Whistler’s municipal government is redesigning its website, and is seeking community input.
In a project described by the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) as intended to streamline the website and make it a better tool for residents to access important local government resources and better engage with the municipality, officials are seeking website users to give feedback through a survey, or going as far as signing up for one-on-one interviews to help shape the design of the website.
The survey, found on the RMOW’s (current) website, takes about five minutes to fill out—though those responding could take longer as it asks for informed feedback on the breadth of the website’s content and engagement tools, with a focus on where residents are getting information from on the website, and what could (or should) be changed.
For website redesign enjoyers, the RMOW also offers up to two in-depth interviews with involved staff to discuss the redesign, and also provide feedback through testing the prototype later in the project’s development.
The website redesign project has been in its current phase since early 2024 when the RMOW put out requests for proposals for interested bidders to engage on website front-end development, user interface design and ongoing website maintenance. The contract was awarded to Whistler-based Cloud9 Marketing after bids closed in March.
Described in the RFP documentation as the second half of a wider overhaul that has seen the RMOW website’s guts transferred over to a new hosting program while slimming down the number of pages for users to navigate through, the current phase is the front-end, consumer-facing portion of the overhaul.
“This website redesign is to improve the user experience and update the visual design and information on the website. The goal is to create a streamlined, easy-to-navigate site that allows the range of users to conveniently find the information they need,” read RMOW document on the project.
After surveys have been collected and the first phase of interviews completed, a prototype website will be developed and tested with those who signed up for one-on-one engagement with the process. The completed website is expected to be rolled out in late 2024 or early 2025.
The entire project appears as a line item in the RMOW’s major projects for 2024, with $100,735 budgeted for the project this year from the general operating reserve.
The survey is open until July 12.
