The City of West Hollywood launched a new look to their official Website weho.org today. The new face looks nothing like its previous self with interactive video showing arial views of various popular WeHo locations. Those locations include Plummer Part and the Sunset Strip. The video backdrop footage also features a snippet of this year’s LA Pride in West Hollywood and shows the members of the Translatina Coalition marching down Santa Monica Boulevard during Pride Month.
The new Weho.org page continues to offer everything at the click of a scroll down menu, from Services, Community, Business, and City Government at the top of the page, to Calendar, News, WeHoTV and city Facts located at the side of the page.
The new page launched on June 27, at around 3pm. It will take another day or so before it fully propagates the internet.
“We were long overdue for a redesign,” Brett White, Digital Media Officer of the City of West Hollywood, told WEHO TIMES. “Although our old website served us well over the years, it was time for something new and fresh. This new look/design gives users easy access to the content they seek most – all presented in a modern, dynamic, and interactive environment. The process began with a 6-month long UX Analysis that included both quantitative and qualitative tracks that not only told us what our constituents are looking for, but how they are looking for it. The results of this analysis served as foundation for the design. Basically, our users designed this site.”
White says that nothing is permanent when it comes to the web, but this is the design that will be around for the next few years. “It’s important to state that this is a user-first design,” He said. “We consider the website to be a living digital entity, so the content and navigation will constantly be adjusted to fit user’s needs. That said, you can expect a change to our search function in a few weeks. Once Google has enough time to index our new site, we’ll be switching over to them as our search engine. We expect this to happen in a few weeks.”
White has been with the City of West Hollywood for nearly two decades. His role successfully launched and nurtured an award-winning web and social media presence that is recognized as unparalleled by cities across the nation. In addition to his role as Digital Media Officer, he is also a member of the City’s Innovation Catalyst Group, which is tasked with the development of innovative ideas, adopting new technologies and finding the best solutions available to address the needs of the City and the community.
The look of the city of West Hollywood’s official website from the past eight years.The new website is a welcoming change from the old design, which according to White has had a couple of “nip and tuck” enhancements over the years. “Our old design gave us approximately 8 years of service,” he said.
And how are people reacting to the changes?
“So far so good. As with any redesign with significant navigation changes, there will be growing pains. However, the feedback we’ve received so far has been positive.”
To learn more, visit the newly improved West Hollywood page at weho.org.
This article was updated to include quotes from Brett White.
