Austin is launching a major $1.48 million overhaul of its city website on Thursday, cutting tens of thousands of pages to simplify navigation and improve accessibility.
The redesign, the first major update since 2012, will reduce the site from about 17,000 pages to roughly 1,300. Many of the removed pages include PDFs that don’t meet accessibility standards, content with formatting issues, or pages with inconsistent tone.
City officials said the changes aim to create a modern, unified digital platform that is easier to use and maintain. Users will need to update bookmarks for all webpages and PDF forms because all links will change. The project is funded through capital improvement projects, with $1.04 million allocated for ongoing maintenance, software, and website updates over the next three years.
Yasmin Wagner, Austin’s Digital and Creative Services Manager, said the redesign has been a long-term goal to make the city’s digital services more accessible and adaptable for future needs. A third-party vendor, Material+, was hired to develop the new site, which will also reflect Austin’s updated city logo more consistently.
Future phases will focus on maintaining the site, tracking user activity with heat maps, collecting feedback through surveys, and prioritizing the most-used content. Some public datasets may be removed if they are rarely accessed or not required to be online, freeing resources for more frequently used information. Wagner emphasized that the goal is to concentrate city resources on the areas most needed and most viewed.
