Tamworth Regional Council’s new website has been a big hit with a great jump in the number of users over the past two weeks.
The launch of the first phase of a completely re-designed and modern new website includes about 400 pages of information in an easier-to-read and more user-friendly format.
TRC reported over 7,300 visitors and nearly 31,000 page views last week. Visitors are looking at about four pages each time, and news, planning and development applications and advice, dam levels and water supply, employment, and council business papers have attracted significant interest.
According to TRC finance and IT manager Mark Crompton, the website aims to improve online access and is the collaborative work of TRC, consultants, IT specialists and community consultation.
“This has been a two-year project for us and we’re pretty pleased and proud of what we’ve come up with so far,” Mr Crompton said.
“It’s designed to be easy to navigate and find information. We have a huge amount of information about services and resources now and we’ve put it together in a way that is more reader-friendly for everyone. To help us achieve that we had an extensive community consultation about what people wanted to see and find on their council website pages.
The new website also provides simple three-click navigation, clean URLs, better printing from web pages, RSS feeds, enhanced search capabilities and enhanced multimedia capabilities in audio, video and slideshows.
You can now also subscribe to RSS feeds for latest news, notices, events and jobs. Users can track their feeds using feed readers, web browsers or email clients. Websites can also use RSS feeds to publish straight to their website.
TRC will incorporate more advanced features at a later stage, including interactive facilities, such as waste calendars, online forums and social media access.
The redesign was managed by the TRC IT Applications Development Team with a working group of about 15 TRC staff from across its various divisions. The website technology was provided by Elcom and TRC worked with one of Australia’s leading digital agencies, Next Digital, on the information architecture or layout and structure of the website.
The new website has attracted a fair bit of feedback so far, most of it from users who say it's easy to find the information they want and much simpler to navigate. There have also been some great comments about some of the images and photos that focus on the council region and its people and places.
TRC is seeking feedback on the website – the homepage icon Contact Us links to a feedback form or users can email comments to webmaster@tamworth.nsw.gov.au.