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Date: July 8, 2025
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council
From: Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee
Aram Chaparyan, City Manager
By: Jamie Le, Assistant to the City Manager | [email protected] Subject: Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee – Accept and File the City Website Redesign Project Update and Meeting Minutes. Expenditure: None.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation of the Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee that City Council:
1. Accept and file the City Website Redesign Project update; and
2. Accept and file the Committee meeting minutes from June 2, 2025.
FUNDING
None required.
DISCUSSION
The City Council and its various committees regularly convene to discuss, deliberate, and take action on matters that impact City operations, policy, and services. These meetings are documented in the form of official minutes that serve as the permanent public record of decisions made and discussions held.
On June 2, 2025, the Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee met to receive an update on the City’s Official Website Redesign Project. The redesign is guided by community feedback, internal assessments, and industry best practices, with priorities including improved navigation, ADA compliance, streamlined content management, mobile optimization, and a refreshed visual design that reflects the City’s identity.
The updated website aims to enhance user experience across all devices and ensure that information and services are easy to find and access. A team of web design professionals has partnered with City staff to implement the project, which emphasizes simplicity, accessibility, and compliance with legal and technical standards.
The Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee recommends that the City Council accept and file this update on the City Website Redesign Project and accept and file the Committee meeting minutes of June 2, 2025.
1 City Council
July 8, 2025
ATTACHMENTS
1. June 2, 2025 Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee Agenda
2. June 2, 2025 Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee Item 5A
3. Item 5A Presentation Slide Deck
4. June 2, 2025 Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee Minutes 2
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TORRANCE CITY COUNCIL
CITIZEN DEVELOPMENT AND ENRICHMENT
COMMITTEE
AGENDA
Tuesday, June 2, 2025
REGULAR MEETING
2:30 P.M.
LeROY J. JACKSON COUNCIL CHAMBER
3031 TORRANCE BLVD.
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting, please contact the City Manager’s office at (310) 618-5880. Notification 48 hours prior to the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to this meeting. [28CFR35.102-35.104 ADA Title II]
Direct questions or concerns to the City Council at (310) 618-2801, City Manager at (310) 618-5880, or the individual department head prior to submission to the City Council. Parties will be notified if the complaint will be included on a subsequent agenda.
PARTICIPATE BEFORE THE MEETING by submitting a public comment on the OneMeeting Public Portal at https://torranceca.primegov.com/public/portal?fromiframe=true. Hard copies of public comment may be submitted to the City Clerk’s Office during regular business hours. All comments submitted before 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2, 2025, will be published for public review prior to the meeting. Comments received after the deadline, but prior to the adjournment of the meeting will be added to the record.
The agenda was posted on the Public Notice Board at 3031 Torrance Blvd and on the City’s Website on Thursday, May 29, 2025 /s/ Rebecca Poirier
1. CALL TO ORDER
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Councilmember Gerson
3. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
4. REPORT OF STAFF ON THE POSTING OF THE AGENDA
3 ATTACHMENT 1
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5. ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS
5A. City Manager - Accept and File the City Website Redesign Project Update. Expenditure: None.
Recommendation of the City Manager that the Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee accept and file the City Website Redesign Project update.
6. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
This portion of the meeting is reserved for comment on items not on the agenda or on topics of general interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee. Under the Ralph M. Brown Act, the Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee cannot act on items raised during public comment but may respond briefly to statements made or questions posed; request clarification; or refer the item to staff.
7. CLOSING REMARKS
8. ADJOURNMENT
4 5A
Date: June 2, 2025
To: Chair and Members of the Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee From: Aram Chaparyan, City Manager
By: Jamie Le, Assistant to the City Manager | [email protected] Subject: City Manager - Accept and File the City Website Redesign Project Update.
Expenditure: None.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation of the City Manager that the Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee accept and file the City Website Redesign Project update.
DISCUSSION
The City of Torrance official website (TorranceCA.Gov) serves as a critical communication tool for residents, businesses, and visitors, providing access to important city information, services, and resources. The current website has become outdated and lacks key functionalities needed to meet the growing demands of its users. Over the past year, the City has undertaken an initiative to redesign the official City website to enhance usability, improve accessibility, and align with modern design standards.
A website redesign is essential to ensure that it remains a user-friendly, accessible, and engaging platform for all stakeholders. The redesign process has been informed by user feedback which started with a Community Engagement Survey that launched in June 2024, internal assessments, and industry best practices.
The new website will focus on the following:
1. Improving navigation and user experience
2. Enhancing accessibility for people with disabilities (ADA compliance)
3. Streamlining content management for city staff
4. Optimizing mobile device compatibility
5. Updating the visual design to reflect the City’s brand and identity The City has worked with a team of web design experts to create the new website. The design incorporates elements that prioritize simplicity, accessibility, and ease of navigation, while also ensuring that the website meets technical and legal standards.
Staff recommends that the Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee accept and file the City Website Redesign Project update.
5 ATTACHMENT 2
City of Torrance
Website Redesign
Project Update
DESIGN COLLECTIVE
June 2025
6 ATTACHMENT 3
Agenda
Website Redesign
Project: Overview
01 Design Phase
02 Discover Phase
03 Next Steps
04 7
Website
Redesign:
Overview
8 Create a clean, accessible,
and modern design
Streamline and simplify
the website’s content
Enhance public communication
& transparency
Empower staff with a flexible CMS
that simplifies content management.
Reduce reliance on external
support channels.
We’re implementing a
comprehensive redesign,
developing a strategic
content approach, and
migrating to a new content
management system (CMS).
The Goals of
our Redesign
9 OUR OPPORTUNITY TO MEET – AND EXCEED
Community Expectations
10 Torrance Public Library
Torrance Transit
Torrance Arts & Venues
Torrance Theatre
Company
Main Torrance website
Economic Development
Measure SST
Torrance Recycles
Trending in Torrance
Phase
1 Phase
2 Phase
3 Project Phases
11 Website Redesign Process
We are here
DesignDiscover Content Build CMS Build Launch!
12 Discover
13 Discover Activities
Met with content
creators and
stakeholders to
understand website
challenges and
needs.
Stakeholder
Interviews
Spoke with diverse
users and
distributed a survey
to a wider audience.
User Interviews
& Survey
Surveyed
stakeholders on
visual style,
audience insights,
and other branding
needs.
Brand
Questionnaire
Reviewed current
site content and
structure; surveyed
stakeholders on
website voice and
tone.
Content Audit
& Questionnaire
Analyzed other city
websites to identify
best practices and
pitfalls to avoid.
Competitive
Review
We engaged with city departments, Council members, and
the public to understand their needs and pain points with the current website.
These activities revealed clear insights to guide the direction for both design and content.
14 Key
Strategic
Recommendations
Improve Search, Navigation, and Accessibility
Removing redundant content, providing access
based on user type vs government organization are
the goals.
Add Info and Features to Reduce Inquiries
Providing easy access to popular services, public
records, budget data, and meeting agendas is
essential.
Implement Content Governance & Best Practices
A structured workflow prevents outdated
information.
Digitize City Services & Business Interactions
Move city services online to make it easier for
residents and businesses to get tasks done.
15 Final Takeaways
The new Torrance website should focus on
functionality, ease of use, and transparency.
Aesthetic updates alone won’t fix core user frustrations — the redesign must emphasize clear navigation, self-service tools, with better and clearer content.
16 Design
17 Translating
Discovery into
Design
DESIGN Insight-Driven
Our designs are grounded in feedback from
users, staff, and stakeholders.
Clean, Modern, User-Focused
We’re creating a more intuitive, accessible
experience that reflects Torrance’s identity.
Working Within the CMS
OpenCities offers limited flexibility in layout and
design.
We’re navigating those constraints
thoughtfully — finding creative ways to make
the most of the platform, while pushing for
impact where it counts.
18 Today’s
City of Torrance
Homepage
19 Your New
City of Torrance
Homepage
20 21
22 23
Section landing page Service pageDepartment page
24 Content
25 No content migration!
Content or data migration is where we move content from point A to point B without changing it significantly.
The problem?
As we uncovered during our content audit, the current content and content structure had problems due to a kitchen sink approach:
1.Lack of focus and unclear target or audience
2.Departmental silos versus user-targeted organization
3.Government-ese versus clear language.
4.Too much content!
26 Curated migration involves putting human eyes on every piece of content, and usually requires rewriting.
Curation requires making choices about what stays behind, what rides along to the new system, and what needs to be updated or rewritten.
Instead: Curated migration
27 Content Build Process
2 Content
Build
1 Content Build
Kickoff
4 Final Content
Entry & Check
3 OpenCities
Training
5 Soft Go-Live
We are here
28 Status
We’re mid-content build right now
The goal is to identify each piece of content, assign a content creator, and track its status as it gets written, reviewed, then entered into the new OpenCities content management system (CMS)
Leads, plus other
contributing
members are
assigned.
Content teams
identified for
each department
Kickoff included
writing for web
training, a review of
Torrance’s personas,
and introduction of
supporting tools.
Content kickoff
meeting
complete
After an initial
working session
with each team,
they’re now
documenting all of
their content.
Each team
actively creating
their content0 1 0 2 0 3
29 Up Next
30 G r a n i c u s w i l l b u i l d o u t t h e
n e w w e b s i t e i n t h e
O p e n C i t i e s C M S , b a s e d o n
o u r f i n a l d e s i g n .
Goal:
Build out the new information
architecture and designs.
Goal:
Create a seamless experience
between the main website and
any related portals.
Goal:
Finalize all content for launch.
BUILD OUT SERVICE OPTIMIZATIONS CONTENT ENTRY
Post-Design
Handing off for development
D i g i t i z e P D F a n d i n - p e r s o n
f o r m s w i t h A c c e l a a n d
O p e n F o r m s , u n i f y p a y m e n t s
i n o n e i n t e r f a c e , a n d
s t r e a m l i n e a c c e s s t o c i t y
s e r v i c e s f o r a b e t t e r u s e r
e x p e r i e n c e .
O n c e a l l c o n t e n t t e a m s a r e
t r a i n e d i n O p e n C i t i e s ,
c o n t e n t w i l l b e c r e a t e d a n d
r e v i e w e d d i r e c t l y w i t h i n
t h e n e w C M S .
31 Q&A
32 YOU
UX Design Collective
THANK
The content of this presentation is proprietary and confidential information of UX Design Collective. It is not intended to be distributed to any third party without the express written consent of UX Design Collective.
33 34
June 2, 2025
MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE CITIZEN DEVELOPMENT AND ENRICHMENT
COMMITTEE
1. CALL TO ORDER
The Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee convened in a regular meeting on June 2, 2025, at 2:32 p.m. in the LeRoy J. Jackson Council Chamber.
ROLL CALL
Present: Chair Lewis, Committee Member Gerson Committee Member Mattucci
Present: Management Associate Carlos Huizar, Assistant to the City Manager Jamie Le, IT Director Andrei Yermakov, and Finance Director Ian Dailey
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Committee Member Gerson.
3. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
Chair Lewis welcomed those in attendance and requested that committee members introduce themselves to the public.
Staff presenting:
Assistant to the City Manager Jamie Le, Ariel Rey UX Design Collective founder
4. REPORT OF STAFF ON POSTING OF THE AGENDA
Management Associate Carlos Huizar confirmed that the agenda was posted on the Public Notice Board at 3031 Torrance Boulevard and on the City’s website on Thursday, May 29, 2025.
5. ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS
5A. City Manager – Accept and File the City Website Redesign Project Update.
Expenditure: None.
Assistant City Manager Jamie Le introduced the item and provided background on the website redesign effort. She emphasized the project’s focus on usability, accessibility, ADA compliance, and improved navigation. Jamie then introduced Ariel Rey and Lora Kim, representatives from UX Design Collective, the City’s project partners.
Ariel Rey, one of the founders of UX Design Collective, outlined the four-phase redesign process: Discovery, Design, Content Build, and Launch. She noted the project is currently between the Design and Content Build phases.
Key presentation points included:
35 ATTACHMENT 4
• Research from resident and staff interviews, stakeholder feedback, and a competitive review of peer cities.
• Strategic recommendations focused on reducing phone calls and digitizing services.
• Redesign goals included collapsing content into a streamlined user experience and simplifying the site layout.
• Preview of a cleaner, modern site interface using the Granicus platform. • Challenges related to the current drop-down navigation and overuse of long, unfocused text.
• Ongoing efforts to digitize PDFs, streamline class registration, and increase visibility for emergency alerts.
• Emphasis on user-driven, mobile-first design and improved internal content workflows using templates and content trackers.
Committee Discussion:
• Committee Member Gerson asked about future staff training, long-term support for maintaining user-friendly content, and system security under Granicus.
▪ UX team members confirmed that templates, training, and secure vendor protocols are in place.
• Committee Member Gerson also inquired about future AI tools, voice search, and search bar improvements. IT Director Andrei Yermakov noted a mobile app is being released, and future versions will integrate AI- assisted navigation.
• Committee Member Mattucci raised concerns about the current search bar redirecting to Google, community survey participation, and emphasized the need for simplicity.
• Chair Lewis suggested improvements to the job application header, placement of emergency alert links, calendar navigation, and shared public expectations around the project timeline and budget. ▪ Finance Director Ian Dailey confirmed the project remains within budget. UX partners estimated design handoff would occur in two weeks, with Phase One completion targeted by year-end.
MOTION: Committee Member Gerson moved to accept and file the City Website Redesign Project Update.
Seconded by Committee Member Mattucci
Vote: 3–0, Motion Passed Unanimously
6. PUBLIC COMMENT
Chair Lewis asked if there were any members of the public that wished to speak under the Public Comment section. No members of the public wished to speak at this time. 36 7. CLOSING REMARKS
Chair Lewis commented on prerecorded introductions used by other agencies for public meetings and asked if Torrance could explore a similar script-based method to support public understanding of Brown Act procedures. City Manager Aram Chaparyan confirmed the City Attorney would investigate the request.
Chair Lewis thanked staff and the UX Design team for the presentation.
8. ADJOURNMENT
Committee Member Gerson moved to adjourn the meeting.
Committee Member Mattucci seconded.
The motion carried by a vote of 3-0.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:22 pm.
37