Municipal website navigation for residents who do not know which department to call

Municipal website navigation should help residents begin with what they need to do. Keep department pages, but provide direct paths to common tasks so someone can pay a bill or report a problem without knowing who handles it.

The organization chart is useful inside the office. It is only one way the public looks for information. A resident's question usually starts with a service, a document or a place.

How do task links and department pages work together?

Use task links to reach the same maintained service pages that departments use. A payment page can be linked from the homepage and the relevant department without becoming two separate pages to update.

Choose labels that describe the action. "Pay a water bill" gives more direction than a department name alone. "Find meeting agendas" tells someone what the destination contains. Keep the department directory available for people seeking a specific office or employee.

Tualatin's resident survey (opens in a new tab) identified an unintuitive website structure and difficulty finding information. The useful response is to test how people describe their tasks before settling on menu labels.

How should you choose the main tasks?

Gather a short list from repeated questions, service use and available website data. Have staff distinguish what residents need frequently from what departments would like to promote.

A task deserves a direct route when it is common, time-sensitive or difficult to reach through the current structure. The exact mix will vary. A community with seasonal facility bookings has a different homepage need from one with a major ongoing construction project.

Check the destination before adding the shortcut. A button that leads to a general external portal may still leave residents searching. Link as directly as the service supports and explain the next step when a direct link is unavailable.

What should the menu avoid?

Avoid unexplained abbreviations, several labels that mean nearly the same thing and categories that require inside knowledge. If staff disagree about where a page belongs, a resident may have the same difficulty.

Do not duplicate a service just to place it under two headings. Use links to one maintained destination. Repeated copies drift when one department updates its version and another does not.

Keep navigation predictable across the website. A department may need specific content, but residents should still recognize the main menu and how to return to a service. Muniway's website design service starts with the tasks residents come to complete.

How can you test a proposed menu?

Write a short task, such as finding the current meeting agenda, without naming the desired menu item. Ask a person unfamiliar with the structure where they would begin. Record their first choice and the label they expected to see.

Repeat with several unrelated tasks. Look for labels that repeatedly cause hesitation. Revise those labels before adding more levels or more explanation.

Pair this work with search improvements. A resident who prefers search should reach the same accurate information as someone who uses the menu. Good navigation gives both a reasonable route.