A new website for the town of Westlock went live last week.
The new website has several new features and pages to make usability and accessibility easier.
One of the features of the new website currently being developed are pages to submit e-forms which were not accessible on the previous website.
Another new feature is users’ ability to subscribe to the website’s different pages. Users can get email notifications when updates are made to the pages they are subscribed to.
Another new feature for users is the ability to submit events through the community events calendar page. An event can be submitted and then reviewed to be posted on the calendar.
“We'll be able to have direct content from residents that way,” said Debbie Mottus, town of Westlock Communications Manager. “There's always the provision that it has to be approved to go onto the town page as it's a published piece from us that has to comply with reasonable standards.”
The new website is also designed to be more compatible with mobile devices.
The new site allows the Town to schedule page updates without having to manually update them.
The new website was originally brought forth as part of the town’s capital budget in February of this year.
The newly designed site now features four sections for navigation at the top of the page (Living Here, Visit & Explore, Business and Development and Town Hall) as opposed to the previous website which featured six sections for navigation (Town Hall, Planning & Development, Recreation, Services, Discover and I Want To).
The pages in the previous services and recreation navigation sections have been combined into the “Living Here” and “Visit and Explore” navigation tab in the new site while the “Planning and Development” tab has been changed to the “Business and Development” tab.
Scrolling down the home page, the new site now has a search tab and navigation to several pages (Report a Concern, Town Maps, Pay Online and Submit a Bylaw Complaint) instead of a town announcements slide show.
The Discover Westlock section has also been bumped up further on the site where it now sits above the news and calendar as opposed to the previous website where it was below these sections.
The new site also includes a council meeting calendar on the home page as well as community events calendar opposed to the previous website which only included an events calendar.
The new website now features a “How do I” section near the bottom of the home page which includes various inquiries into topics such as applications, submissions, sign-ups and payments.
