Wolverhampton City Council’s website get a long-overdue makeover this week.
The new-look website aims to give a “fresher and more modern feel and be more appealing thanks to the introduction of a selection of new features targeted for a variety of audiences”. (We think that’s Council speak for “it will look better and work better”!)
Improvements will include a featured news area similar to the one on the WV11.co.uk homepage and integration of the Council’s Twitter feed and from the looks of it a new Facebook page…can we expect this  to launch at the same time?
Simplified Navigation
The site navigation will be simplified with  the key sections “Residents”, “Visiting”, “Business” and “About the Council” containing content that is geared towards making information on services easier to find.
The redesign is the first stage of a larger project set to improve online services, Rakesh Patel, Wolverhampton City Council’s E-communications Manager, said: “This refreshed website design will be exciting and better reflect the vibrant city that is being promoted to visitors and potential investors across the world.â€
In order to make such significant changes to the website, www.wolverhampton.gov.uk will be temporarily unavailable to customers on Thursday (November 10, 2011) from approximately 9am as the site is upgraded.
WV11 Comment
One of the reasons we built the resources page on our website was because we struggled to find local information on the Council’s website, so we welcome efforts to improve the site.
The current site has become extremely dated and whilst money is tight we feel a modern looking council website that works well and helps residents interact digitally with the council is a step in the right direction. Let’s just hope there are less of those ‘404 page not found’ errors on the new site!