New Mobile Friendly, Citizen-Centric Website
The City of Selkirk has hit the refresh button on its website in a big way, with the newly built MySelkirk.ca providing news and information to citizens faster and more user-friendly than ever before.
The easy-to-navigate site provides up-to-date information about what’s happening in the City of Selkirk, and MySelkirk.ca is designed to work well on all formats, from your laptop to your phone or tablet, so you can keep on top of city news at any time of day, and from anywhere.
The site was rebuilt by the city’s new Web-Services Team, who designed it with citizens in mind and they will continue to improve it according to citizens’ wants and needs. The fact it’s done in-house, with existing staff, also means it’s very affordable.
Selkirk Mayor Larry Johannson said it’s a fantastic site that’s easy to use and well designed, and he hopes Selkirk residents will visit often.
“I congratulate our administration, everybody worked really hard on this. It brings us into the 21st Century and I encourage all citizens to go to it, not only to check it out but to keep going to it because this is a website that’ll be continually updated. It’ll have events, highlights of what’s going on in the city, it’ll have local pictures. It’s just a well put together website and I truly hope that all citizens will thoroughly enjoy it,” Johannson said.
“You can look at it at your own leisure and it’s there, it’s daily.”
Selkirk CAO Duane Nicol said the website is part of the city’s plan to modernize city government and improve communications with its citizens.
“We’ve got a very eager and progressive council with a bold vision and we are building a city organization that has the skills capacity and resources to turn that vision into a reality,” Nicol said.
“That’s why we’re investing in our people, our technology and processes and making continuous improvements. The website is the foundation for our communication with citizens. It will allow us to be more proactive with our news and engagement.”
The site is built in a way that the city’s Web-Services Team will be able to react to changes in technology and keep the site current and relevant. Nicol said the team was selected not based on web development skills but for their connection to, and deep understanding of, the citizens of Selkirk. They’re the city’s own “citizen advocates,” Nicol said, who, through their daily work, are always looking out for the best interests of Selkirk citizens.
Nicol said when they set about rebuilding the site, they swapped perspectives, and imagined what a citizen would look for in the city’s website as opposed to what a staff member would want to build.
“We just flipped the whole website on its head and came at it from a citizen’s perspective and we think that will make it a lot easier for people to find what they’re looking for.”
MySelkirk.ca is built with a responsive design so it automatically shapes itself to fit into the screen of whatever device is being used to access it, so if you’re using your laptop, phone or tablet, it’ll look great.
The site also tracks how people are using it and lets the web services team know what people are looking for and if they’re finding it. The team will use that information to let them know what’s working, and what’s not.
“It can help guide us to make sure we put relevant information on there too,” said Vanessa Figus, a member of the web services team and the city’s marketing and communications coordinator.
“If there’s certain parts of the website that nobody’s using and they’re searching for things that aren’t on there, we’ll know and can change the site to respond to the need.”
The site is a work in a progress, and will continue to develop over time. Figus said in future the city will be able to offer the option for online registration and payments.
“We have a long way to go, but the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Our new website is a big first step” said Nicol.
For more information contact:
Duane Nicol
Chief Administrative Officer
City of Selkirk
204-785-4900
