The City of Cincinnati unveiled its newly updated
cincinnati-oh.gov website last week, with new graphic design, enhanced social media capabilities and mobile adaptability for better experience on phones and tablets.
“We wanted to do this because technology is changing extremely rapidly and we need to make sure we’re keeping pace,” says Rocky Merz, the city’s director of communications. “The other driving force was ‘How can we as a city do a better job of engaging the people who live here?’”
The website overhaul comes a few months after the city released its second app,
Fix It Cincy, and the city used lessons from the app creation in the website redesign.
“What we had learned throughout the app development really helped inform the website,” Merz says. “We used analytics to really focus on looking at it from a user’s perspective.”
One of the big focuses of the redesign was how the website was already being used. The use of analytics for continual improvement was a key takeaway from the app development, so the design team looked in depth at the existing site’s analytics to see which pages were being used and which weren’t, then used that information to determine quick links highlighted on the site’s home page for efficiency.
A continual improvement cycle will be fed by responses the city gets to the new site, both on the newly integrated social media channels and features like the survey tool, which features a different question about city government each week.
Aesthetics were also important in the redesign. Merz points out that, as the screens on electronic devices have improved, website visuals have become more and more important. Font and color schemes on the site have been tweaked and modernized, but most notably the site now features a rotating gallery of high-definition Cincinnati images. The site pulls from a library of 3,000 photos that’s constantly updated.
In addition to ongoing technology improvements, the website also fits into the city’s efforts to make it simpler and easier for residents to get things done. Cincinnati’s two apps (
Fix It Cincy for city services and
Cincy EZ Park for on-street parking), the redesigned website and the newly opened and streamlined
Permit Center are attempts to make it easier to partner with city government.
“We want to be transparent,” Merz says. “The more we engage and receive feedback from residents and visitors, the better city we are.”
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.