City unveils new website design

City unveils new website design
By CHUCK CLEMENT, Staff Reporter

The city has a new look for its website located at www.cityofmadisonsd.com that includes noticeable changes in its design and, hopefully, easier online navigation for its users.

The redesigned website for Madison appeared online just Wednesday and some of the changes are immediately apparent as soon as the homepage shows up on the computer screen. Links to elected officials and city departments are located immediately under the heading along with a row of small photos that depict scenes from some of the city parks, downtown area, community center and library.

According to City Finance Officer Jeff Heinemeyer, Jen Eimers, the city's website manager, started working with GovOffice.com about three months ago to redesign the site.

Heinemeyer said GovOffice provides web hosting services to many cities.

"Visitors should find the new site easier to use, and it will contain all of the same information it used to have," Heinemeyer said.

A search box appears more prominently on the new web page design in the upper right corner of the homepage. The search box operates as the site's small search engine, allowing visitors to type in words such as electric department or zoning and find related information. Heinemeyer said the previous city homepage had a search box that was located less prominently at the bottom of the page.

The homepage also holds a traditionally-styled calendar in which visitors can click on a particular date to find city events or meetings. Users can also use commands to move back and forth through the months of the year.

Heinemeyer added that the separate city departments will have more flexibility in individually designing their web pages. The department personnel who work as webmasters will have more options in switching or adding photos and information.

GovOffice.com provides services to about 1,400 small and large communities across the United States. The company describes itself as as a website creation and content management resource for local governments. Its Internet products provide information to the public and make services more efficient

GovOffice is a subsidiary of Avenet Web Solutions, a Minneapolis-based company that provides its customers with industry-specific applications. Avenet has developed several products that include GovOffice, NonprofitOffice, CampaignOffice and Avenet eFolio.

Similar to GovOffice, the company's NonprofitOffice assists nonprofit organizations and CampaignOffice serves persons running for political office from county attorneys to U.S. House representatives.

Avenet eFolio operates as an online portfolio management system. The web product helps students, educators and job-seekers organize, manage and display academic and career information.

According to Heinemeyer, although the site is operational, Madison's website should remain "under construction" for about the next seven days.

"We're also always open to any information or suggestions that people may have that would make the website more complete or easier to use," Heinemeyer said. "So people should feel free to call us with their ideas."

Source: http://www.zwire.com