Town Website Redesign: Have Your Say
Cary, NC — The Town website needs an update and Cary wants your input! Have your say on the next generation Town of Cary website now through September 30, 2014 at Cary Have Your Say.
Cary Have Your Say
Cary Have Your Say is hosted on MindMixer. MindMixer is an interactive website used by communities and groups to gather opinions from their citizens or members in a convenient, economical, and organized manner. The MindMixer team founded the site with the following mission statement:
We believe good, informed ideas are out there, but many don’t make it to the surface or are drowned out by the volume of usual voices. Leveraging the power of the internet and social media, MindMixer helps organizations connect with community members who might not otherwise get involved.
MindMixer truly “brings the outside in” by encouraging participation in matters of the town from individuals who may not usually speak up.
Updating the Town Website
After creating a free MindMixer account, any Cary resident can join the discussion on plans to improve the Town website.
The Town has created a simple form that includes brief statements on the site’s future plans. Some of these suggestions cover design, social media integration, payment portal, navigation and more.
Following each proposal, users can enter their comments in an empty field.
MindMixer users can easily share their ideas about website renovations.
Users can choose to provide input on one, several, or all of the topics open for discussion. The worksheet covers a wide range of items to encourage everyone to share their thoughts, interests or expertise with others.
Join the Discussion
Town of Cary
Website Redesign
MindMixer Discussion Site
Now through Sept. 30, 2014
Visit Now: Cary Have Your Say
What a mess! I can’t imagine that the town will get much useful feedback from such a poorly designed, unclear, confusing feedback form that requires users to create a new account just to participate!
The town should be asking people what they want from the town’s website and social media, not asking people to provide feedback on goal and plan statements.
And requiring people to create a separate account just to participate in this “survey” is an unnecessary obstacle that will limit participation.
This is a big mistake. We all make mistakes. Please, Town of Cary, fix this one and get real citizen feedback about this very important endeavor to update the town’s website.
Opening sentence in survey is over 30 words long! We need usability!!!!
Survey needs to be de-geeked and re-done for the masses.
Also, all the town staffies approving & paying the bills for this need to read, this and ensure the contractor does it right:
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/
Mindmixers:
Please, please memorize, print and frame this page:
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/
The website update is a good idea, but the two surveys posted about it on the “Cary Have Your Say” web page need to be reworked too. For a few years I was a software tester at a major telecomm company, and I couldn’t figure out what some of the things in the survey were.
As they stand now, at least 1/3 of the questions/statements given will be absolutely meaningless to people who only use web pages, not design them.
The surveys need to be rewritten so the average web page USER can understand them. Then be reposted for another 30 days to get a more meaningful response than what’s up there now will generate.