Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today announced that the State of Connecticut has launched a complete redesign of its official website – http://www.ct.gov – containing a new layout, new features, and new efficiency measures that will ultimately increase usability, customer service, transparency, and access for its visitors.
The new website, which is now live, is part of a major modernization process for the state’s online presence that – in addition to containing new features – is organized to meet the specific needs of the residents, businesses and visitors of the state, an announcement said. It was designed for use on computers, tablets, and mobile devices.
“In the 21st century, the state’s online presence is our virtual welcome mat, and we want to ensure that businesses, residents and visitors alike have the tools they need to conduct business with the state over their computers in a way that eliminates redundancy and improves usability for users,” said Malloy.
“This modernization was no doubt long overdue and needed, and as its development continues, we are keeping an eye towards ensuring that new features continue to be added that increase the number of online interactions available for users and make it as easily accessible as possible.”
The main homepage of CT.gov now contains a series of eight new sections with some of the most popular features that visitors to the state’s website regularly interact with, divided into groups with titles such as “Business,” “Driving and Transportation,” and “Education.”
These sections were designed with the goal of increasing ease of access for the average user without having to navigate through multiple layers and pages in each individual state agency’s websites to find the most frequently accessed and popular features, the announcement said.
Malloy stressed that launching a business portal was a top priority of the project.
The business portal houses an online presence that consolidates the various business-related solutions provided by different state agencies, and will continue to introduce many new services that make it easier for the private sector to form, operate and expand businesses in Connecticut, according to the announcement.
As was announced last year, the website modernization is occurring under a self-funded plan that allows the portal to be developed and operated without tax dollars through an agreement signed with Connecticut Interactive, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of NIC, Inc., which are responsible for its design and management, Malloy’s office said.
Funding for the portal is generated through “modest efficiency fees that are applied to a small subset of the online services, specifically those that fulfill specialized requests by bulk purchasers of government information, such as motor vehicle driver histories,” the announcement said.
It said this type of structure is used in over half the states in the nation to satisfy the growing demand for online services.
