Canada PoliticsVancouver launches new $3 million website for city
If you've wondered what a $3 million website looks like, check out vancouver.ca.
One year after the City of Calgary spent $3.2 million on upgrading their website, Western Canada's largest city spent $3 million to re-design theirs.
And while that number may seem high to the average Joe, officials say the website was needed to make information more accessible to residents.
Web director Laurie Best explained the high cost in an email to the Vancouver Courier:
"The cost is just over $3 million. About half of that was for the technology side (hardware, software and customization) and about half for three years for salaries for 20 staff, extensive research on what worked and didn't work for people (research found little actually worked well for people), design and development of the look and feel ($40k), templates, writing the information, consultations and focus groups, staff training and detailed testing.
The new site combines the city and park board websites under a new banner, improves functionality and adds new services such as the ability to register and pay for recreation classes from a single page.
It also includes a Google-powered site search, which allows users to look for any city-related information.
For example, entering the word "garbage" in the search box yields information on collection, schedule and disposal.
While the functionality might be better, critics argue the cost was too high.
"There's been some criticism already by website designers and people in the industry saying this is way too much for a website. For example the [City of] Surrey website cost $700,000," Global B.C. online producer Peter Meiszner told Global News.
"This is actually the 4th time in the last 10 years the City of Vancouver re-designed their website...and it doesn't even have a mobile website. If you go to this website on your phone, it looks exactly like it does on your computer."
A $3 million website that's not mobile friendly?
Your tax dollars at work.
Top Twitter comments:
to spend $3 million on a website is the stupidiest thing I've heard. What kind of idiots are running this city? — 604 Events (@604eventsINC) August 9, 2012
For $3 million, the city of Vancouver website better be able to play on [Vancouver Canuck forward] Ryan Kesler's wing. — Pass it to Bulis (@passittobulis) August 8, 2012
3 million dollars spent on the new city of vancouver website wtf!? i know a guy that would've done it for a bag of weed — Ray (@rayysingh) August 9, 2012
