City Redesigns Lake Forest Website Based on Resident Feedback. What Do You Think?

If you haven't visited lakeforestca.gov in the past week or so, head on over and you might notice things look a little different from how they used to.

The blue header and margins remain, but the main elements of the page have been reshuffled. News is at the top, the most popular links sit at the center of the page, and there's a new box for videos in the bottom left corner.

A group of city staffers collaborated on ideas for the website facelift, said Deputy City Manager Debra Rose. They began looking at smoothening navigation and improving usability in the fall of 2010, but waited until to nail down the final details.

About 22.3 percent of residents visit the city website for information, the survey found. That means the site is the second-most popular means of finding info about Lake Forest, after the city's printed newsletter, The Leaflet. For the first time in the biennial survey's ten-year history, more  than half of residents—54.4 percent—had visited the site in the prior year.

While the vast majority of residents—79 percent—couldn't think of any improvements they'd like to see for lakeforestca.gov, 5.8 percent suggested better navigation. Other survey respondants said they wanted more information, more detailed menus and improved response to emails.

Staffers took that information into account when asking the city's web design vendor to rennovate Lake Forest's homepage, Rose said.

"We know [the website] is something people are looking at, and we want to meet their needs," Rose said. "If we can save someone a trip to City Hall, that's a good thing."