2009 News Archive
City Web site takes national honors
NAGW names JC Pinnacle finalist, Member's Choice winner
9/29/2009
The redesigned City of Johns Creek Web site recently was selected as a finalist for the National Association of Government Webmaster's prestigious Pinnacle Award for medium-sized cities and was named winner of the NAGW Member's Choice Award in that category.
Pinnacle Awards are given to local governments for Web site excellence. NAGW members compete in three categories based on population (small, less than 35,000 residents; medium, 35,000 to 100,000; and large, over 100,000). Judges reviewed sites based on team size, content, organization, design, function, accessibility, standards and interactivity.
The highly sought after Member's Choice award is chosen from among the top three winners in each category by NAGW members themselves.
Led by Webmaster Sue Pearlman, the City's Communication department developed the second iteration of the site entirely in-house and launched it this past February. NAGW judges particularly noted the city's "less can be more approach" to design.
"The new site serves as a technically solid source of communications for all public services, including police and fire," Pearlman says. "Alternate access paths – an 'I want to' portal and A-Z topic list – were provided in addition to the traditional menu structure, where choices were rigorously grouped and chunked to make it easier to navigate."
The Webmaster also notes that dynamic page loading provides quick performance for users. The site was designed to be handicap accessible, and embodies a continuing push to provide more and more services online in an interactive format.
Pearlman accepted the award at the NAGW National Conference in Galveston, Tex. For more on the awards, visit the NAGW Web site.