By Diane Lauricella
NORWALK, Conn. – The other day, I attempted to find the new Common Council emails and found that the process for doing so was less than intuitive and not very user-friendly. With a new administration and new Common Council, there may finally be a chance to include the public’s input and hold department heads accountable for the way that they handle their communication with the taxpayer.
This letter offers the request for a series of community forums about the city website, so that citizens and businesses, many of whom are experts about website development and marketing, can have the opportunity to offer ideas and suggestions about how to create a more user-friendly website. At the first Mayor’s Night Out with Mayor Rilling, I mentioned that the website needed to be reviewed to accommodate citizen input and council oversight. This would be best done live and in person where “group think” would stimulate innovative suggestions, not just with online responses.
The site was recently upgraded with funding greater than $100,000 of tax dollars over the last several years. There were several helpful improvements but there was no effective public input allowed and many functions have still not been upgraded to make the site as user-friendly as it could be. I have offered several examples below.
Several years ago, I requested, as both the League of Women Voters president and an active member of the Coalition of Norwalk Neighborhood Associations, that the Information Technology (IT) Department director join us in holding a public forum to collect input about ways that the website could be improved. The offer was refused by Ms. Del Vecchio, who at the time gave varied reasons why that could not happen: either Mayor Moccia would not let her or that she did not want to, even though she had hired a contractor to upgrade the site. At the time, we thought that an outside contractor would want to get “customer input” but apparently they were not allowed by the city administration. Well, here is a chance to start fresh and include input from the very public that pays the bills!
In the winter-spring of 2012, the Common Council held the second of their short-lived “Council Conversations” at the South Norwalk Library, and when I brought up the subject of the website, both sides of the council aisle agreed that the site needed a lot of work to become much more user-friendly. Now is an opportunity to come together to make this happen!
We should conduct periodic citizen and business forums to seek ideas, input and concerns. This was not done for many years, and there still is a need for a mechanism for the public, the very taxpayers that fund the system, staff and upgrade consultants, to voice their concerns. This could be a fun and refreshing way to get input if the IT Department would think outside the box.
Some examples:
“City Departments” home page title bar, which for some reason includes the Common Council member lists instead of listing council under their own “Governance/Common Council” Title Bar.
Filing complaints: One still has to go through layers to get to an actual file form or phone number. I suggest that the home page actually have a more direct, clear icon or way to register complaints, whether they are about noise, paving, trash pickup or odors. When one calls the customer service phone number (203-854-3200), almost a full minute goes by with announcements and the phrase “file a complaint” is not even mentioned, offering the possibility that a caller will give up. Recently, a Department of Public Works (DPW) assistant director claimed that no one had called to report valid sewage treatment plant odor complaints to this phone number for three years. One could understand that with a 50-second delay, most folks would hang up in frustration.
Let public know about the website layers: The language translation icon is a fantastic addition but is not prominently displayed. A website instructions icon would help make the site’s features easier to find and appreciate. Right now, citizens are left to wade through the layers on their own. Not everyone feels comfortable enough with computers to do so.
The “City Services from A to Z,” on the left side of the home page, could use specific listings of types of complaints, such as “Odor” or “Paving” or Trash pickup” instead of layering.
Norwalk FAQ’s: The public could help add additional “Frequently Asked Questions” to many of the department lists, some of which are spartan.
Hours of Operation: Could the departments go back to being open during the public’s lunch hour? Right now, many important departments are closed for public assistance from noon to 1 p.m. for lunchtime or are not even open after noon. Certainly, staff lunches could be staggered to accommodate the taxpayers’ needs.
The city of Milford just announced the launch of its new website, and there are many towns and states that have special user-friendly features that could be helpful, such as the following links:
http://www.ci.milford.ct.us/online-services
http://www.ci.milford.ct.us/home/webforms/contact-us
The latter is a very user-friendly picture-based list of services, although some symbols are too small, but easily upgraded. This picture-based list could assist the diverse demographic base.
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