Updated at 6:40 p.m. April 7, 2015
It’s not Yelp, but Mayor Kevin Faulconer is asking San Diegans for help — in improving the city’s website at a cost of $500,000.
On Tuesday he unveiled a survey to learn what San Diegans want from sandiego.gov.
Faulconer directed “community engagement firm” Hopscotch Labs to gather input from a diverse group of participants in neighborhoods. Surveyors will walk every council district to reach as many residents as possible until the survey closes April 17, the city said.
The goal is to collect at least 1,400 responses over the next 10 days, said a news release.
“The … website should be like San Diego itself — a dynamic, innovative place you want to visit again and again,” Faulconer said. “We have to boost the city’s online presence, so I’ve made overhauling our website a top priority. We are asking San Diegans in every neighborhood to tell us what online tools and information they want from their local government.”
Jen Lebron Kuhney, the mayor’s press secretary, told Times of San Diego that the whole website redesign process — including surveys, “information architecture analysis,” design work, content migration and user testing — will cost $500,000.
She didn’t break out the cost of the survey itself.
Kuhney also provided traffic data. Monthly, the site averages 1.5 million visits, 5.1 million page views and 920,000 unique visitors, she said.
Faulconer was joined by Councilman Scott Sherman as he encouraged San Diego residents, businesses and visitors to take the survey at sandiego.gov/designSD.
The survey seeks to learn what locals and visitors think about San Diego as well as why users visit the city website, what tasks they hope to accomplish once they are there and how it can be optimized for a better user experience.
“In the private sector, receiving feedback from customers is an important way to improve service and increase efficiencies,” Sherman said. “San Diego taxpayers are our customers and I am thankful to the mayor for reaching out to hear their ideas.”
Results from the survey will be analyzed as the city continues its redesign process. Elevator, the company selected to design the site, will take the data collected and incorporate the findings into the site’s new look, feel and functionality.
“We want the City of San Diego website to reflect what San Diegans want,” said Hopscotch Labs Founder and Chief Innovation + Design Research Strategist Kristine Angell. “We want to know what San Diego means to you and how the City’s website can meet your needs.”
The new site is expected to launch in early 2016.
According to a site that calculates website value by its traffic, sandiego.gov “has estimated worth of $13,381,268.”
