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Woking Borough Council has launched a new website via its existing website address woking.gov.uk
The new-look website replaces the previous site which had served the council and customers for over decade. On the new site, customers are still able to access the same services online as before, but with the added benefits of:
- an improved experience across different devices, such as mobile phones, tablet and desktop computers
- refreshed and easier to read content
- easier customer access to the most frequently requested services
- easier access to pay for, report and request services.
With more than one million users accessing woking.gov.uk each year, it was essential to deliver a new site which was fit for purpose. Most notably a site which was optimised for all commonly used handheld devices – smartphones and tablets.
Cllr Kevin Davis, Woking Borough Council’s Portfolio Holder for Information Communication Technology, said: “Over recent years it has become obvious that our existing site was coming to the end of its shelf-life.
“The design was outdated and wasn’t built to work intuitively on smartphones and tablets. The site navigation was structured around how our internal departments are organised rather than how customers interact with us, and it was full of council jargon. The new website solves these problems and much better reflects our future goals.
“Working with our colleagues across the council, we’ve redeveloped the structure, design and information on the website to make it much easier to use and much more customer-focused. Woking.gov.uk now has a modern look and a user-focused site structure.”
Given the complexities associated with a project of this size and nature, the site has been launched with some redirections back to the old site. To ensure integration between the old and the new, the old site has been stripped back to host the outstanding content only and any navigation links that remain are directed to the new site. Over the coming weeks, these areas will be fully migrated to the new site.
Developed using the same global open-source software, Drupal, used by The Mayor of London, The White House and many other international organisations, the new site will deliver many benefits for the council, most notably cost savings. The software is free to use and modify, and there are no requirements for purchase, licence and maintenance fees.