For the first time in a decade, the Municipality of Chatham-Kent is updating its website.
According to Amy Wilcox, manager of corporate initiatives, municipal officials have heard a number of complaints about the current website and its format.
"One of the things that we hear is that is a common problem, is our website often can be slow and that our site isn't as easy to navigate as it could be," she explained. "We don't want users to become discouraged trying to find information."
Wilcox said the goal of the new site is to make it easier to understand as well as more reliable and efficient. Staff is also aiming to make it fully compliant under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, which takes full effect for the public sector in 2021.
"Our goal is to make our website comply with new accessibility standards and for the website to be simple and easy to navigate. We want users to be able to find the information they want as quickly as possible," said Wilcox.
As part of the redesign project, the municipality is asking residents to get involved by taking a survey and sharing their input.
Wilcox said since Chatham-Kent residents are the main users of the municipal website, it was important to find out first hand what needs they want to be met.
"Some of the feedback we're looking for is, what is the main reason for visiting the site, how easy is it to use the site, overall satisfaction, what are the biggest challenges with the site and what we could do to improve the website," she said.
The survey is open until the end of February and you can see it by clicking here. Wilcox said the goal is to have the newly designed site launched in the fall of 2020.
"It's really an ongoing project," she said. "Our objective is to have a site that can be constantly updated and improved on."