City website to incorporate social media, layout upgrades

A citizen group wants to incorporate more Nixle alerts.

By Briana Altergott

Published June 2, 2010

Columbia's Internet Citizens Advisory Group met May 19 to discuss how to further incorporate the newest technological updates and redesigns into the city's website.

ICAG member Sam Shelby spoke at the meeting and introduced some of most-discussed topics to the group. These included revamping the city website to better serve its visitors and the introduction of some new technology.

"We discussed the implementation of Nixle, our new community service that alerts citizens to public safety threats and community events via web, e-mail and cell phone," Shelby said.

The group also discussed the possible improvement and redesign of the online bill payment interface. ICAG member Dustin Dunstedter presented the idea during the meeting and provided a site review of its usability level.

"The city has rolled out a great idea that is in line with the way that I and others pay and manage their bills," Dunstedter said. "However, the actual sign up process is still rough around the edges."

Dunstedter said he and the rest of the group came to the conclusion that they should approach these issues from both long-term and short-term approaches.

"In the short term, we recommend that the city update its setup instructions to aid users and in the long term, we recommend some restructuring of the actual process and rework some areas that were deemed to be problematic," Dunstedter said.

The ICAG is also looking to improve the site's overall appearance to further appeal to visitors.

"The committee will help to evaluate the usability of the website and suggestions will be incorporated into the new design," Shelby said.

The main goal of all of these innovations and redesigns is to better provide for the average citizen. ICAG member Anna Hargis said she wants all Columbia residents to be interested in the site.

"We look at the website from the citizen's point of view," she said. "The more functional it is, the better it is for the citizens. We want to make it easier to use and easier to navigate."