New Montague Website

Thursday, August 17, 2017, 3:00 pm until 5:00 pm
Montague Town Hall
A meeting of the Website Committee

From: CarolynO-Montague Town Accountant
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2017 5:25 PM
Subject: New Town of Montague Website

While we haven’t officially started the process yet, I’d appreciate receiving any comments or suggestions about what you’d like to see in the new website – whether it’s specific information, layout issues, links, or anything else you’d like to either keep or improve upon.

Now’s your chance – don’t miss out!

Please provide me with comments and suggestions as they occur to you, with a Subject of New Town Hall Website.

Thanks in advance,

Carolyn

On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 6:14 PM, StevenE - Montague Town Administrator wrote:

Hello Everyone

I just wanted to follow up to Carolyn’s note to all of you. We are excited to be working with Mik Muller and Montague WebWorks on the design of the Town’s new web site. We are confident that the new site will be a much more effective business and communication tool. It will also be easier to maintain and keep current, as designated staff in every department will be able to quickly and easily update elements of their department, board, and committee pages (and only theirs).

We expect to spend the remainder of the summer season working on design, with a re-launch of the new site planned for October. To keep us moving, please do take time to share your thoughts in response to Carolyn’s questions. While it may seem obvious, we really do need your input regarding the limitations of the current site’s design, navigation, and content from many perspectives. Beyond that basic level of input, we are also interested in hearing from those of you who might want to make a larger contribution to the site design process. Let us know!

That’s it for now. Keep the input coming and please do let us know if you’d like to play a bigger role in the process!

Thanks - Steve

From: Jen Audley
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2017 8:48 PM
Subject: Re: New Town of Montague Website

Hi Carolyn and Steve - Thanks for asking! I am hoping to set aside some time this weekend to take a look at the websites that Montague WebWorks has built for other municipalities and then gather more thoughts about this for you, but in the meantime, here are a few:

I would like to see the Town's website do several things well:

Be a user-friendly source of information for residents, their friends and families
Offer people who are unfamiliar with Montague an appealing and accurate sense of why they might want to live here/work here ... or just visit this place
Fulfill the Town's legal obligations to provide information to the public ... and do so in a manner that encourages civic engagement and pride

One specific thing I'd love would be if the home page could feature events that are happening/have happened recently in town -- frequently-updated, with pictures and not very many words. RiverCulture could play a role in providing content for this, and so could the Cultural Council, the Libraries, the Senior Center, etc. MCTV could, too. I'd love to include school events and public events that are less directly sponsored by the town, as well, but we could start small and expand if the infrastructure is there.

I am interested in Steve's call for people who "might want to make a larger contribution to the site design process." Tell me more -- I am out of town next week, and after that things start to get very busy w/ school starting up again, but if there are ways I can help despite those constraints, I am willing.

Jen Audley

Hi Jen

Thanks, as always, for your thoughtful feedback. We’ve barely had a chance to discuss it in the past week, but we are interested in bringing a few select individuals in just a little closer to the development process. The goal is to make it an easy ask that ensures a web site design that has thoughtful input beyond our small core team. We’d like to engage people who have:

some creative vision for what the site can provide to the public (and how),
insight as prospective web site users/updaters, and
are willing to review the site at key design milestones and offer feedback to shape the final product.

We plan to discuss this further as part of our meeting with Mik Muller next Thursday August 17th from 3-5pm. Presently, Wendy, Carolyn, Karen Casey, and I will join Mik at that meeting. You would be most welcome if your schedule allows – or we can offer you an update coming out of that conversation.

Best regards - Steve