On Sunday 27 November DCC launched its website upgrade http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/
Site navigation is impaired – the old site worked better for quick access to council committee minutes, agendas and reports.
The Council’s standing committees are listed here.
You can no longer click a link for each committee to bring up the whole of its minutes, agendas and reports in date order – the most practical way (for me) of doing quick search. You have to use the prescribed search tool (blah).
The search function is a dog, it’s slow to key in your search if you’re searching multiple documents or are unfamiliar with ‘what’ to search. The search page fails to let you know your search has been successful by autoscrolling the results up your page. I stupidly keyed in repeat searches without realising the search had completed successfully.
Admit I have the tendency to miss obvious things, I’m a computing novice! You need to be more than this to deal with such a busy jam-packed website.
****
Dunedin City Council
Media Release
24 November 2010
The Dunedin City Council’s website has been refreshed and the new-look site will be live from 27 November.
Since the website went live in July 2008, feedback has suggested that customers seek improved functionality, more accessible navigation elements and enhanced online services as well as improvements to layout and appearance.
Accessibility for those with visual, hearing or other impairments has been improved with a text-only version now available, high contrast, and contextual links for those who use screen readers.
DCC Webmaster, Sean Lee, says, “This is the site’s first major overhaul since it was created in July 2008 and we will continue to monitor it to identify usage trends and customers’ requirements. We seek our customers’ feedback and do our best to accommodate all we receive.”
The next stage in the DCC’s website refresh will be a complete review of the content to ensure it is accurate and up-to-date.
Contact DCC on 477 4000.
****
Council media releases no longer feature a review date and time (dates feature at the home page and here) – this should be rectified too at each release page.
Post by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
Oh, Dunedin now has a website that looks like all the others. We wouldn’t want to stand out, would we, by being different. Well done!