Austin website overhaul cuts thousands of pages, some public records

Austin launched its newly redesigned website Thursday. The city is cutting more than 15,000 webpages — including some public records — as part of a sweeping $1.48 million overhaul. The change will streamline navigation by reducing content from about 17,000 pages to roughly 1,300. Much of the removed content includes PDFs that do not meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards, pages with inconsistent tone, or pages with formatting issues.

The Department of Justice published a rule in April 2024 setting requirements for state and local government websites and mobile apps to be accessible to people with disabilities.

The city did not respond to questions about whether the scrubbed content would be publicly available elsewhere or how the move aligns with the city’s broader transparency goals. When the new website launches, users will need to update all bookmarks to webpages and PDF forms because all links will change.

The money to transform the website came from capital improvement projects, but officials could not answer questions about specific bonds or other funding sources used for the project. The city will use $1.04 million for continued website work, maintenance and software licensing over the next three years.

Austin Communications and Engagement Digital and Creative Services Manager Yasmin Wagner said the city has wanted to redesign the website for a while but took time to gather the necessary resources and funding. “We've had a goal that's been a long-standing goal to continue modernizing the city of Austin's digital experience so that we're providing a unified, always accessible and future-ready platform for Austinites,” she said.

She added that the old website model eventually limited the city’s ability to expand and modernize. City Council approved a contract in 2024 with third-party vendor Material+ to develop the new website. Wagner said the redevelopment is separate from the city’s recent logo rebranding effort, though the new website will reflect the new logo more consistently.

The next phases of the website redesign will focus on fixing issues that arise, as well as ongoing maintenance and upkeep. Staff will use a heat map to track where traffic goes on the site and how long users spend there to measure content performance in real time and make adjustments accordingly. When the site goes live, users will also be able to fill out surveys and contact city staff with feedback.

Some of the future content cuts after the initial website launch will include public city datasets, which staff said could be removed if they aren’t required to be posted online and aren’t frequently accessed. “It's also a decision, too, on where the city is devoting resources to actively maintain those data sets, and so we want to prioritize the areas that are most needed and most viewed,” Wagner said. “If we have something that's only getting two page views every couple of months, we'll know that that's probably not a good use of city resources to continue to gather that data and publish it.”