Wauwatosa WI, a suburban community of about 50,000 residents, is a quaint and historic city. Visitors to Wauwatosa enjoy its convenience to a variety of activities such as the Milwaukee County Zoo, the Milwaukee Brewers Stadium and Mayfair Mall - the city's premier shopping center. The many fine hotels offer a variety of accommodations, easy parking and convenience to Wauwatosa's excellent restaurants.
The web site is intended to satisfy the needs of city residents, potential residents, businesses, taxpayers and others interested in the business of the city. In order to provide site visitors with timely information that is easy to find, the City of Wauwatosa decided to replace their current web site. The new site includes a Content Management System (CMS), which allows the content and navigation of the site to be delivered dynamically. The CMS also insures that this dynamic content has a common look and feel.
There were two major objectives of the project:
- To keep the information on the site current and fresh
- To make the user experience as easy as possible
The CMS system allows content entry to be "decentralized" – that is, personnel within departments will enter content directly into the CMS. If a review process is required (for visual, typographic, legal or other purposes), the CMS will support this as well.
The majority of the desired functionality of the website is provided by the Content Management System itself. Those features and functions are:
- Web content authoring done through a collection of administration screens. These screens include an Explorer-like interface to arrange and describe content and a WYSIWYG editor to enter the content itself.
- For content that needs to be consistent throughout the site, authors choose from various templates.
- Authors can add links, graphics and text titles in addition to WYSIWYG content.
- The system allows files to be attached to content. These attachments will be delivered in their native format and viewed in a plug-in or downloaded. Wauwatosa will primarily be using attachments of .PDF type.
- Metatag support entered by the publisher of the content with an easy to complete list of user-friendly prompts that are translated into Metatags for publishing.
- Capabilities to paste HTML from Dreamweaver, Frontpage, etc. into the content management entry screens
- Workflow management
- Security based on user and section of the site
- Version control of documents. Built into the version control is the ability to edit and re-publish previous versions, which would allow seasonal content to be saved and re-used.
- Search functionality in the content management tool
- Site map capabilities
- Site search engine
- General Content: FAQs, general information content, Elected Officials, Job Postings, City Directory, Committee Meetings/Agendas
- Ability to create/edit authors, editors, and webmasters of the system
Northwoods Software Development worked with the city's personnel to define their specific business needs and create a project schedule. Northwoods designers then performed the information architecture for the screens and navigation. The Northwoods Content Management System was then modified to satisfy the city's requirements.
The results of the project were measured against the original objectives to verify that the goals were achieved. The people who maintain web site content are not computer programmers. They are people who are subject matter experts in their own fields. Therefore, the city can now keep the web site up-to-date with fresh content as needed and individual departments can set their own priorities. The major functions on the site are listed below.
Functionality allows the user to view all openings, or those of a single department. When a user accesses the Job Openings section from a department section, they will default to viewing the openings for that department
The FAQ template includes a Department designation, so that when users access the FAQ section, they will default to seeing the FAQs for the Department they selected.
A common Calendar of events is used, so that events for different departments can be displayed in one location on the site.
Standard Feedback Form
There are several places within the website where Wauwatosa provides users the ability to provide feedback to city departments or individuals. A single feedback form is used and can be linked to from different areas of the site.
This standard form is used for:
- Administration - Citizen Feedback Form (Administration)
- Building Department – Complaints about property violations via e-mail
- Community Development – Receiving complaints
- Police Department – Citizen Feedback Form
- Aldermanic Feedback Form
- Custom Forms
In addition to the feedback form, the city has a need to capture information and submit it directly to an e-mail address. The city can create forms, using Dreamweaver or a similar utility, and paste those forms into the CMS.
The City Directory gives the user the ability to find entries by name, or by function (i.e. Planning or Zoning, Dog Licenses, Treasurer or Tax Bills).
The Committee Meetings/Agenda section contains templates to allow authors to enter these items in a consistent manner. The interface will allow the users to view only selected Committees.
http://www.wauwatosa.net |