The city of Sunnyvale has changed its logo and launched a redesigned website that city officials say will be much easier for residents to navigate.

The website launched July 17 and includes a new system called Access Sunnyvale that lets residents submit inquiries and requests for services from the homepage. The city says it worked to cut down on unnecessary content that used to clog up the website. The last time the city website received a major update was in 2010.

“Key information was buried under many layers, and we overcomplicated what should be simple information,” said Jennifer Garnett, city communications officer. “We provide great services, but you can’t tell when we presented information this way. A simple task like how to report graffiti was buried seven layers deep in the website.”

The site has also been designed for better viewing on smartphones and tablets.

The redesign began in 2015. According to Garnett, in researching how to improve the website, the city surveyed residents last year and found most were looking for basic information about the city, places to provide feedback, requests for services and policy information. Looking at the website’s analytics, the city found that 90 percent of traffic to the site was only going to 20 percent of the pages

This resulted in the city doing away with wordy, irrelevant pages and placing most information, such as city services, permits and recreation and community services up front on the homepage.

The website was chopped significantly, down to 220 from 650 pages. All content has also been rewritten and reorganized.

Garnett said some residents indicated they often gave up trying to find the number for the appropriate city department and would call the general city number instead.

The city also surveyed residents to get feedback on Sunnyvale’s branding, which included the city logo. Since 1971 the city has used a cone-shaped logo with a yellow sun perched atop a blue triangle. Resident feedback described the city’s brand as “bureaucratic,” “boring” and “complicated.”

The new logo, a green circular sun rising over a valley, will be rolled out soon. Both the logo and the new website are meant to be “vibrant,” “cutting-edge” and “imaginative” according to a report ordered by the city and done by BrandMechanics.

According to Garnett, the overall cost of rebranding as well as redesigning the website was $700,000 over three years. Of that amount, 68 percent was used to hire three temporary employees to evaluate analytics, perform testing, write new site content and develop new pages. Another 14 percent was used to hire consultant services to provide the content management system, and an additional 14 percent went toward a consultant to develop brand language and another consultant to design the logo. Four percent went toward miscellaneous costs.

According to Garnett, the city will roll out the new logo in phases, so residents may not see the green logo everywhere right away.

“We inventoried items with a logo and are still in the process of getting estimates for some items,” Garnett said in an email. The cost for the roll-out to date has been $45,000. The transition for most of the items is estimated to take from one to two years, with some more permanent items such as building and street signage possibly taking longer. Some items with the old logo will continue to be used until they need to be replaced as a result of wear, such as employee badges and uniforms. Other items that will be replaced include city flags, business cards and signage.

The city of Sunnyvale’s website can be accessed at sunnyvale.ca.gov.