For the past few months, I’ve been working part of Camden’s webteam in redesigning the new website. The first stage of this project, which is the design (look and feel) of the website is due to launch end of July/early August. If you’re interested to know the other stages of this project, visit my earlier blog post about it here. We have been blogging about the progress of this project as we’ve been going along at our Camden Website Redesign Project Blog.

Since the launch is near, we are showing customers how the new website will look like and creating videos to show them how to use the new features of the website. Like the ones you find below.

There will be a lot of improvements to how the website will work from a design and usability point of view. You will be able to find what you are looking for much quicker and identify transactions more easily.

The goals of the new website include:

• Increased adoption of digital channels
• Increased use of online services
• Reduced information duplication
• Improved workflow

The website will increase citizen satisfaction by delivering the following: -

• Enhanced engagement
• Increased confidence and trust
• Improved responsiveness
• Enhanced experience

Here is a snapshot of the homepage of the new website.

*These images are thumbnails, please click to view larger image.

Exciting new features include the following: -

An action navigation bar that will provide easy access to services across the website.

‘Mega’ menus that will allow quick navigation on all pages of the new website, offering easy access to popular pages, and transactions

Compare this with old navigation of categories: -

A new action panel that will be available on all lower pages for easy access to transactions such as Pay, Apply, Report, Book, Locate and Request. You can see an example of the sequence of action when you use this action panel below.

A new A to Z will be available on the homepage as well as all other pages for easy navigation.

This is how the current A-Z appears on the website

A new and more visible search bar will encourage users to search for information

This is how the search is currently displayed on the website.

The new footer will also help users navigate the new website better.

This is the current footer on the current website

The website will also display Camden council’s social media links.

A more detailed description of all these features will be following soon.

Want to to find out more about the development of the new website? Browse Camden Website Redesign Project Blog.

Hope this was useful!

Liz xxx

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• Local government website redesign project phases and business requirements for Camden Council UK

Yesterday I had the time of my life! I had gotten the opportunity to join other girl geeks in London as part of a “London Girl Geek Dinners” event at Regent St. I thought it would be an interesting thing to share anyways with my readers. Hope you guys don’t mind the slight change of topic. Considering most of you are geeks, like me ;o) , I thought you probably wouldn’t mind.

Here’s what its all about….

Fashionable shopping destination Regent Street is teaming up with London Girl Geek Dinners to offer a futuristic shopping day which  includes experiences from a presentation at the Apple Store, Augmented Reality interactive displays, free beauty and technology products that will be revealed through the latest technology on your smart phone. Throughout the day there are also opportunities for free lunches and cocktails.

I’ve done a short video montage on what the day was all about and you can view this below.

London Girl Geeks Regent St Epic Shopping Experience Montage from Liz Azyan on Vimeo.

Here’s a flickr slideshow of the day…

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

If you want to find out more, visit my other blog http://lizazyan.posterous.com

Hope you found this interesting!

Liz xxx

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I was recently interviewed about hyperlocal websites relationship with Camden Council (in response to this blog post; “Digital Strategy: How Camden will be engaging with the local community through hyperlocal websites“) and an overview about our new website. This article has now been published and featured on E-Gov Bulletin by Dan Jellinek titled ‘Hyperlocal’ Information ‘Invaluable For Local Authorities’. I thought I’d share the answers I gave E-Gov Bulletin with this blog just incase you were interested in a more detailed view of our project and our perspective on the subject of hyperlocal websites role within local authorities.

Broadly, how would you define hyperlocal websites?

If you can imagine holding up a magnifying glass on a map of a town or a place / even using the zoom function on google earth/maps, that is what hyperlocal means. We don’t only see the name of the streets but you also see the post office, schools, high street shops, residential houses and flats and etc. And sometimes you’d also see people painting their picket fences or walking down the streets, including the ‘lollypop’ person waving and guiding children across the streets.

Therefore hyperlocal websites are websites that deliver content or news and information about a particular place or specific area in a town or city. You will also find that ‘hyper’ means ‘more than usual or normal’ so hyperlocal website give deeper information about a ‘local’ area than usual or a ‘more specific view of the issues that concern the ‘local’ area.

How will Camden Council be using hyperlocal websites/info on its new site?

Quote from Alasdair Mangham, Head of Information Systems at LB of Camden.

“We are working with Talk About Local to help us build capacity within our communities that will encourage people to go online. Once communities have got their websites up and running we will give them widgets to put on their websites that can give them direct access to the Council services they want rather than expecting them to come to our website and track down the services that are most relevant to them.’”

What are the benefits for both local authorities and citizens of using/creating hyperlocal sites? In particular, can they help: 1) the engagement process by a council, and 2) service delivery

1) Yes, it will help the engagement process by a council because it will help the council understand the needs and concerns raised by citizens without being authoritative or seen as moderating every single comment. Therefore the conversations can be limitless and more diverse which also allows citizens to share their experience or stories of living in the local area. Engagement can come in many different forms, but it is mainly about when and where it happens. Having direct contact or knowledge about a certain local areas well-being will help the council to act on citizens concerns  when and where they might need them.

2) We all know that a council website is not particularly everyone’s first point of reference on a daily basis like say the BBC website. It might not also not even offer RSS feeds that can allow citizens to easily get information pushed to them at their convenience. Therefore by working closely with ‘Talk About Local’ and its hyperlocal websites within Camden, we will be able to target and offer specific information about a service directly to the hyperlocal websites using widgets or even offer a guide or handy tips on how to use our website to access specific type of information. We can also offer guides on how to carry out transactions to encourage its uptake and build citizens confidence in using the web. I think the possibilities of enhancing service delivery via hyperlocal websites are limitless. Its about grabbing the opportunities as they come and doing our best to fulfill them by listening to our Camden residents.

Are more councils beginning to use hyperlocal sites, and will this usage increase in the future?

I do not see councils as ‘using’ hyperlocal sites because they are not there to interfere nor moderate/own the hyperlocal websites. They hyperlocal websites belong to citizens and they are the ‘users’ of hyperlocal websites. Councils are unofficial contributors to useful information that can help citizens within that particular area. So you can view councils as being just another member of that community sitting side-by-side with citizens, reaching out on citizens level without any barriers or judgements. This type of engagement will hopefully break down the barriers or walls that currently exist between councils and citizens and increase citizens trust towards local authorities.

At this moment, there are a few councils beginning to ‘engage’ with hyperlocal sites, but each are using different strategies or methods for those engagements. Its important to mention a very important research currently being carried out my London Council that you can find here http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/capitalambition/projects/digitalneighbourhoods.htm

This project is a research study to explore the impacts of citizen-led neighbourhood websites and the implications for local councils. And as we all know, with more case studies available, the likelihood of more councils following best practices are higher. The main thing is local authorities start sharing those methods so others can learn from them, which is why Camden is keen to communicate its findings to the public. In times where huge cost cuts are being made in government, we all need to work together more effectively to ensure ‘free’ valuable knowledge and lessons learnt, such as this does not pass us by.

Can you tell us about any interesting/new features of Camden’s new website?

Camden’s new website will be easier to use and navigate with better accessibility and a more effective and efficient search facility. The new website will improve in 3 stages. 1st will be the look and feel which will be delivered through the design, 2nd stage we will look into revamping the LGCL categories to fit users understanding of services and further user testings on the new website. The 3rd stage will be looking at developing apps and widgets for the website that will encourage further usage on different platforms and devices.

We have done several user testings to ensure the new design satisfies users needs and demands for information. It will also encourage users to carry out transactions online with transaction option at any point where possible. Some of the users comments on the new website during our user testing include “The site is more user friendly, looks much more cleaner, easier to navigate, less cluttered, so much more better than the old website, more interesting content and more visible transaction and search option.”

We will continue to do user testings once the site is launch to ensure we continue to improve it with further user comments and feedback. We will be transparent about the progress we make to allow the public to see the process that we go through to improve the new websites functionality, usability and accessibility. We also hope that we will be able to help other councils to learn from our mistakes and encourage transparency in web services across local authorities.

Hope this was useful!

Liz

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• Government-to-Citizen Communications: Utilising multiple digital channels effectively
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This is a cross-posting from Camden Council’s (UK) blog, where I also blog.

Camden exploring and learning from online neighbourhoods

Recently, Camden’s webteam has been talking to Will Perrin, Founder of ‘Talk About Local’ about the potential of engaging with citizens in Camden through hyperlocal blogs and local community websites. Just in case you are unfamiliar with ‘Talk About Local’, here is an excerpt from its website describing the project.

Talk About Local is a project to give people in their communities a powerful online voice. We want to help people communicate and campaign more effectively to influence events in the places in which they live, work or play.

As you may know this blog is about developing a new website for Camden that can help us get more people to transact with us online so you may well be asking how ‘Talk About Local’ works in this project. The answer comes from Alasdair Mangham, Head of Information Systems at London Borough of Camden

‘In Camden we are very fortunate to have such a large number of our customers with easy access at home or at work to the internet, but around twenty five percent do not. We don’t want to leave them behind so we are working with Talk About Local to help us build capacity within our communities that will encourage people to go online. Once communities have got their websites up and running we will give them widgets to put on their websites that can give them direct access to the Council services they want rather than expecting them to come to our website and track down the services that are most relevant to them.’

To find out in more detail what ‘Talk About Local’ can do for you and what its doing for Camden Council, watch this video and hear it from the horses mouth himself, Mr. Will Perrin.

Will Perrin talks about ‘Talk About Local’ with Camden Council (UK) from Liz Azyan on Vimeo.

About Will Perrin (an excerpt from Hello Digital)

Founder of Talk About Local – a project to empower hundreds of local communities to express themselves on the internet and former technology policy advisor to Tony Blair.

William has a track record of innovation in public service. He catalysed the last great upheaval in communications regulation by driving through the Communications White Paper in 2000 that abolished seven regulators and created OFCOM. William went on to be technology policy advisor to Tony Blair. William was responsible for the world’s first Government use of YouTube, the world’s first government/third sector mashup, and was one of the team behind the Downing Street e-petitions system the world’s biggest online government engagement system until the Obama administration. William commissioned the Power of Information work in 2007. William is taking a sabbatical from the civil service to run Talk About Local an attempt to scale up his community activism on www.kingscrossenvironment.com to hundreds of communities.

Hyperlocal websites

What are hyperlocal websites anyway?

First let’s have a look at the definition of hyperlocal according to Christopher Wink

hyperlocal news (n): information gathering about a geographically-specific community that is part or was once part of a broader coverage area or focus.

Christopher goes on to elaborate the definition as you see below

So here’s what I mean by that. The hyperlocal movement is encapsulating some pretty broad, disparate agendas, from (1) citizen journalists covering their neighborhoods or towns of just a few thousand people or even fewer through to (2) media entrepreneurs who are trying to create news-gathering organizations covering as many as a few hundred thousand people in a specific geographic place — or, you know, data assembled by a computer.

If you’re still a bit hazy on the whole concept, take a look at the examples Christopher gave that helps give you a better idea of what hyperlocal is and what it isn’t.

Some Examples to help make the definition more clear:

NOT HYPERLOCAL

• A news site that covers the entire city of Pittsburgh
• A blog recreating a local newspaper’s coverage of a cluster of towns in Arkansas

YES HYPERLOCAL

• A citizen journalism project reporting on the east side of Detroit
• A newspaper beat writer creating a portal for the portion of the county he covers

Hyperlocal websites = Naughty school children?

I think the biggest challenge we face sometimes is what I call the ‘I don’t want to know’ syndrome. Having been a researcher who was impartial to organizational policies, I often found that most councils treated or viewed hyperlocal websites like ‘naughty school children’ that needed to be punished instead of heard or just not taken seriously at all.

Some home truths about hyperlocal websites

There are some home truths that have lead us to where we are today. Given how the social web has evolved recently, its no wonder how its taken some people by surprise and reacting quite negatively towards the significant developments of our online communications and society. A lot of people have called this age “A brave new world” and I couldn’t agree with it more. We do need to be brave to face the changes as a government that wants to move forward and in line with the society it serves.

Citizens now have a bigger voice than they have ever had before and we need to learn to manage the new expectations and also learn that being defensive is probably not the first call to action. There are also some very interesting developments on how hyperlocal website are given more credibility and funding by commercial entities, like what happened to hyperlocal newswire Fwix in NYC. Take a look at some of our handpicked articles on hyperlocal websites that might spark your interest

• MP Condemns Hyperlocal Websites as Purveyors of Tittle Tattle and Opinion
• The fight for a right to report
• William Perrin discusses his hyperlocal website (The Guardian Video)
• Old media or new media – who breaks the news today?
• A digital engagement framework adapted for local government (an academic overview on digital engagement and hyperlocal blogs activities and impact on citizen participation by Michele Ide-Smith from Cambridgeshire County Council)
• Annals of mutual incomprehension: Local newspapers and hyperlocal bloggers
• Council newspapers: One hyperlocal site’s response

The reality…

However the reality of it is hyperlocal website can actually help local councils to better understand the community they are serving. Hyperlocal websites can sometimes be the voice of a certain group in a local area that are sharing their life stories and only want to be heard. Most times its about a community of people with common interests or lifestyles who are locally linked together with no specific or politically driven agenda.

And sometimes, since their lives are intertwined closely to their local well-being, its common for these websites to discuss council services and how they feel it could be better from their point of view. And usually when people choose to bring their problems to an open or public platform, its often because they are feeling frustrated and need to vent or seek for help.

Why local conversations are important to local councils

Why are local conversations important for local councils? from Liz Azyan on Vimeo.

In the video above, Will explains why local conversations are important to local councils. We here at Camden realize that we need to find a way to listen in on those conversations without being authoritative, for example through consultations and other methods of collecting citizens feedback. Not that those methods aren’t reliable, but we feel that each method has a different goal or purpose. The main thing is, we all arrive at the same end product, which is ‘Better services for citizens of Camden’.

Listening to local conversations often outlines a story to a community that builds a picture of how the community is changing or adapting to its surrounding. And changes happen everyday in our communities, therefore the picture changes and people need services to adapt to those changes more quickly and efficiently to allow them to live their everyday lives more comfortably.

Local councils building their own hyperlocal website?

So therefore, you might be thinking… why can’t a local council just build their own local community website so they can control those conversations. The video below, Will Perrin discusses the reasons why this is possibly not a good idea.

Why local councils shouldn’t be the one to setup local community websites from Liz Azyan on Vimeo.

People don’t talk to the council, they talk to each other

The reality is people are the same online as they are offline. In the offline world, they talk to their neighbours, friends, family, at their local church or mosque and etc. In the online world, this concept does not change. People will be more open about their lives and the complexities they deal with in their everyday lives with people and in places they are comfortable doing so.

Therefore having a council build a local community website most probably will not work and be difficult to build a community around anyways. The most successful communities online are built organically. And for the community to grow and interact with each other , the conversations need to be real life events based on their day-to-day problems.

List of hyperlocal website in the UK and Ireland

So if I’ve managed to spark enough interest for you towards hyperlocal websites, here’s a list of hyperlocal website kindly collated by Openly Local that lists all the hyperlocal websites currently active in the UK and Ireland. Also if you want to take some of Will’s recommendation of good hyperlocal website in the UK, have a listen in the video below.

Good Examples of Local Community Websites by Will Perrin from Liz Azyan on Vimeo.

Some links to some good examples of hyperlocal website

• Armley Tourist Board
• Bishopthorpe
• Bournville Village
• Bridge Ward News
• Formby First
• Harringay Online
• HU17
• Love Clapham
• North Haven Estate
• Parwich
• Penkhull
• Puckeridge Village
• SE1
• SE11
• Sheffield Forums
• Shildon Town Crier
• Tunstall
• Ventnor Blog
• We love Larkhall
• Whitechapel and Inglewhite
• Wirksworth
• WV11

Exploring online neighbourhoods

Early last year, I came across Hugh Flouch the founder of HarringayOnline, a hyperlocal website for people who live in Harringay, London. He introduced me to the world of local government twitterers that lead me to where I am today. During my chat with Hugh, I asked about his experience running HarringayOnline and came up with some very interesting insights. The paper titled ‘Exploring Online Neighbourhoods’ will feature the background, tips, motivation, achievements and testimonials.

ExploringOnlineNeighbourhoods – HarringayOnline

Hope this was useful!

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Liz effectively articulates how local government can use integrated, multi-channel communications to increase access to information and services, improve opportunities for engagement, and offer members of the community a choice in how they get their information.

Stephen Cross from Hillingdon Council

If you wish to follow more of Liz’s tips and research in the future, join Liz’s LGEO Research page on Facebook.

Update (6/6): This paper has now been promoted on Scribd to the ‘Rising List’ with a count of 547 reads so far and increasing. Thanks for your support on this research!

Background of this White Paper

After years of research, I’ve often been asked of my opinion of what I feel can increase citizen engagement online. And through all the insightful conversations I’ve had with several of LGEO Research readers, it often nagged me that I never really could see a solution that was simple enough for local councils to adopt that will translate with citizens. It was also important that any solution that was going to work, should encourage internal processes within government to improve as well. So my vision was definitely a tall order!

Amongst all the wizzy stuff emailed my way, a lot of solutions seemed very sophisticated and very impressive but seemed difficult to measure or understand how it works. Simplicity and measurable results should be  on top of the list when choosing a solution for citizen engagement online and I feel I have found one possible solution that might suit local councils. But for every solution, there must be reasons motivating its adoption.

So this paper explores the reasons behind those motivations. It will draw a picture of the true state of governance and communications, that we live in today. I do hope that you will find useful and inspiring. There are also videos links attached to this White Paper that will explain the content in more detail. Audios of the White Paper are also available below for accessibility.

I look forward to hearing your feedback.

Government-To-Citizen Communications – Using Multiple Digital Channels Effectively

Audios of paragraphs on this White Paper for better accessibility

1. Government Communications Today
Government Communicate Today

2. How is government currently engaging with citizens online?
White Paper – 2 How is government currently engaging with citizens online?

3. What are the challenges government faces when communicating with the public?
White Paper – 3 What are the challenges government faces when communicating with the public?

4. The reasons why public communications must be improved
White Paper – 4 The reasons why public communications must be improved

5. Benefits for governments and citizens
White Paper – 5 Benefits for governments and citizens

6. Finding a simple, low cost solution
White Paper – 6 Finding a simple, low cost solution

7. Integrating social media and email into governments web communications strategy
White Paper – 7 Integrating social media and email into governments web communications strategy

8. Examples of social media as a web communication tool
White Paper – 8 Examples of social media as a web communication tool

9. Example of email as an effective web communication tool
White Paper – 9 Example of email as an effective web communication tool

10. An integrated platform for reaching the public more effectively
White Paper – 10 An integrated platform for reaching the public more effectively

11. Examples of how it should work
White Paper – 11 Example of how it should work

12. Examples of effective communications via email with measurable cost savings and avoidable contact results
White Paper – 12 Examples of effective communications via email with measurable cost savings and avoidable contact results

13. Benefits measured within 9 – 12 months
White Paper – 13 Benefits measured within 9 – 12 months

14. Communicating with citizens during emergencies
White Paper – 14 Communicating with citizens during emergencies

15. Conclusion
White Paper – 15 Conclusion

Thank you for all the tweets and wonderful support!

Also thank you to all my friends in government who have supported me all this time. Your support is what has given me this wonderful opportunity to deliver this White Paper to you today. It truly wasn’t possible without you!

Hope this was useful!

Liz

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So, tomorrow I’m releasing my 1st White Paper on how local government can communicate better with citizens using multiple channels on limited cost.  Its been a while that I’ve been doing this research and I often get suggestions or go over ideas on how local governments can better utilise either social media channels or any of their e-services. They’re are also concerns that there are not many transactions happening on local government websites that can sufficiently cut costs and make some proper savings.

The paper was released to one lucky local council and their review was this – name of individual and local council will be released tomorrow to avoid a leak ;o) #twitterleaks

Liz effectively articulates how local government can use integrated, multi-channel communications to increase access to information and services, improve opportunities for engagement, and offer members of the community a choice in how they get their information.

The White Paper

This 8-page White Paper is the beginning of finding some practical and evidence-based solutions that might be of interest to local councils and other government bodies who want to communicate better with their citizens. Find out:-

1. Why local councils need to communicate better with citizens
2. How local councils and other government agencies are currently engaging with citizens.
3. What are the challenges government faces when communicating with the public.
4. Reasons why public communication must improve.
5. Benefits of good communication for governments and citizens.
6. Finding a low cost, simple solution.
7. Integrating social media and email into government web communications strategy.
8. Statistics and figures on success stories of using an integrated platform for public communication.
9. And many more!

So, if you’ve been following my research all this time and have found it useful, please remember to look out for the release tomorrow on Twitter, Facebook and Scribd. Its free for all and the hashtag for this White Paper is #getthewordout because its about governments effectively getting the word out to citizens!

So, please GET THE WORD OUT!

Hope you will find the information useful!

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This blog post is sponsored by Semantix Ltd.

Web 2.0 & social media for patients

The first on the scene was the empowered patient. Patients are participating in online communities to share and discuss daily life struggles to coping with rare diseases.

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This blog post is sponsored by Semantix Ltd.

This blog post features a list of social networks found online for medical practitioners.

Hope you will find this useful!

Social networks (Web 2.0) for medical practitioners

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This is a cross-posting from Camden Council’s Website Redesign Project Blog, where I also blog.

We are now still in the first phase of Camden Council’s website redesign.  There are 3 core phases in this project, that Alasdair explains in detail in the video below.  It is important for us to communicate that once the website is launched, this project does not end there. There will be another 2 phases until the cycle is complete.

Phases of Camden Website Redesign Project from Liz Azyan on Vimeo.

The 3 phases of Camden Council’s (UK) website redesign project

1. Phase 1 (User research) – Getting user data, conducting usability research and qualititative data on how people are using the site informing the new designs going live in July.
2. Phase 2 (Usability) – Usability of transactions that sit behind the designs, particularly our navigation structure which is very much based on the Local Government Category List (LGCL) and our e-forms.
3. Phase 3 (Innovation) - Developing widgets, iPhone apps, breaking down information on the site into usable things that people can use and any other types of innovations that might come about in the next 12 – 18 months.

Talking about improvements after Camden Council’s website redesign from Liz Azyan on Vimeo.

There’s a disconnect between the objectives of the website and the objectives of the business ~ Alasdair Mangham, Head of Information Systems, London Borough of Camden

According to Alasdair, the objectives of the website are largely driven by the local government type targets (i.e. the number of unique visitors to your site and calculation of the population that visits your site).  This however does not determine the success or improvement of the new website.

How we need to measure improvements in local government website redesign projects

As Alasdair mentioned in the video above, we need to ask ourselves what the business objectives are for the website in delivering its services online. We have a huge amount of information sitting there on the website that does not really get consumed by that many users.  For instance 80% of our information gets consumed by only 20% of our users, creating a vast long tail of information.  Therefore not satisfying the objective of the local authority or business objectives of a particular online service/transactional focused website.

Key objectives of delivering services online for Camden Council

Key objectives of Camden Website Redesign Project from Liz Azyan on Vimeo.

So its clear now that this project needs to fulfill the business objectives in order to make it success.  We need to identify what are the business objectives for delivering services online. And once we’ve done that, only then we can start making measurements on the websites’ improvements.

Digital Strategy – Camden Council’s Business Requirements

It is also important to identify what the business requirements are in this project to ensure they are in sync with the web development of the redesign. Our business requirements are divided into 10 categories. Those categories and business requirements are listed below: -

• Strategy and policy – Defining council-wide policies and clear management responsibilities, establishing SLA’s, ensuring web training is documented, resources are secured and roadmap for future developments.
• Roles, responsiblities and workflows
  • Assigning ownership of content
  • Service areas take greater responsibility for site
  • Facility to allow manager to send content to officer for instant update or vice versa.
• Brand – Increased promotion of website, all pages conform to a style guide and focus on local area, not just the organisation (i.e. Love Camden content).
• Technology
  • Integration with service systems
  • E-Form integration with customer services and other systems
  • Single application / engine for all mapping services
  • Platform independent – conformance with EGIF
  • Top content dashboard presented to backend administrators / content editors
  • Futureproof, scalable and adaptable.
• Access, channels and engagement
  • Incentivise online interactions
  • Ongoing involvement and feedback from residents in understanding their website needs
  • Enhance digital engagement with users without internet access
  • Incentivise return visits
  • Get people to regularly use the site who at the moment rarely visit
  • Consultation & Engagement Portal
  • Portals defined by Audience type
  • Distinctive site focused exclusively for young people
  • Content, look & feel targeted to youth audience
  • Ask users for opt-in to SMS when contacting customer services via phone
  • Satellite sites run by services
  • Partner extranet
  • Replacing paper consultations with social media or other online engagement
• Content
  • Engage users to pro-actively assist in content curation
  • Increased synergy between offline and online content
  • Play to the strengths of digital, and avoid simply copy/pasting content from offline
  • Democracy section needs improved audit trail facility to observe & track governmental decision making
• Services and transactions – All services available online
• Contact, notification and feedback
  • Increase use of email notification within services
  • Services and contact should be responsive & provide continuous user feedback
  • Increase use of SMS notifcation within services
  • E-newsletters to residents & stakeholders
  • Ability to update web and call centre instantly
  • Ensure web and call centre advice is consistent
  • Ability for users to request online contact ONLY
  • Integration of FAQs with call centre logs
  • Improved collection and management of customer data
• Stats and analysis – User journey data available for analysis by council
• Social media and user generated content (UGC)
  • Utilise social media tools for engagement, consultation & communication
  • Council Home Swap – residents upload photos of flat, search for other properties
  • Compliment, rather than duplicate, existing websites that support the voice of Camden

Conclusion

Hopefully this has given readers a clearer idea of what this project aims to do and what they can expect from Camden Council’s website in the future.

Please leave comments if you wish to know more or to tell us what you think of our project. Please don’t forget to check our other blog posts too.

Possibly Related Posts

• London Borough of Camden unveils its customer focused new website design due to launch in August
• Hyperlocal websites are invaluable to Local Authorities
• Digital Strategy: How Camden Council (UK) will be engaging with the local community through hyperlocal websites
• Increasing transparency through local government web development blogs
• Citizens ‘wish list’ and frustrations with local government websites