City/town web sites - are they really helpful? (Joy: statistics, design)

[xxJoyfulxx]

Hello all,

I am a web designer/developer and I am developing a new web site for an Illinois city. It goes without saying that there is a lot of information that can be provided on city/town web sites and finding a clean, concise way of organizing and presenting that info is absolutely necessary.

I think everyone here can agree that if cities and towns presented as much information as possible on their web sites, it would be extremely helpful to people looking to research and relocate. I often answer questions here that I sometimes think to myself "that info should be on the web site", but it rarely is. Most of the town web sites I find are disorganized and frustrating to use. If you are here, you're probably like me and do most of your research on city-data because it's the only place for decent stats.

Because I value the input and opinions here, I wanted to ask if any of you have any GOOD examples of a town or city web site, and if you could send me the link (or post it if the admins think that is ok). What do you like about it? Or if you have any input about what features or information would make your life easier when researching via town web sites, I would love to hear it. More pictures? More contact information? More statistics? That sort of thing. I want to help answer questions and provide solutions when I'm building this thing. I think every town should put their best foot forward with their web site and provide good information for their current and possible future residents.

Sorry to ramble on, but any feedback you all have is greatly valued. I'd love to have a discussion about what is good and bad when it comes to cities portrayal on the web.
(Oh and these don't have to be just Illinois cities if you know of a great web site that's from some other state, any examples would be great to have.)

Thanks all! Have a good day.

Joy Williams

[mdz]

This is pretty off-topic for the board, so I'll close the thread but you may message the original poster with ideas