Rebecca Zito is the communications project manager in the Public Affairs Department. We are recognizing her this month for her excellent work as the project manager for our website redesign.
How would you describe your job to someone else?
I communicate with the public about our work, with an emphasis on community outreach and implementation of our construction projects. My focus is on stormwater, so I work closely with our engineers in the Stormwater Division. I also manage strategic communications around the implementation of a stormwater fee.
What inspired this website redesign project?
It had been a long time since we had redesigned our website and websites had changed a lot since then. We needed a website with an adaptive layout so that people could use it on mobile devices. We also needed a website that increased accessibility for all of our users through Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance. We wanted to take advantage of current technology to create a modern design that is easy for our customers to use and a simple back end of the website for updating content.
What part of the website redesign did you enjoy the most?
I was excited to have the opportunity to manage the website project on behalf of the Public Affairs Department. I liked that it was a collaborative project that showed how well our department can work together to deliver an important product for the whole organization. I enjoyed guiding the redesign process with our website consultant, Interpersonal Frequency (I.F.), to bring everyone’s visions together to show our brand and the progress we are making as a modern utility. It was great that I.F. provided a clear road map to deliver our goals. The new website shows a collective vision of the different things each department thought would be important to share. For example, Customer Service informed the need to make forms and permit information more accessible, Engineering and Construction helped guide the presentation of more project information, and Environmental Compliance provided expanded explanations of our water, sewer, and stormwater processes. Through the project, I got to know my coworkers better.
What are you most excited about on the new website?
I am most excited about the News & Events section. It’s so much easier to feature a specific news topic in the section and on the homepage. We can now share an article link across all our social media channels, rather than directing people to read a certain page of our newsletter. The events calendar is also a great new feature, so people can see what we are doing out in the community. The whole section shows how much we are interacting with Pittsburghers and trying to be more accessible.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I like to take ballet classes and sew! Right now, I’m sewing a 1960’s cape.
