Members of the Richardson City Council helped launch the City's new website. From left, Council Member Kendal Hartley, Mayor Bob Townsend, Mayor Pro Tem Laura Maczka, Council Member Scott Dunn, Richardson Web Manager Ed Snavely and Chief Information Officer Steve Graves.
The City of Richardson has launched the new design for the City’s new municipal website at
www.cor.net. The new design features a variety of enhancements that promote easy access to municipal services and information.
Design enhancements for Richardson’s web pages have been underway since February 2011. Its creation is intended to align with the City Council’s Statement of Goals, which aims to improve citywide communications, transparency in government operations, marketing of community assets, and encouraging public involvement.
“Richardson has always been a leader in providing online access to municipal services,” said Mayor Bob Townsend. “We were the first city in Texas to have a website and one of the first in the nation to offer online services such as utility bill payments. Our new site continues our tradition of providing easy access to information and services, and it has a variety of new features that take advantage of the changes in mobile communications and social media.”
The City of Richardson’s first website went operational in 1991. It was the first municipal website in the state of Texas, and, to the City’s knowledge, it was the third municipal website in the world. It has also grown to be the primary portal people use to interact with city services, which is what made a redesign of the site such a high priority with the City Council.
One of the top objectives in the design process was making sure the new website was accessible to mobile users and met users’ desire to connect with city services through their mobile device. To meet that need, the City’s new website can recognize when it is being accessed by a mobile device and provides an easy-to-use menu system for smart phones.
The new website design also uses quick action buttons on the City’s homepage and on several city departments’ landing pages to allow easy access to the City’s most used services.
California based Vision Internet was contracted by the City to provide design features and to provide a new Content Management System (CMS) for the City. The company was chosen for its experience working with hundreds of municipal governments across the nation to provide website design and online services. Its CMS includes several unique interactive components that allow for expanded community interaction and website management.
“Every time we work with a city we get different ideas, and working with Richardson gave us some new concepts that we will take to other communities,” said Tim Schmidt, Vice President of Vision Internet. “Our collaboration on this project has been very insightful as to the new direction municipal websites are going to meet the changing demands of the people who interact with them, and we feel proud to have helped in making such a unique site that meets those needs.”
Richardson’s new website is at www.cor.net. During the next few days, some online services may temporarily be unavailable as they are converted to the new system. The website also features an easy to use issues reporting tool. Anyone having problems finding services or using the new website can submit a request for help using the tool. It can be found under the “I want to…” tab on the upper right hand corner of the City’s new homepage.