STAY CONNECTED: Have the stories that matter most delivered every night to your email inbox. Subscribe to our daily local news wrap.

City of Nanaimo website redesign almost ready after years of development

Mar 20, 2017 | 9:24 AM

NANAIMO — The City of Nanaimo’s new website is almost ready to go live after years of work.

The project began in 2013.

Ross Collicutt, the senior applications analyst in the City’s IT department, said the website took years to develop because their goal changed numerous times. Initially, he said, they were just going to tweak the backend and not touch the design or content of the site.

After public consultation however, Collicutt said the project goal changed.

“We thought if we’re going to go to all this trouble to do all these changes, we need to do it properly and we need to do the whole thing at once,” he said.

The new website should look much cleaner, be driven more by visuals and have easier navigation for readers on cellphones and tablets.

“We’re hoping to create and build a website with this redesign that’s really easy to find information, get in, get your information, answer your questions, sign up for what you need and get on with your day.”

These days websites are often redesigned every two to three years and having the most recent City of Nanaimo website look the same for nine years was unusual, he said.

The redesign was budgeted for $90,000. Collicutt said they’ve currently spent $92,000 to outside companies for development and didn’t anticipate many more costs.

Collicutt said they’re about to enter the testing phase of the site.

An information session will be held Tuesday, March 28 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Service and Resource Centre on Dunsmuir St. for anyone wishing to help the City by giving feedback on their redesign.

At the moment, Collicutt said there’s no firm release date for the project.

“We’re in the final stretches here, so we anticipate something within the next few months.”

 

spencer.sterritt@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit