Speak Up Austin: Ironing out the new city website
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The City of Austin recently launched a new design for the
city’s website and is asking for the public’s help to make it perfect.
The new site went online last December and a number of issues have already been identified.
One of which is the new site’s search engine.
"The search engine we have sort of learns as time passes,” Web Content Manager Chris Florance said. “It sees what people search and what they click on, and it kind of adds that and bumps certain things to the top."
Florance admits the site has a learning curve of its own. While developers spent more than four years working on the website overhaul, the bulk of the work was done in less than six months.
"We think we are in a much better place than we were with the old site, and we think we will see improvements almost week-to-week for people that are regularly using the site," Florance said.
He also said dead links now generates a page of search results based on that link. It’s one way they're trying to help users find what they need while the city works to clean up its website.
Developers encourage users to submit their thoughts and discoveries via a feedback tab which is at the top-right of most pages on the city’s website.