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Boston begins testing new city Web site
By adamg on Fri, 01/08/2016 - 8:15am
Not yet desktop optimized; compare to mobile version to the right.
City Hall yesterday launched pilot.boston.gov, to show off its migration from the current city Web site to something new and sparkly.
A key change is what City Hall is calling "topics," basically, collections of city resources keyed around the way we live, not how City Hall departments are organized. For example, if you own a car, you might need to know about paying your excise tax, when to move your car for street sweeping, how long you can keep a cone in your space after a snow storm, how to use your phone to pay for a parking space on Boylston Street. All of these things are run by different city departments. Why should you be forced to figure out where to go on a Web site to get a car-related question answered? Topics make up the answer.
That's the cool thing. The not-so-cool thing, at least at this very, very early stage, is that while the site looks good on a smartphone, it really kind of sucks on a desktop or laptop computer, which some of us old fogies still use.
What looks decent on a phone screen looks like some bloated brochureware site on a laptop: Fonts are way too big and there's oh so, so much blank space, forcing you to scroll and scroll past giant header images and giant introductory text messages to get to the information and links you really need.
This is one of the perils of "responsive" Web design (where you try to have a single set of templates that can recognize the device the user is on and then resize things to fit), especially when you design for mobile devices first; hopefully us geezers with our big screens won't be left completely behind when the new site launches for good.
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Comments
City of Boston Seal
Noticed a different seal on the website, is Boston also getting a new city seal with this website?
Most interesting thing on the page.
I am genuinely curious about this. A trial balloon for a redesigned seal?
The city council resolution
The city council resolution has to approval any change to the seal. The design is hardcoded in the lawbooks.
Thank you!
I wonder if images are considered to be legal language?
The new seal complies with the text of the law but obviously not the image. Could "as herewith shown" be interpreted to read "here is an example" as opposed to "this exact image"?
Not sure how it works with
Not sure how it works with seals exactly, but traditionally symbols of states, ruling families, and so forth, were set with a fixed language called a blazon. For example, England has "Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or armed and langued azure." This describes this.
The language was what defined the symbol; the exact depiction of the symbol could be very, very different depending on the medium or the individual artist's take on it. 1, 2, 3, 4.
Digital Restoration
We worked with the Archives Dept and looked at many previous versions of the seal before starting our digital restoration. It was really interesting to see how it has changed over the City's history.
This version was made for digital use, where the detail of the old woodblock carving became a smudge at small sizes such as social avatars.
See some past examples we looked at here:
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYNGS1CW8AAGebG.jpg
Digital Resortation
We worked with the Archives department and looked at several versions of the seal before starting creating this digital version. It was really interesting to see how it has changed and evolved over the City's history.
This version was made for digital, where small sizes and low resolutions, such as for social media avatars, make the woodblock carvings detail blurry.
You can see some of the examples we looked at here:
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYNGS1CW8AAGebG.jpg
Perhaps You Mean "Digital Representation" — (Not "Restoration")
Worrisome
That something like changing the city seal could be blithely ignored. Understanding design and wanting a unified design is perfectly possible while meeting legal definitions. Boston's government has't been great about understanding the importance of design standards and a consistent appearance across city departments. It would be nice to see the web design lead to that larger discussion.
yeah with all the stuff going on in the world
i am truly disturbed about this seal
Topics
First, I actually kind of like the design, even on a full-size display. I agree, though, that it seems like the topics are what you really want to get to from the home page and so it's a little strange that they're below the fold. The topics are also the only thing in the menu, which, if the current design stuck, might actually end up being my preferred way of getting to them. Maybe on a wide enough screen the menu could just be open by default, and instead of overlaying the content, could be displayed in a separate column.
I Love The Pontiac!
Wowzers!
I learned to drive on my parent's 1971 Pontiac Catalina station wagon, which had that exact color and front end. Thanks for the reminder.
neat-o
Ah, dear old Bootstrap ..makes it easy for us web dev folks :)
It works.
Ship it.
It looks like a Wordpress site
One of the "premium" ones.
I was going to say, this isn
I was going to say, this isn't an error design, this is how modern, squarespace run web design works. It's hideous.
Not Squarespace
They've hired an actual design firm, not simply selected some Squarespace templates.
Glad to say this isn't a
Glad to say this isn't a website I have to use regularly. When I see a website switch from an information-dense, quick-to-use layout to something that makes me feel like I'm playing with children's building blocks just to get a god-damned piece of information, I stop using the website. Pretty much without exception.
"...bloated brochureware..."
"...bloated brochureware..."
Perfect description.
"...hopefully us geezers..."
You mean WE geezers! Sheesh!
Carry on.
Topics
How far down until I can find "Not Getting Killed By A Car In The City"?
The city has a separate web site for that
http://www.visionzeroboston.org/
I believe its sort of covered
I believe its sort of covered under Topic 2: Owning a car in the city.
Q: What happens if I hit and kill a pedestrian or cyclist?
A: Don't worry about it. We'll say there is an investigation under way but then we won't even give you a ticket even if you are clearly at fault and didn't even stay at the scene. Just head home to the street parking you don't pay for where you've had a space saver out for weeks.
You left out the other
You left out the other answers....
A: It was probably a self-righteous zealot who thought he/she owned the entire road and thought they were a car not using their common sense. So you did the city a favor. You get to drive home and park in the spot that you pay for with your excise taxes which the cyclists don't pay but probably should start paying because they bitch so much for 'fairness'
Enjoy your day.
Out of curiosity
How much do you think an annual excise on an average bike would be? More than the postage to mail the bill?
For the record
The excise rate is 2.5%, so the excise tax in year 1 on a $500 bike would be $12.50. Assuming the same depreciation curve is used for bikes and cars, by year 5 the excise tax on that same bike is $1.25.
I'd bet most cyclists would be happy to pay $1-$10/year if it earned them a modicum of respect from motorists. Or if it earned them snow-free bike lanes. Or...you get the idea.
Great, then openly campaign
Great, then openly campaign to register, insure and pay excise tax on bikes for anyone over 18.
Somehow I don't think you'll do that.
That might be a good idea
Except for the fact that people who don't own cars also pay a lot for the roads. 40% of roadway costs in MA come from NON-vehicular sources (aka property tax).
Let's just say that this is an argument that you motorists with their subsidization by free occupation of public lands do not want to start unless they want to pay another 2/3 of what they are already paying.
excise tax = respect??
motorists don't even respect other motorists, this is a pretty hilarious pipe dream
Add up all the property used
Add up all the property used for street parking in Boston and the value of that land would be in the billions. Add in paving, repairs, street cleaning, plowing, etc and your little excise tax doesn't even come close to paying for all that. Much of it comes from property tax which non car owners pay so you are welcome.
Cyclists and pedestrians just want to get home without being killed. You want to do the city a "favor" by killing them yet you call others zealots...
The disclaimer usually goes
The disclaimer usually goes near the bottom.
Connect the Stenograph Machine to City Website for deaf folks.
Connect the Stenograph Machine in the Council Chamber and hard of hearing folks, the Deaf Community, all folks can better follow the Public Meetings of Boston City Council.
More equipment
They need more equipment too. There's a room on the 8th fl, where hearings are sometimes held, and it's completely inaccessible to deaf folks.
Cars rule
It's interesting to guess who the target users are: apparently business owners, drivers, and drivers. Visitors? T riders? Parents? Voters? Safety/crime-conscious residents? Nope, nope, nope, nope, and nope. Yes, I can read - they are looking for suggestions. But why would those 3 categories be the first out of the gate?
Because they've been the worst offenders
Part of the spur for this development was business owners complaining in licensing board meetings and other meetings that they didn't have the right forms/etc. because the city's website was so impossible to transit for all the correct information. Every car owner in Boston *has* to go to the city's website at least once a year to file their excise tax online (ok, you *could* write a check to avoid it like a luddite).
Also, to call "winter is coming" topic driver-based is extremely short-sighted. Did you click on it? There's info on reporting a lack of heat in your dwelling, unshoveled sidewalks, info about swimming availability at the Flaherty Pool in Rozzie, and the current snow emergency closures, etc.
The permitting problems with
The permitting problems with city hall are completely unrelated to the main city website. The city has a separate permitting system (Hansen) with a separate URL and back end. That system is not part of this refresh. The refresh is mostly for static content and a handful of webapps. The public facing permitting portal may get new stylesheets to change the branding, but the underlying functionality and forms will remain the same.
At a guess, those are topics
At a guess, those are topics that the city has already recently put out a lot of documentation and organized informatics on. The winter stuff gets publicized and updated a lot, and with the new parking meters and mobile integration those are also likely updated and sitting on somebody's desktop. So it was stuff they could easily send to the website developers to format and post.
Older docs, like, say, how to pick up a wedding license or the listing of parks likely hasn't been touched since the time it went up on the last website and the city likely wants to go thru the information and put it through 800 committees and make revisions before uploading it on the fresh site.
Why these topics
Topics were created to be flexible spaces where we could curate content from all the City's departments and help users better find it. Topics about and upcoming election or about getting around the city without a car are both perfect suggestions. Please keep 'em coming. You're welcome to send any additional ideas to [email protected]
As for how we chose these three Topics for the pilot, we wanted to get as many eyes on the initial designs as we could. More eyes hopefully leads to more feedback—good and bad—to help us grow and improve. We looked at analytics and chose from the most common pages, tasks and information people we looking for and this shaped the pilot Topics.
Please check back as we add more to the site and help us shape the next Topics by continuing to share.
A Government Organization Hiring a Design Professional?
They should do that more often!
A new website WORSE than the
A new website WORSE than the current one.
Just what I'd expect from Maaaahteeee
Man, that must be some good stuff...
You have to be high to think the current site is better than this one.
Functionality and content is
Functionality and content is preferable to minimalist garbage catering to the smartphone set.
I have a fricken desktop/labtop/tablet for a reason.
Don't worry
As they explain, right on the site, they'll be creating a more traditional listing of city services by department, i.e., just like the current site.
Agree.
It's an awful design trend. Horrible waste of screen real estate.
Does their web designer have
Does their web designer have government experience? There is a reason every other state and local government web site is organized in a way similar to the old web site: it works, for the user and the contributor. The new design is so avant-garde weird that contributors are going to say "Bucket!! I'll just post it all in a PDF." I expect I'll have to rummage through a lot of PDFs.
2016 Meeting Schedule?
I'd like to know when they'll be posting the 2016 Meeting Schedule. I've been waiting all week, I asked on Twitter and no answer.
Why is it so difficult to do the most basic thing?
http://www.cityofboston.gov/citycouncil/schedule.asp
Ask Michelle Wu
One of the things she promised at her first meeting as council president on Monday was an all new City Council Web site.
pilot boston.gov has web bugs for google
The city is going to additional effort to leak to a profiling company the business that its citizens have with its web site. (In reality, it's probably just the web site developers who are doing this, but the city should tell them not to do that.)
How nimble will this be?
I am pretty excited by the new design--I think that understanding that people want to know about topics not departments is really key. I don't care what department charges me my excise tax, I just want to pay it. Currently, if I search on the city's website I get gobbledegook.
What I would love to know is how easy this will be to update. For example, I looked at owning a car. One think I need to know, for my neighborhood, is when street cleaning is. Signing up for alerts has saved me on several occasions. This might not seem car oriented but it certainly is. So, will the web team be tracking what people are looking for and updating that info? Making new links to topics as they become apparent?
That seems like the real strength of this set up to adjust for behind the scenes changes in a way that the users never really sees.
Excited to see how this goes.
At fist? Not so nimble.
But we'll get there. The street cleaning example you raise is a good one.
That look-up should absolutely be on the Having a Car topic, but not something we could have ready in time for the pilot launch. We found more than 30 different systems and databases with which the current site integrates. Knitting each one into the site's new CMS and design to create as seamless an experience for residents as possible is our longterm goal.
Check back often and please keep the good ideas coming. You can email them to [email protected]
When I search for "excise" on
When I search for "excise" on the city's web site I see this prominent link to paying motor excise tax. If you see gobbledegook then something else is wrong.
For years the city touted its website as award winning, now all of a sudden the same website has a reputation for being hard to use? I don't think so. It sounds like the Marty administration threw the IT department under the bus to justify spending $880,000 on a makeover that should cost a lot less than $880,000.
What I see when I click your link
Could very well be described as gobbledegook. It's a very crowded, dense page with 5 different links, only one of which is relevant. The one relevant link that you consider "prominent" is actually the secondary result, not the primary.
Further, by boxing the "KeyMatch" results in a pale yellow box they resemble the "sponsored links" on multiple search sites, which subconsciously directed me to look at the fourth and fifth links first. It is WAY less usable than the new site.
But where are the listicles
But where are the listicles for Boston's Best Pizza and the photo gallery of Tom and Gisele sightings?
Oh wait, wrong Boston website.
Open Meetings Portal
Open Meetings Portal
http://www.cambridgema.gov/citycalendar/2016/01/11/openmeetingsportalpub...
What about Boston Boards/Commissions?... at
http://www.cityofboston.gov/boardsandcommissions/Default.aspx
Boston IT FTW
https://twitter.com/CityOfBoston/status/687024069431144448