The City of Murfreesboro is proud to announce the launch of an innovative design to its new city government website. The new user-friendly site can be accessed at the same location,www.murfreesborotn.gov. The City invites visitors to explore the new site and provide comments via Facebook at cityofmurfreesborotn.

"We're very excited about the new features in the redesigned website," said Assistant City Manager Jennifer Moody who oversaw the City's Website Redesign Committee. "We want Murfreesboro citizens to be able to access information about City services, neighborhood projects and decision-making in the easiest way possible that enhances user experience via both desktop and mobile devices. Our previous site needed an update and fresh look. We think the redesign accomplishes our goals with informative, visually appealing videos and photos."

The new site, with mobile-friendly compatibility and responsive design, features one-click shortcut buttons to the most frequently requested information such as Parks & Recreation, Online Payments, Map Gallery, Careers, Public Transit and Media Center. Other features include:

• Users can search for information by topic with enhanced search engine and menu options via the A-Z directory on the site's top menu, featuring more user-friendly tabs such as "Doing Business," "Neighborhood Services," and "Things to Do." The goal was to move from a "governmental" approach to one geared toward visitors looking for information to serve their needs.

• A major new feature of the site is a slideshow that will continually update photographs of the City's growth and citizens that make Murfreesboro one of the top places to live in Tennessee and the nation.

• Another new feature is a video playlist that showcases videos of City department activities and stories covered by CityTVs multimedia producers.

• Social media buttons are easy-to-locate at the top of the new site, providing citizen access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the City's Government Channel, CityTV.

• A revised "In the News" section highlights news announcements from throughout the City, including MTSU, the Rutherford Chamber of Commerce, City and County Schools, and general government news.

Over the past year, a website redesign committee has reviewed the sites functionality with vendor CivicPlus, a leader in municipal website design. The committee and vendor worked to achieve increased ease of navigation and simple buttons to access the most popular features and online bill pay portal. Information Technology Department Helpdesk Support Specialist Terra Greene served as project manager.

"Maintaining the new website long-term in a way that serves both users and effective communication by City departments will require that a Website Committee continue to develop strategies on updating content and features," said Information Technology Director Chris Lilly.

"CivicPlus is built on designing innovative solutions for local governments and keeping them secure from cyber threats," said Mark Friesen, marketing director at CivicPlus. "We continually invest in our products to strengthen and transform the way local governments work and communicate with their citizens. We are proud to partner with The City of Murfreesboro to accomplish its goals."

Updates to the website will continue over the next several months as the City looks to enhance content with the new design and integrate solutions to serve residents and businesses.

One of the goals of the new site was to provide better integration to partners in business and government. Directing visitors to the Rutherford County Convention and Visitors Bureau www.ReadySetRutherford.com and other key sites help promote what a wonderful community Murfreesboro and Rutherford County have to offer.