City of Woodbury to Unveil New Website Next Week

The city of Woodbury will have a shiny new website up and running next week, part of an effort to make it easier to use and improve communication between the city and residents.

The city’s website had 3.7 million page views last year, said Jason Egerstrom, Woodbury communications specialist, who is heading up the redesign. (It will have the same URL, ci.woodbury.mn.us.)

The project began in earnest in June 2010, though staff had been researching the topic since last March. Including design, user testing, working with third-party vendors and other improvements, the new website cost about $47,000 to put together, Egerstrom said.

The designer was Robyn Lingen of DesignWrite Studios in St. Paul. Fredrickson Communications in Minneapolis provided the usability testing, in which the city asked residents and businesses to preview the site in order to measure its efficacy and gather feedback.

Woodbury Patch asked Egerstrom about the new site on Friday.

Woodbury Patch: Why the new site?

Jason Egerstrom: It’s long overdue. The current one launched in July 2001, so we’re coming up on 10 years. We definitely needed to catch up on the technology that’s available now. We obviously wanted to get a new look and feel, and we accomplished that. Plus we can now take advantage of technology for photo slideshows, video and the interactive parks and trails map. We also included a content-management system to make it easier for staff to use. And we made it easier to use for the disabled.

Patch: How will the website better serve residents?

Egerstrom: They’ll find what they’re looking for a little easier. The site architecture is more user-based, where the old site was more organizationally structured. The navigation is much better. If someone is looking for information about their utility bill, they can go to Info for Residents and there it is.

Patch: What’s the best feature of the new website?

Egerstrom: I do like the larger photos on the home page. The visual appeal is great and it will help us highlight the more timely items—like . And there are a lot more tools and staff can be a lot more creative with their pages.

Patch: Do folks need to sign up for InTouch again?

Egerstrom: The InTouch system will not change, other than the look. Their alerts will not change if they’re already signed up. However, the request system will probably change in May or June. (Ed. note: The city’s InTouch system allows residents to sign up for email alerts about the city. The request system allows residents to contact the city regarding matters such as animal control or potholes.)

If they have the main page bookmarked, they don’t have to change it. But if they have a page like bookmarked—or another page drilled down in the site—they’ll probably have to re-bookmark that.

Patch: What went into building the site?

Egerstrom: We’ve had numerous staff members that have contributed to the site. The technology will allow them to do more than change a word or two on their page. Really, everybody was involved in building the site; it’s definitely been a group effort.

Patch: How is it working so far?

Egerstrom: It’s going great. It’s been a long process but it’s been a rewarding process. And it was good to hear positive feedback last night (at the local media program).