Comments on: a review of Melbourne local government websites

By: brian

brian — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:47:52 +0000

According to my source inside the City of Melbourne web team my post came as a total surprise to them and no redesign was planned based on the information I have. The point of electronic publishing is that content can be changed quickly and easily. In bureacracies like local governments, the fact that such obvious and necessary changes can take months to gain approval is a fundamental failure of management.

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By: Amused

Amused — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:03:46 +0000

Surely you know that a redesign like that takes months and was in the pipeline long before your reviews? I doubt very much any of it was in response to your advice, sorry…

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By: brian

brian — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:38:54 +0000

The homepage and arts and events landing page are significantly improved. It’s nice to know that my advice was taken seriously and was considered worthy of implementation.

Shame that the several applications I made to work for the City of Melbourne marketing and web teams over the past couple of years were rejected. I was never even shortlisted. The more senior people in City of Melbourne marketing are evidently clueless suits who don’t know who they should be hiring to make their websites better.

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By: MelbWorker

MelbWorker — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:50:01 +0000

By the way… City of Melbourne has now updated its web sites… Perhaps a second look? Some of your concerns have now been addressed. Cheers!

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By: brian

brian — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:30:56 +0000

You may be a new reader, as this is the first time I have been accused of a pro-Yarra bias. Usually it’s the opposite. I was surprised when I looked at the results of the survey as I have no agenda for or against any council.

The so-called events calendar at Moreland is no such thing. Clicking Events in the top navigation takes the user to a page where you can input event data, not a page displaying event data in a calendar format. Another information architecture failure.

By events calendar I mean like the one at Darebin, where you can click on a day in a calendar to see what is on that day, or the one at Boroondara where the content is literally displayed in a calendar format.

If you have read my other posts about the City of Yarra you would know I have previously criticised their website, for changing the terms of their customer service guarantee, their 20 year failure to make a decision about where to build a bigger library in North Fitzroy and their handing of my FOI.

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By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:10:41 +0000

I found the Moreland events calendar in less than 10 seconds. You cannot have looked very hard.

This article seems to have a pro-Yarra bias.

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By: brian

brian — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:49:07 +0000

It certainly does when there are so many links to click on that lead to pages with no content and no explanation that That’s Melbourne is an external events site published by the City of Melbourne.

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By: Nicci

Nicci — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:46:41 +0000

Now you are splitting hairs. Two clicks from Melbourne front page to That’s Melbourne does not equal ‘no events list’.

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By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:38:15 +0000

Port Phillip’s website is quite new and I can no longer find what I want on it. Birmingham locals is not much to look at but there are links directly to where people want to go. Very radical.

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By: brian

brian — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:37:29 +0000

No it doesn’t. This is the top level Arts and Events page. The page you refer to is the Events and Festivals page. Making people click through multiple links with no content to try to find real content is a total design and information architecture failure.

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By: Nicci

Nicci — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:55:45 +0000

Brian,

At the very top of the events page on the Melbourne website it says: “For a comprehensive guide to what’s happening, or to submit an event (within the City of Melbourne), visit That’s Melbourne, our website for everything to see and do in the city.” It’s linked. How is that unclear in the least?

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By: brian

brian — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:28:23 +0000

Thanks for these links. I mean subscribe by RSS or iCal, not email. Also, ‘podcast’ means a data stream of audio files (in xml or RSS), which Darebin does not provide. Calling a single MP3 file a podcast does not make it a podcast. It needs to ‘cast’ ie syndicate in an automated way to be a podcast. Their podcast xml feed only contains 1 item so it fails in it’s purpose to syndicate its audio files.

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By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:17:16 +0000

There is an Events Calendar on the Darebin website which also allows community groups to add their own event:
http://www.darebin.vic.gov.au/Calendar/calendar.asp

Also, you can subscribe to content updates:
http://www.darebin.vic.gov.au/Subscribe/Subscribe.asp?h=-1

You can also get podcasts of the monthly newsletter
http://www.darebin.vic.gov.au/Page/page.asp?Page_Id=3179&h=1

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By: brian

brian — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:22:28 +0000

Thanks – I’ll update the post accordingly.

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By: MelbWorker

MelbWorker — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:19:08 +0000

Also, Melbourne has a PDF newsletter if this is what you mean: http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=202&pa=4231&pg=1374.

I agree the site isn’t easy to find things on.

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By: Jayne

Jayne — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:17:43 +0000

Actually, just to add – That’s Melbourne! site has cut down on its listings.
EG – under Museums there used to be approx. 20+ including the likes of the Printing/mint/stamp museums, Wunderkammer, etc but now they’re just listing the tried and tired usual suspects.

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By: brian

brian — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:14:24 +0000

Thanks Jayne, I’m glad I’m not the only person who has been confused by this illogical situation!

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By: Jayne

Jayne — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:12:14 +0000

I was about to say the same thing that while they might have a whole site for events navigating to it requires a prior knowledge of the existence of the site.

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By: brian

brian — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:58:05 +0000

I mean an events listing in the site that is easy to find and use. Try this:

1 – go to http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au
2 – click on Arts and Events on the top navigation
3 – get annoyed that you find nothing useful and leave.

From the homepage you can click on the ‘That’s Melbourne’ banner on the right but as it doesn’t explain what it is how would a first time visitor know it is a site about events?

That’s Melbourne is a separate site that does not explain that it is published by the City of Melbourne. You have to infer it from the information it provides.

Basically, poor navigation and poor explanation provide an inadequate user experience.

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By: Nicci

Nicci — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:40:06 +0000

What do you mean Melbourne doesn’t have an events page? They have an entire site for events http://www.thatsmelbourne.com.au/WhatsOn/Pages/Whatson.aspx

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