After undergoing a complete overhaul, the City of Akron’s new website debuted earlier this month.
Chief Communications Officer Stephanie Marsh said discussions about redesigning the website began about four years ago. She estimates it’s been at least 11 years since the last redesign.
I think we’ve been aware for a long time that it needed a refresh. It’s been outdated. It’s been hard for folks to find things and search on our website.”
Akron Chief Communications Officer Stephanie Marsh
New site features include an interactive search function, quick links on the homepage, translation options and an accessibility menu.
A new look for Akron’s 311
The city also redesigned Akron 311, its customer service portal for nonemergency city services such as missed trash, water leaks, downed trees or broken traffic lights. Residents can easily submit and track their requests as well as view those submitted by others.
Links to popular pages – trash collection, Lock 3 and Summit Metro Parks, for example – are also displayed on Akron’s 311 homepage.
The city’s site has a more modern, user-friendly design for both desktop and mobile users. Marsh said 80% of people who access the city’s website do so on their cell phones, so having a mobile-friendly site was key.
With its prominent spot on the homepage, the curated search function is better equipped to help residents find what they need. Now, for example, users can simply type “water” in the search bar and the first result is how to pay their water bill. As Marsh explained, it’s a vast improvement from the former site’s search function.
“We found from our previous site that if you didn’t type the exact wording of the page that you were looking for, it just wouldn’t pop up,” she said. “You would get dozens of pages that you’d have to search through to try and find what you were looking for, and it was just really cumbersome for residents to try and actually get to the page that they wanted.”
The response from residents has been largely positive, Marsh said. A few expressed concerns because some page links were broken, but Marsh said they should all be up and running shortly if they aren’t already.
“When you migrate a site like this, it takes Google a couple weeks,” she said. “If I put something in the search engine, it will navigate to old pages. When you click on it, it looks like it’s going to a broken page. Most of that should actually be fixed now. You might still find a few random pages that are going to an error page, but for the most part, our most popular pages should all be redirected correctly.”
Marsh encourages residents to spend time exploring the new website. Those who would like to offer feedback can email press@akronohio.gov. “I’m more than happy to respond to folks and listen to what they have to say,” she said.