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News

Sheila Campbell provided several updates:

• Listserve
  • As of this month, 1,117 individuals are subscribed to the Web Manager Forum listserv. This is a great indication of how our government web manager community is growing.
• Fall Workshop:
  • Tuesday, September 19, 2006 at Catholic University in Washington, DC.
  • The purpose of the one-day workshop is to meet with our peers from across the country, provide training on key issues, and learn new strategies that we can take back to our agencies to improve government websites.
  • Will feature keynote speeches by a Google representative on The Future of Search, and by usability leader Jared Spool on Scent, Search, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
  • In addition, we’ll have two rounds of simultaneous breakout sessions in the afternoon. We’re tentatively planning for the breakout sessions to cover these topics: Intranets; Measuring Return on Investment (ROI); How to Develop a Content Review Process; Card Sorting; Preparing for Emergencies; and Marketing Using Emerging Technologies (RSS, Podcasts, etc).
  • There will be a small fee ($50) for the workshop, and registration will open on
    August 1, 2006.
  • The workshop is open to government employees only.
  • The full schedule will be announced next week on the listserv; send any feedback to Sheila.campbell@gsa.gov.
  • For more information see: Web Managers University Fall Workshop
    
• Best Practice Awards
  • We’ll be doing awards again this year, with winners announced at an awards luncheon during the Fall workshop.
  • We’re accepting nominations through July 28 8:00 PM EST.
  • There will be specific judging criteria, with nominations reviewed by a panel of judges.
  • This is a great opportunity to bring visibility and recognition to your website. Award winners and finalists will be able to post Best Federal Website logos on their websites, and all Finalists receive free admission to the Fall Workshop.
  • The luncheon will also feature updates about our community’s strategic plan and recent initiatives, such as updates about Usability.gov and Webcontent.gov, the new edition of Research-Based Usability Guidelines book, and a call-to-action from the Forum task groups.
  • For more information see: Best Practice Awards
• Training Survey
  • Thank you to all those who completed the Training survey: 274 responses!
  • We’re analyzing the results and have incorporated as many suggestions as possible for the Fall Semester curriculum of Web Manager University.
  • We’ll share results with Forum members soon.
  • Some interesting, preliminary results: 35% of respondents are from outside the Washington, D.C. area (we hear you!). At least half of you are working on both public-facing websites and Intranets.
• Fall Semester, Web Manager University
  • TENTATIVE list of classes for the Fall Semester is as follows:
    • How to Do a Site Redesign
    • Google Search Engine Optimization
    • Basics of Information Architecture
    • Inside the New Research-Based Usability Guidelines Book
    • Using RSS Feeds
    • Web Metrics
    • Managing Multimedia Content (video, podcasts, etc.)
    • How to Develop and Use Personas
    • Usability & Accessibility
    • Content Management Systems
    • Using the UTE: An Automated Usability Testing Tool
    • Web Records Best Practices
    • Plain Language
    • Educating Your Bosses on the Value of the Web
    • Web Governance
    • Card Sorting
    • Usability Testing & Reporting
  • The classes will be a mix of 2-hour seminars and 2-day classes. We’re also going to offer a couple 1-day classes during the week of the Fall workshop.
  • We heard loud and clear that web managers in the field (outside DC) want better access to training. USA.gov (formerly FirstGov.gov), which manages Web Manager University, isn’t funded or staffed to manage a nationwide training program. However, we continue to look for ways to help coordinate training for folks outside of Washington, DC. We’re planning to offer some of the Fall sessions as free Webinars. We also want to explore how we can support and empower organized regional groups of government web managers (such as the Midwest web managers group) to organize their own training – perhaps through a “train the trainer” approach.
  • The topic of Regional Training might be a good one for a future monthly conference call. Let us know your thoughts.

Introducing… The Redesigned Usability.gov Website

The main agenda item was a tour, led by Sanjay Koyani and Beth Martin of HHS, of the recently-revamped Usability.gov website. Over 90% of the site content is new and it represents one of the most comprehensive and clear resource centers for information, tools, and guidance on research-based usability practices. Check out the great new site at www.usability.gov.

Sanjay explained that the redesign was conducted in an atmosphere of partnership and collaboration between many agency usability and web manager experts as well as some leading usability consultants. His team has worked to ensure that the Usability.gov website complements the resources provided on Webcontent.gov.

Site History

The site was first launched in 1999 by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It was designed to fill a vacuum of user-centered design resources in the government at a time when there was lots of federal attention on technology but little on usability practices and methods. In 2004, responsibility for the site was moved up to the department level of HHS in recognition to its broad value to HHS and beyond. As a result of this move, the staff refocused the goals of the site and set about improving it.

Redesign Process

The Usability.gov staff conducted a needs assessment and informally gathered information and feedback from the Web Managers Forum and U-Group listservs, and the community of usability practitioners. They redesigned the information architecture of the site, refreshed the content, and focused on providing research-based information, usability methods, and successful resources that could be shared government-wide. They conducted usability testing and incorporated the feedback into the new design.

Site Tour

Sanjay and Beth conducted a tour of the site by inviting call participants to view the site in their browsers and follow along. New site features include the Google search engine; a Home page that highlights the web design lifecycle; practical templates built into the lifecycle pages; and a visual one-page lifecycle overview called the Step-by-Step Guide. Among the many valuable sections are the Usability in Government/Lessons Learned links and libraries of Usability Statements of Work and Position Descriptions. These sections are designed to accommodate new cross-government resources as they become available.

Q&A

Following the tour, Sanjay took questions from the participants.

Q: Should you usability test first to establish baseline metrics?

A: Ideally, yes! In reality, sometimes we don’t have time.

Q: On the Usability.gov home page, are the “And more” links 508 compliant?

A: (And much follow-up discussion) The site was tested for 508 compliance and these links met the overall goals of the site.

However, several callers expressed concern that someone with a screen reader, would mostly hear “and more” and it would be better to have more context and more descriptive links. One caller suggested using more descriptive language, such as “And more on Planning…, “And more on Designing” etc.

Another caller said that there’s a company in the UK called Brothercake that offers the “Ultimate dropdown menu” scheme, which is 508 compliant. However, this solution may not work as well on large sites if they are not using cascading style sheets (CSS).

Sanjay said they will look into using the “and more” convention and see if there is additional research that we can share with the Listserv.

Q: You don’t underline any of the links on the Usability.gov homepage. Do people know it’s a link if it’s not underlined?

A: Testing on Usability.gov site indicated that users did understand which were links and which weren’t. Sanjay said that as long as the text is blue and it’s in a list format, users will know they are links (sometimes referred to as “link affordance”). The best way to indicate that text is a link is to be underlined and blue. Nothing should be underlined unless it is a link; italics should be used to indicate book titles, etc.

Q: Are the blue non-underlined links readable for people with low vision or color-blindness?

A: People with color-blindness do not have problems seeing the color blue; Sanjay and Beth will look into the issue of low-vision accessibility on the site.

It was suggested that relevant newsletter topics be cross-referenced to topic areas on the site.

The Usability.gov site received many kudos from people on the call for its clarity and comprehensive nature. Sanjay urged all of us to pass the word about it to colleagues. He also requested that additional feedback and suggestions be sent to him at sanjay.koyani@hhs.gov or by sending an e-mail on the “Contact Us” page of Usability.gov.

Next Forum Call and Reminders

• Next month’s call is on Thursday, August 17, from 11 am – 12 pm EST. The tentative topic is the How to Manage PDF Files.

  If you have suggestions for the agenda, please contact Sheila Campbell at Sheila.campbell@gsa.gov.

• Don’t forget to submit Best Federal Website nominations by Friday, July 28 (next Friday) 8:00PM EST.
• Look for Fall Workshop and Web Manager University registration to open on Tuesday, August 1.

 

Page Updated or Reviewed: January 12, 2007