After having a few delivery delays, King George County has finally released their new website. You can see how it looks here:
http://www.king-george.va.us/
Savvy users may notice that after signing into your account (optional), the website changes to:
https://va-kinggeorgecounty.civicplus.com/
While it is still too soon to expect a perfectly formed page, we did notice a few minor errors. Primary among them are the use of the previous Board of Supervisors in combination with the newly elected Supervisors.
There are also a few pages that have yet to be populated or built. And as with any major change, users will need to learn where things are and what the new process is for finding something. It will take time to learn where those new pages are and it will take time for those new pages to load.
In more positive news, the website looks nice visually. Using photos from local residents helped spruce up the place and it shows. Images will reportedly change with the seasons giving you a different view through-out the year.
For those nerdy types, there may be some heavy disappointment as the main UI (User Interface) is a menu that has a slow load time and disappears too quickly if you accidentally step off of it. And it has a tendency to stay active when you minimize your browser window or change tabs. Thankfully you can click on the menu title to get a static page of your sub-heading options.
For those same nerdy types, there are a few hidden improvements you may enjoy. There's an RSS feed for certain pages, or all of them. There's also a page to set up email and text alerts for certain departments, or all of them. These appear similar to, but separate from, the KGAlert system. Not all departments have a text alert option but most do. The Staff Directory is also on point and easily searchable and the Calendar is much more navigable, but sometimes difficult to locate. And the Transparency link is a nice nod to making things easier to find.
In the end, I hope things speed up for users and get built out over time. The back-end looks solid and robust enough to support future growth while the front-end just needs a few tweaks to make things easier.
http://www.king-george.va.us/
Savvy users may notice that after signing into your account (optional), the website changes to:
https://va-kinggeorgecounty.civicplus.com/
While it is still too soon to expect a perfectly formed page, we did notice a few minor errors. Primary among them are the use of the previous Board of Supervisors in combination with the newly elected Supervisors.
There are also a few pages that have yet to be populated or built. And as with any major change, users will need to learn where things are and what the new process is for finding something. It will take time to learn where those new pages are and it will take time for those new pages to load.
In more positive news, the website looks nice visually. Using photos from local residents helped spruce up the place and it shows. Images will reportedly change with the seasons giving you a different view through-out the year.
For those nerdy types, there may be some heavy disappointment as the main UI (User Interface) is a menu that has a slow load time and disappears too quickly if you accidentally step off of it. And it has a tendency to stay active when you minimize your browser window or change tabs. Thankfully you can click on the menu title to get a static page of your sub-heading options.
For those same nerdy types, there are a few hidden improvements you may enjoy. There's an RSS feed for certain pages, or all of them. There's also a page to set up email and text alerts for certain departments, or all of them. These appear similar to, but separate from, the KGAlert system. Not all departments have a text alert option but most do. The Staff Directory is also on point and easily searchable and the Calendar is much more navigable, but sometimes difficult to locate. And the Transparency link is a nice nod to making things easier to find.
In the end, I hope things speed up for users and get built out over time. The back-end looks solid and robust enough to support future growth while the front-end just needs a few tweaks to make things easier.
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