| | Published May 11th, 2011
| New and Improved: The Town of Moraga Website
| | By Sophie Braccini |  | |
It's been a long time coming, but the Town of Moraga recently launched its new web site. Now when residents go online at www.moraga.ca.us, they experience the new face of the Town: friendly, helpful, efficient... and good looking. There are still a few glitches, but the main objectives have been reached - residents can find relevant and current information, the site can be easily updated by staff members so the content will stay fresh and relevant, without increasing their workload. "We have a very dynamic web site that will change constantly," said Town Engineer Jill Mercurio in presenting the new site at the April 27 Town Council meeting, "our objective was to make the site very user friendly and informative."
Each department will maintain its own page and decide on the content. The Planning Department, to illustrate, added a FAQ for homeowners and uploaded photos. The website provides access to multiple resources, and it's clear that a lot of thought went into how an average person would go about finding what he or she needs - for example, agendas for upcoming meetings can be found on the left column and can be accessed through the general calendar or at the bottom of each page where committees and commissions are listed with their respective meeting schedules. Minutes of previous meetings are also included, which improves government transparency.
"I felt that I wanted to do this web site since I moved here nine years ago," said Tiraporn Olsen of Happy Pixel Studio in Moraga, which designed the new web site, "I solicited them so many times." When the request for public bids went out last year, Happy Pixel made the most competitive offer. "Everything is easy to update, we created a new process on how to do things and we combine usability and accessibility," said Olsen, "so they can work quicker and smarter."
The new site's web master is Town accountant Yuliya Elbo, but ten staff members have been trained in how to update the site.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA