New Year, New Website
Welcome to the Town of Wendell's new website!
We're happy to have you here. Feel free to peruse all the new features and pages on our townofwendellnc.gov website and let us know what you think.
The Communications Department plans to make this a collaborative effort with the community to ensure the accessibility and organization of the new website is transparent, easy to explore and find information, and engaging. Let's review the process that got us to our new website, some of the new features the website offers, and where we plan to go from here.
Trust the Process
The last Town website, www.townofwendell.com, was designed in 2013 and was innovative for its time. Since then, with technology changes and feature upgrades in design capabilities, it has become dated and non-responsive to larger and smaller screens. You can see by the extra space open to the left and right of the content:
The 2013 website also didn’t have adjustable accessibility features, which would be an asset attuned to supporting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). With the Town’s ADA Transition Plan that was rolled out in 2022, the Town wanted to incorporate accessibility upgrades in its communications and technology efforts, as well.
A Request for Proposals (RFP) was released asking website design companies to submit proposals to the IT Manager with a detailed packet of how each company planned to meet the needs of the Town’s new website. After 28 submissions, staff decided to go with the company, Revize.
A timeline for a collaborative scope of work on the project was created, including the following phases:
- Initial Setup & Designer Selection: In this phase, the Communications and IT Manager compiled photos, examples of iconic websites, and information on the new website’s vision along with previous analytics. A graphic/web designer was also assigned to the project.
- Discovery & Design Approval: Mock-ups were provided for the homepage of the site. Communications reviewed and provided feedback on the design. This process was repeated with each type of page design and second and third drafts were created with the adjustments. Fonts and brand colors were decided upon, and the final approval was made once the design was completed.
- HTML Development: Revize worked on making each page on the site clickable and resizable, so that it is compatible with different operating systems (iPad, Laptop, mobile, etc.)
- CMS Enabling & Custom Development: Revize added its Content Management System (CMS) and Modules to the new Wendell site. This allows the editing of pages and keeps an inventory of uploaded content that is posted to the website. We like to think of the CMS as the “backstage” of the website. Where the content is edited before it goes out to reach the community once published.
- Sitemap Development & Content Migration: This could be considered the “Table of Contents” of how the website and its pages are structured and organized. Both new and old pages were organized using a word document and categories such as parent pages, submenus, quick links, and children pages (those that “live” under the parent pages). Content was then migrated from the old site to the new site on a page-by-page basis by Revize’s data loading team, and the Communications Manager. Additional content clean-up and updates were conducted by the Communications Manager once the sitemap and migration period were completed.
- Quality Assurance & Accessibility: All custom development needs were executed during this phase, including the implementation of accessibility tools to ensure that the website conforms as closely as possible to industry standards.
- Training & Beta Site Review: Revize trained staff on how to use the CMS (editing software) for the website so that the page could be maintained and updated by the appropriate departments. A content editor and content approver were chosen for each department of the Town, so that each department could monitor and update its pages as needed. After training, the Communications and IT Manager conducted additional site reviews and adjustments as needed before going live.
- Going Live: In this phase, the IT Manager works with Revize to change where the old URL was (townofwendell.com) and redirect it to the new location (www.townofwendellnc.gov) The Town changed its domain name to be a .gov website to increase security and to coincide with what most governments have their site listed as.
New & Improved
Now, the Town’s website can be translated into 80 different languages. It also has new accessibility features for navigation aids, such as contrast adjustment, link highlights, bigger text, increased text spacing, a pause button for animations, a “hide images” feature, dyslexia friendly font, different cursor options, line height adjustments, text alignment adjustments, and saturation adjustability.
Additionally, Revize built the site according to 2.2 AA principles, otherwise known as the AA WCAG 2.2 Accessibility Standard. This ensures that the website is operable and all users, including those with disabilities, are able to interact and navigate the interface.
The new site also hosts quick links, or icons that lead to commonly used pages, on its home page. This includes information about current projects the town is working on, how to make a payment, and access to Town Board Meeting agendas and minutes.
The homepage also features the Town’s new-and-improved calendar system. These are three calendars that are separated into categories: events, meetings, and recreation. Events include town-coordinated events such as ProTown BMX and Wendell Wonderland. Meetings include Town Board and Citizen Advisory Board Meetings. Recreation includes registration dates for signing up for seasonal sports.
The new website also has a way to access live feed from all of the Town’s social media pages, a collapseable and searchable drop-down menu template for our documents page, and finally, fillable forms! Before, we would have to post applications to the Town’s website in PDF format, requesting that they be either mailed in or emailed to town staff. Now, they are fillable online and will be submitted directly to the appropriate staff, all from the click of a button! No more printing, emailing, or mailing.
There’s also information about our partners, such as the Wendell Chamber of Commerce and the Eastern Wake Senior Center, as well as information that might be interesting to new residents. Our goal in this project is to connect visitors and residents alike to all the resources that Wendell has to offer.
What’s next?
We encourage our community to take some time exploring the new website and want to hear your thoughts. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the website, please feel free to contact Wendell’s Communications manager (myself) at mhoward@townofwendellnc.gov.
The Communications Office plans to roll out an online survey to gauge what’s working and what isn’t. The good news is that we can make adjustments! We want to ensure everything is transparent, easy to find and accessible for our residents. Stay tuned and keep your eyes on our news blog and social media for the survey in the coming months!