ~ c7l ~ a: ! 1 0 c ~ 0 1Il ~ ) e 8 ::J i5 c :i ~ :i '2 0 0 ... 8 0 0 .. ::> 0 .Jl '" E 0 l! E 0 CI 8 . ~ I j J ,I ~ .i ~ E a. ,S; c7l 8 ~ lJ E ~ lJ :::E i '" 'ii .g ~ .1 ~ a. a. u: .. C a. . . . . . .. . . . . . . :. . .. '". . ,". .. . . . z........ ....... . i.. . . . .." .. . .. . "., . . .' . . ."' . ." . . . ,.' . .". . ,...... . . . ..".. . . .. ~ . . . .: . .. . . .." ". .' .. :.. . . . . .. . ". . . . . ."" . ". 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