Instead of the many different menu items listed on the old homepage, a large teaser picture and a search function now appear. This should lead users quickly to find their destination by entering their request. Scrolling down includes links to the city's citizen services or information on the Beethoven year 2020.

"If you heard a loud rumble that night, it was the sound of a massive load being lifted off our mind," said city spokeswoman Monika Hörig at the presentation of the new website. Two years ago, her team from the Press Office, together with the companies Sitepark and City & Bits, started work on the relaunch, i.e. the redesign of the website.

The old version already existed since 2003, so the relaunch was overdue, according to Hörig. The site is to be constantly further developed, as Lord Mayor Ashok Sridharan emphasised: "We will not rest on our laurels on the new site, but will constantly expand our service there.“ According to the city, the costs of the redesign amount to 440,000 Euro. Recently, there have been about one million page impressions per month.

During the presentation, Hörig explained that the new development was based on two principles: On the one hand, the presentation of the pages adapts to each user's end device - from smartphone to tablet to PC. "More than two thirds of the users visit the websites while on the move," said Andreas Leinhaas, Head of the Personnel and Organization Office, which was also involved in the relaunch. Secondly, the perspective had changed. Instead of presenting the administration, the focus is now on citizens and their concerns.

For this reason, the city describes around 800 services and responsibilities on its portal, including the respective contact details of the offices. The ten most popular services, including the registration of a new apartment, are now also available in easily understandable language. However, the city wants to expand its range of services in this area in the future.

In addition, 180 forms are available, which can be filled out completely online and then sent to the administration. A further 70 forms are to be added in the course of this year. However, if a form requires a signature, it must still be sent to the administration by post.

The city has attached great importance to the integration of the city map on its pages. For example, users can view the current construction sites as well as those for the next 30 days and the entire year on a map. The locations of events are also displayed on a map. In addition, it is now possible for users to transfer dates from the city's calendar of events - the most frequently clicked offer on the site - to their own digital calendar on their smartphone.

In the next few days, users will have to reckon with a few restrictions if they want to access subpages of bonn.de via Google. Since not all pages have been transferred yet, it is possible to land on error pages. "It will still take a few days until Google displays all new pages," said deputy city spokesman Marc Hoffmann.

If you can't find what you're looking for with the search function, you can use the "I can't find anything" form. "We hope for feedbacks, in order to constantly improve and further develop the search and the Internet appearance itself , said press office chief Monika Hörig.

(Original text: Matthias Kirch; Translation: Mareike Graepel)