Al Smith Social media in local government

Web refresh – my struggle

Firstly, I'd like to start this post by stressing that what follows is my own personal account of the events of the last few months. It isn't the official council review of the project, just some of my observations and experiences along the way.

For around a year I've been involved in some way or another in looking at Newcastle City Council's website: http://www.newcastle.gov.uk. I initially came to the council in November 2008 to look at Web 2.0, how the council could and should be using the internet as a two way tool for conversation, engagement and service delivery - although with a strong emphasis on communications. This obviously had some impact on the way I viewed the council's web presence but I was not really involved in either the day-to-day running of the site or in looking at how the council would use the web as a whole.

There had, of course, been some conversations which would impact on the site, but I was eventually given the task of looking at the council's intranet. As quickly as this was mentioned it was taken away again - I wasn't the person to look at this and it wasn't the time to look at it either it seems. Later when I was asked to project manage the web refresh I assumed it would be a similar deal.

I'd had project management training on NPMF2 (Newcastle's project management framework based on PRINCE2) but hadn't had the chance to put any of it into practice and when the project officially got going in September 2009 I found myself starting out in fresh territory and quite nervous about it too.

Shortly after starting this journey we found out that the Project Executive and my then line manager as Director of Communication and Marketing was leaving the council. He had helped form the project and set out what we were to go on to achieve so it was an early blow. We appointed a great replacement in David Fay, City Libraries Manager, who understood what was required and had the experience to help me through.

So, the early meetings defined the project, and I blogged about this back in last September. To recap, the aims of the project were to:

• Purchase a new search box to improve the site's search function
• Create a new navigation based on LGNL but with amended headings and some user-friendly restructuring
• Re-skin the site, making it look fresher whilst still adhering to accessibility guidance

Problems we encountered really were down to project planning - which is down to me. When I did my project management training I was told to do things in a way that I was comfortable with, try to keep things simple if possible - if the paperwork isn't necessary just do what needs doing.

I tried to keep this approach because this is what I'm comfortable with. I don't like to be overly formal if I don't think it necessary. But this was the council, and some people were happier working different ways and I needed to be more 'corporate' to fit with this. I relied on others a bit too much to plan the project - I didn't know how long things would take and ended up being a bit optimistic as a result. That said we delivered slightly ahead of a revised delivery date in the end.

I'm probably being a bit harsh with myself, but I feel it's important to learn from this and I certainly will.

I also came to realise that I can't be liked by everyone all the time, which is tough because I care a lot about what others think of me. I have enormous respect for everyone who worked on this project and think that the end product reflects the passion and commitment of all those involved. When you are that close to a project you can get personally invested and when things happen that weren't what you had hoped for it's tough to accept it and move on for the good of the project. I must admit that I came close to walking away from the whole thing, but that I'm glad I didn't and that things worked out for the best and proved me wrong when I'd got too close.

So the three aims. First was search. That was the easy part. A mini Google search appliance was purchased and added onto the existing site as soon as it arrived. It seemed to do the trick and probably helped us to get our 4 Star SOCITM rating (more on that later).

Next was navigation. This was the bit that really took it out of me, but also the bit that we had to get right. Christmas also got in the way but the web team held a card sort exercise on category headlines that we'd thrashed out as a board - taking longer than expected. Initially we'd wanted to use a life events model, but it didn't feel right and we struggled to make a site to appeal to all of the groups that wanted to use it without creating lots of different sections which confused things too much. Eventually we looked at existing LGNL headings, worked on the language they used and rejigged them with the biggest change being to split Environment and Planning into two sections.

These were the headings we eventually settled on as they came through user testing unscathed. The card sort looked at the existing level 2 headings under the revised level 1 titles. Level 2 headings were capable of sitting below more than one level 1 title in a polyhierarchical taxonomy (thanks Martee) but there should only be one version of the level 2 page in existence.

Each level 1 heading also had a series of top pages beneath them, which can be changed seasonally and on demand basis so that content can be brought forward and highlighted when necessary. From these we can draw top three services in each category and highlight them on the front page.

We also looked at transactional functions, adding 'Do it...', 'Pay...', 'Report...' and 'Get involved'. This was a bit of future proofing really, giving some real estate up for when we can actually provide more of this stuff via the web.

The design was IT led really and we didn't want to get too involved and design by committee. There were obviously a few people who had an opinion, but we tried to see the site as a corporate product and not a personal product. The carousel for the council's key messages was to replace a lot of the messages we had routinely placed on the front page and get us to think more about how important messages are and how they are presented to the public - this will be owned by comms and regularly updated (although directorates can ask to use this space). There are also two ad spots on the front page owned by marketing for the council's key campaigns (directorates can also make requests on this space).

The show/hide menu function was changed as a result of usability testing - Martee used Silverback for this. Default for this was set to hide, but people didn't use it - so it's now set to show.

There will be further iterative testing whilst the site is live and there are tweaks to be made and new features which weren't in scope but should be delivered soon anyway. In addition there is a heat map running on the site to see where people are clicking in case we need to make further adjustments.

A note on content - content is part of the next phase and I may need a separate blog post on this - needless to say content was not in scope for this project.

There were about 26 people who made a really significant impact on this project from across the council. Their input made the refresh happen, and I'm proud of the results.

I'd like your feedback really. Have you used the site? What bits do you like? What bits don't you like? Have you found any broken bits?