U.S. Geological Survey
Content and Interactivity
“In the Spotlight” – links to very important USGS content “Science in Your Backyard” – find USGS content by location “Science Topics” – find USGS content by topic “Newsroom” – USGS news releases and “science picks,” summarizing news on many natural science topics; includes easy sign-up for news on up to 8 subject matter areas via listservs and links to RSS- and CAP-enabled feeds; USGS contacts; real-time data on earthquakes, stream flows, and fires through the Natural Hazards Gateway “Contact USGS” – email the USGS and locate employees or facilities “Fact of the Day” – a daily gem of interest from the USGS data mine.
Design, Usability and Accessibility
USGS Web page design centers around standard Visual Identity (VisID) Web templates. The templates rely on USGS branding, HTML, and CSS elements that make implementation quick and simple for developers, while meeting Federal Web requirements. Guidance on template usage is easily accessible on the USGS Intranet. USGS has conducted several usability studies over the years. Audience types, customer input from focus groups and surveys, and usability tests all influenced page design. Accessibility has been greatly improved using AccMonitor, which crawls USGS Web sites every month, measures compliancy with Section 508 requirements, and identifies any specific changes if needed.
Evaluation and Metrics
USGS Web Metrics program evaluates the characteristics and effectiveness of USGS Web sites. Our strategy: to gather and analyze data from multiple sources to characterize our Web presence, monitor visitation trends, identify customer types, topical interests, and report satisfaction and accessibility scores. USGS evaluates its Web logs, data from ACSI, Nielsen//NetRatings, reports from AccMonitor, FAQ data, and usability studies. These metrics have helped USGS characterize customers and their interests and improve the USGS Web presence. USGS has >3M homepage visitors per month, high ACSI customer satisfaction scores for content (80) and high return visit rates (>3 visits/person/month).
Wildcard Category
www.usgs.gov provides quick and easy access to real-time data. Earthquake data collected by seismographs are sent via a secure network to a USGS data center where USGS earthquake sites (http://www.usgs.gov/hazards/earthquakes/) are updated within minutes. Stream flow data from stream gauges (collected in a hardened fashion that withstood Hurricane Katrina) are sent to USGS data centers and posted immediately to the Web (http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/ and http://waterdata.usgs.gov/XX/nwis/rt) for a wide variety of users. Working with other agencies to mitigate and monitor wildfires, USGS led development of the real-time fire site (http://geomac.usgs.gov/). USGS also sends data as alerts using Common Alerting Protocol technology.
