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This guide will help you find your way around the City of Springfield
Infonet web site. By organizing the city information into six main subject areas,
we've enabled the user to fine tune the search for information quickly. We've
included some new features on this site that let users go deeper into the site
with fewer clicks. The primary way in which this is accomplished is through drop-down
menus. Also, the addition of an site navigation system allows the user to go to
any of the main sections from any other page on the site without having to use
back and forward buttons on the browser. This guide will serve to explain the
six main areas of the site as well as how to use the drop down menus and other
navigation bars. Infonet's Six Main Areas
and Section Navigation
First,
the site is divided into six main areas: eGov, Community, Business, Transportation,
Visitors, and Kids. There are descriptions of each of these sections on the very
first page (home page) of the Infonet. By choosing one of these six areas you
will find yourself on the main page for that area. On this section opening page
you will find several things of interest (See example 1).1)
Section Identification: You are in the eGov section. 2) The main navigation buttons
that allow you to move between the six main areas. A version of this menu is on
nearly every page in the entire site. Here we see the blue triangle is in the
eGov position, which points to . . . 3) The primary navigation bar for the eGov
section, showing the various section topics for eGov. These navbar choices are
repeated in the body of the sectional main page along with their subtopics. 4)
This is showing the rollover effect of a user who is about to click and go to
the Business section of Infonet. Example
1  |
If
you click on any of the options in the blue navigation bar a drop down menu will
appear with the subtopics for the category that was clicked on. Additionaly some
of the topics in the the drop down menu may also have further subtopics. Example
2 illustrates the public safety menu in the community section.  | Example
2
As you can see, this user has clicked on the "Public
Safety" option of the Community navbar. This opened the drop down menu showing
all the options for "Public Safety." When the user rolled the mouse
over "Emergency & Disaster Info" a further submenu opened. Any topic
that shows a triangle indicates that there are more choices. This type of system
allows the user to go straight to what they are looking for without having to
click through several pages. |
When
you get to the content pages there is a slightly smaller version of the navbar
along with page titles and subtitles. Example 3 fully explains the top header
of the content pages. Example 3
1) Main
navigation bar showing that you're in the egov section overall. 2) Buttons
to get to the six main areas with blue triangle pointing from the eGov section
to the eGov navigation bar. 3) eGov specific options with the current sub-category
of "City Council" showing its tab. 4) City Council specific options indicating
that you are currently on the "Members" page. Click on any of the available options
to either go to that page or reveal a drop down menu with options deeper in the
site. 5) Short definition of the main section you're in. 6) Page specific
title. 7) Page-specific subtitle if applicable. 8) You can always
click on the City of Springfield logo from any page to go all the way back to
the Infonet start page.
Page
Navigation & Search Function
On
many of the pages there are side menus (Example 4) to take you through the sections
of the page or on to related sections of information that aren't in a different
category. These menus may be static or, on longer pages, they may float down the
page as you scroll so that they are always within reach. This feature has been
utilized with the convenience of the user in mind in order to keep navigation
close at hand. At the bottom of every page is a search box
which allows you to search the Infonet site for specific words or phrases. The "Advanced Search" link opens up a new window with features
that let you search individual sections of the site to narrow your search quickly.
| Example 4 |  | Links to the World Wide Web = 
Throughout the Infonet site you will find this icon: . This indicates a link to a site which is not a part of Infonet. These sites are informative and therefore are included as quality links. However, information on these sites is maintained by their owners and should not be confused with information originating from the City of Springfield. To return to the City's Infonet from one of these sites you will need to use either your browswer's back button or its "history" menu. |
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