City's revamped Web site blends frills, friendliness
By CARRIE JOHNSON
Published June 1, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - The city of St. Petersburg has entered the information age, updating its Web site with a flashy new look and a variety of features.
The revamped site, www.stpete.org is designed to be more aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly. It will also allow residents to pay utility bills and parking tickets online.
Mayor Rick Baker said he pushed for the changes after looking at other cities' Web sites.
"It seemed like we might have been slipping behind a little bit so we set out to change the look of ours," he said.
Gone is the busy yellow screen with a list of different options. In its place is a more streamlined home page with a purple background and a picture of Baker.
"My goal is to make the site more and more interactive and user-friendly," Baker said.
The new look was launched about two weeks ago, said Robert Danielson, the city's marketing manager. It is still under construction and will remain so for the next few weeks.
The city first launched a Web site in 1998, Danielson said.
"At that time, our philosophy was just to provide information," he said.
In fact, the city's site had become almost too loaded with data before it was redone. The old site had 700 pages of information and 200 different points of entry.
The new site is designed to be more concise. It will also be more consistent, with one basic look for all of the different departments.
It took the city's marketing and technology departments about three months to create the new site, Danielson said. The city's only cost was staff time.
City residents will be receiving a notice with their utility bills later this week describing some of the site's features. The notice will include a personal identification number residents can use to pay their bills online.
Builders and developers seeking permits can click on the city's development services and print out dozens of different documents. Registered users can also check the status of their permits, Danielson said.
The city's economic development department has updated their page to include links to everything from local real estate offices to fresh market data.
The mayor's recently released performance measures are also on the site. residents are invited to respond to the measures online and offer their opinions.
But one thing about the Web site hasn't changed: It will still contain an exhaustive list of different events around the St. Petersburg.
"It's a huge clearinghouse for information for all sorts of events," Danielson said.
