The deployment will update a key entry point for many modern cities, one Rosario Neaves, San Jose's director of communications, described as the municipality’s “digital front door.” But equally important, the new site should offer residents an improved connection to some of their most sought-after services. Among the takeaways:
• The project, now more than a year and a half in the works, is founded on a partnership with website design company Vision Internet, which was acquired Feb. 14 by Granicus. San Jose’s five-year, $350,000 contract with the company, its content management system provider, centers on the redesign and launch, though there’s no exact date for the latter. However, San Jose will continue to work closely with the company on an ongoing, annual subscription basis after the launch for technical support.
• Having a website that’s responsive and mobile-friendly and has a more customer-centric design is crucial for San Jose, the nation’s 10th-largest city, which already sees about 4 million total Web sessions a year from around 2.5 million unique visitors. Significantly, its existing site, which is roughly six years old, isn’t mobile-responsive.
“We wanted to enhance our digital presence, especially because we are in Silicon Valley, and we wanted it to reflect our city vision and allow residents to conduct business online in a more efficient way. I’d say that the website falls under our goal of building and becoming a smart, sustainable and reliable city with 21st-century infrastructure,” Neaves told Techwire.
• The new website will be more easily navigated and make more readily available links to services that residents told the city were most important. The site also features improved online bill payment; an enhanced, address-based service finder and service look-up tool; and single-click access to city social media channels.
• During the last month, staffers completed alpha and beta testing phases, and officials are now taking time to review resident and internal feedback.
“The next step for us is, we are going to look at what information should influence the site and if there’s any improvements we need to make based on what we heard from the research,” Neaves said, noting the project is still in the technical phase.
• One of San Jose’s project managers connected to the project recently departed, and the city will fill the position with the goal of on-boarding an individual during the next roughly two months. However, the job has not yet been posted and Neaves said no further details are available on the position’s duration.
