Start scrolling for a new municipal website, Bonfield residents.
Council agreed to redesign its site to make it more user-friendly for visitors and to also make it easier for staff to upload content on the back end. The contract to spruce things up has been awarded to GHD Digital, for the cost of $13,430.
Bonfield CAO Nicky Kunkel emphasized, “The website is a significant medium for municipal communication as the intent is to provide an all-inclusive, central location, where residents can access the information they need at any time.”
The website upgrades were included in Bonfield’s 2024 budget, as staff and council were anticipating the project. Back in 2023, the municipality issued a community satisfaction survey, asking what improvements folks would like to see. Updating the website was on the list.
Kunkel noted, “The municipality heard that the current website is not user-friendly and that it’s hard to find information. Many simply use the search feature using keywords and it still takes a few attempts to find the information.”
Further, “Our current website is cumbersome for staff to update,” Kunkel continued. “There are templates that cannot be changed, with little flexibility in adding new content.” The website is also known to load slowly, Kunkel detailed, and the overhaul will clean up all these issues.
A request for proposals was issued in October, and six companies responded. GHD Digital met all of the criteria, and the company has done similar work for the municipalities of Algonquin Highlands, Parry Sound, Hasting Highlands and Otonabee South, all of which “are very happy” with the results, Kunkel said.
The price includes a redesign of the site, hosting, storage support and support for the next three years. Moving all of the content to the new site will take about 15 weeks, Kunkel noted, but then it will be ready to go.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
