Al Smith Social media in local government

Web refresh time!

Firstly, this is not a discussion of Birmingham City Council's recent relaunch. There are plenty of other people dissecting this and making suggestions about how things could have been done. I just want to let people know what we're planning, that way people know what is going to be produced and how we're going to go about it.

It's probably easier to say what our web refresh project will not do. We are not rebuilding the website or replacing the CMS. There is a seperate project which is looking at channel shift and improving/increasing the services that we provide online.

So what are we doing then?

Well, we're improving the search function on the site. This has involved the purchase of Google Search Appliance. Feedback has taught us that people have trouble with our existing search and that it struggles with PDF documents held on the site. This is a bit of a quick fix, but we'd also like directorates to upload less PDF documents, creating pages instead.

We're also introducing a new front-page navigation system on top of LGNL to take people to the things they are looking for in a more intuitive way. LGNL is useful for indexing the site and for linking up with Directgov so we're not doing away with it altogether. Instead it will sit at the bottom of the page as a 'site map'.

The new navigation system will offer categories of user/information drawn from multiple areas and displayed as suggestions. Each category will have the five top suggestions and a 'more options' link which takes the user to a landing page with an explanation of the category and a longer list of approximately 15 suggestions.

We have drafted a proposed list of 15 user/information categories and sample content (in no particular order):

1. Children and young people: For children and young people not their parents. Advice, events and opportunities for young people.
2. Student life: For students and people in FE and HE. Info on post-16 options, council tax exemption, advice on studying in the city, links to institutions.
3. Parenting: For parents. Advice on benefits, nursery places, registration of birth, family planning.
4. Visitors: For those visiting the city. Transport info, large scale events, places to stay, things to see.
5. Leisure: For residents. Parks, permanent leisure facilities, restaurants/scores on the doors, theatres, galleries and museums.
6. Roads and transport: For commuters. Public transport information, parking, Tyne Tunnel, roadworks and traffic.
7. Find a job: For jobseekers. Jobs at the council, benefits and back to work schemes.
8. Councillors and elections: For residents. Who’s my councillor, surgeries, registering to vote and election information, meetings, agendas and minutes.
9. Older people: For older people. Benefits, community groups and health advice.
10. Housing: For residents. Social housing, council tax, benefits, planning, home improvements (Warm Zone, adaptations), YHN.
11. Planning and development: For residents. Planning applications, regeneration, building control and citywide planning.
12. Environment and waste: For residents. Bin collections, Envirocall, and eco information.
13. Business: For local businesses. Doing business with the council, business rates (NDR), BID, licensing and procurement/partnerships.
14. Health and wellbeing: For residents. Public health campaigns, doctors, sports, activity, hospitals and disabilities.
15. Council tax and benefits: For residents. Council tax and benefits, customer service centres and contact centre.

The titles will be rewritten to improve flow and specific content is to be decided by the most appropriate directorate based on user stats. We'll then undertake user testing across the new navigation system.

We will also offer four transactional functions: Report it; Apply for it; Pay for it; and Get involved.

The final part of the refresh will be to reskin the site to update it and improve look and feel.

So, that's the plan. It doesn't involve much additional work and seeks to address three issues: search, navigation and design. What do you think?