The story behind the new website of the City of Hafnarfjörður

Background

When preparations for a new website for the City of Hafnarfjörður began, there was already a website from 2016. That website received an award from the Icelandic Web Industry Association (SVEF) for the best public website at the beginning of 2017. The website had served the town well, was well-maintained, and had received love and attention. It underwent certain updates, had been given a new search engine, increased interactivity of various kinds, and so on.

In six years, however, much has changed. For a start, the town has a new look and design system The new website takes this into account. It was therefore time to consider the design and development of a new website.

Requirements analysis and the tools

Such a project always begins with needs analysis. We started that journey about a year and a half ago. The plan was to take our time with the project. There was no rush. The old website had been thoroughly tested. We had carried out numerous user tests, students on the web media course at the University of Iceland had conducted a needs analysis, we We reviewed its use. very regularly, we could rely on a measurement of the website's performance through Siteimprove the tool and worked with continuous feedback from website users through the „Was the content helpful?“ form, which is found on every subpage of the website.

A formal needs analysis with interviews with the website's users and internal stakeholders was carried out with the company. Coral web consultancy. They provided us with a detailed requirements analysis at the beginning of 2022. Following that work, we approached three web agencies/software providers to provide us with a cost estimate for the project.

At this stage, we had made decisions about setting up the website in WordPress the content management system that had proven successful for us in setting up and running new websites, e.g. website of the Folk Museum and Library. It is highly advantageous for us to aim for all the town's websites to be on the same content management system, in order to share functionality and design.

In addition, a decision had been made about a search engine, which the town had put into use earlier in the year. Cludo search engine and ran it on an older website for several months. The search engine is the heart of the website, and it is there that we direct the site's users, as we believe it is the most efficient way to get to the content.

The design system and partners

We weren't looking for a new partner for the website design either. The basic design had already been approved. The design system which had been in development for the past two years. Metal Design Studio has been a partner of the City of Hafnarfjörður in all digital design for the past three years. The importance of having a good partner with whom a long-term relationship is established can never be overstated.

Following a cost assessment from these three parties, and a presentation of their approach, it was decided to enter into an agreement with Avista which had the lowest cost estimate as well as presenting a convincing plan and solutions. It proved to be a successful decision, as the plans held up very well throughout the project. Admittedly, new requirements were added along the way, as is often the case after projects get underway, but the project's cost remained within the budget we had for digital projects for the year.

Material processing and functionality

In the work on the new website, we placed a great deal of emphasis on the material processing. The plan was for all of the website's content to be reviewed; every single page was weighed and assessed. Was it needed? Could pages be removed? Did the website need more content? Did people understand the content? Did it serve the needs of our staff, could it simplify their work? Everything was on the table. And a project like this requires manpower and specialists. We therefore hired a content consultant, the writer Berglindi Ósk, but she had worked for us voice and tone for our design system. The aim was to write text that is at once easy to understand, friendly, positive and reliable.

Berglind Ósk met a large number of staff in all areas of the town. We went through the website as it stood at the time and sought to simplify and make all the text more targeted. This work was particularly important, and we believe it has had a significant impact on how well the website serves its users. We have confirmed this through the user testing we have conducted at various stages of the site's development.

Alongside the text work, emphasis was placed on using drawings on the web to explain and enrich the subject matter. The drawings play an important role in clarifying processes such as Apply for a building permit which is set out in stages, with clear text and illustrative drawings.

Various things can be found on the web. interactivity, residents can send suggestions through Suggestion portal of the town, contacted via online chat, calculated Property taxes, Nursery fees, cost of recreation centre and View rubbish collection days for its residents. Hafnarfjörður was the first municipality to offer a waste collection lookup in this way, and many municipalities have since used that solution in the future on their websites. Presentation of tariffs and their connection to individual service pages, e.g. swimming pools, has been greatly improved. For webmasters, it is also much simpler to maintain price lists in the content management system.

Shortcuts are available for the website's most visited content, such as the powerful map service, job vacancies, minutes, fee schedule, refuse collection and swimming pools. The presentation of the minutes, the site's most visited content, has been improved and the site search is more user-friendly. There are widespread links to applications on Our pages where various services are applied for. But alongside the new website, My Pages were simplified and made more user-friendly. Various improvements were made to them, including the implementation of a payment gateway and the introduction of step-by-step applications.

Special attention was paid to landing pages for exceptional service such as swimming pools or Vacant plots. The design for such pages or panels is widely used across the web, for example on pages for Leisure activities, schools and cultural institutions.

On the web, you can often Filter content across different categories, whether it's news, events, Leisure opportunities or to day-care providers. Also offered a special search in minutes, News and Staff list.

The heart of a large web is search engine and an investment was made, as mentioned above, in a very powerful search engine from Cludo, but the website was the first in Iceland to implement the search engine, which had already proven its worth abroad, not least in its home market in Denmark. We had half a year before the new website went live to use it on the older site, and that time was well utilised to fine-tune its functionality, utilise its artificial intelligence and learn about user behaviour. The Cludo search engine is particularly powerful and fast, gives the webmaster control over the display of results, allows different weightings to be applied to content, sets up banners for content the council wishes to emphasise, and allows the editorial control of content display.e.g. with synonyms, the search engine learns user behaviour, returns results for common typos, inflected forms, singular and plural words, etc. The search engine is also voice-controlled, which few users make use of today, but it is expected that more and more will adopt it.

Teamwork – 360 degrees

To succeed in digital projects, it is essential to have A strong team where specialists from various fields work closely together. In the months leading up to the website's launch, work was carried out in weekly TEAMS meetings with a team of designers, developers, a webmaster, a web content editor, a project manager, and a copywriter. The projects were managed in Tasks by Planner in Teams. In short (30-minute) meetings, the tasks for the week were discussed, whether they related to copy, functionality, technology, design or user experience. During these meetings, it proved crucial to have everyone involved at the table, thereby achieving a 360-degree approach.

At the website's opening, automated systems were offered. translations to several languages, subject to the accuracy of the translation. English website is in preparation (launching in February 2023) and will offer automatic translation from the English website, which increases reliability. The new English website will well serve the needs of immigrants and others who do not have Icelandic as their mother tongue. The content of the English website was specifically reviewed and written with the needs of this group in mind.

Particular attention was paid to the design and construction of the web. accessibility for everyone. We measure and closely monitor the site's compliance with the WCAG accessibility standard using the Siteimprove tool. It's a never-ending task, and any feedback on how we can improve is taken seriously. Content can be listened to via a Readspeaker text-to-speech tool, which also allows users to increase the font size, change the text style, and select various settings to assist those with visual impairments, colour blindness, or anyone who finds reading written text difficult.

Conclusion

The website was launched on 10 November 2022 with a digital conference at Bæjarbíó. By and large, the website has gone well and has received very positive feedback. We have continued to hold weekly meetings with designers and developers, where we work on continuous improvements to the website based on user feedback. This is key to ensuring the website serves its users as effectively as possible. Siteimprove and the feedback via the „Was this content helpful?“ feature on the website's sub-pages play an important role in continuous improvement. Siteimprove monitors the health of the website and provides us with daily suggestions for improvement. The Cludo search engine dashboard is likewise a tool that we analyse to learn from user behaviour, the words they use, and what yields results and what does not.