Mike Land

1
Mike Land Implementation Subcommittee
Conference Call 5/18/2006
Chesapeake Bay ProgramWebsite Redesign Update
2
Quick Snapshot Year in Review - 2005

• 2,666,078 Visits in last year
• Average 7,304 visits daily
• 16 of visitors International
• Average length of visit 1249 minutes
• Average pages per visit 3.27
• 80 million hits

3
Chesapeakebay.net Trends 2002 2006 (Annual
Visits)

• Around 3.5 Million unique visits expected this
  year
• Sixfold increase since 2002

4
Trends in Other Sites Gateways Journal (Annual
Visits)

• Bay Gateways average visits now over 700,000
• Bay Journal has had a threefold increase since
  redesign
• Suite of sites will reach nearly 4.5 million
  visits this year!

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How do we rank? Search Engines
Rank 1 in 10 of 10 major search engines for
the phrase Chesapeake Bay Program Rank 1 in 9
of 10 major search engines for the phrase
Chesapeake Bay
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2002
What visitors are looking at the most?
2005

• Homepage
• Desktop Wallpaper
• Animals and Plants
• Calendar
• About the Bay
• Blue Crab
• Plankton
• Status and Trends
• Bald Eagle
• American Eel
• Crabs and Shellfish
• Glossary
• Striped Bass
• American Oyster
• Search Action

• Homepage
• Animals and Plants
• About the Bay
• Publication Search
• Bay Safari
• Search Action
• Individual Committees
• Watershed Profiles
• Data Hub
• Blue Crab
• Water Quality
• Fish
• Bay Pollutants
• Bay Grasses
• Habitats

Dynamic pages represents all visits
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Searches leading to our site 2005 Top 15
Search Terms

• Wallpaper
• Chesapeake Bay (1)
• Plankton (1)
• Nutria (19)
• Osprey (6)
• Crabs (14)
• Eel (1)
• Striped Bass (1)
• Blue crab (2)
• Bald Eagle (51)
• Shad (2)
• Clam (5)
• Food Web (25)
• American Eel (1)
• Eagle

8
Searches within our site Top 10 Search Terms
(1999-2006)

• Map / Maps
• Blue Crab(s)
• Oysters
• Jobs / Employment
• Striped Bass / Rockfish
• Estuary
• SAV
• Wetlands
• Food Web
• Watershed

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What a Redesign Means
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Scope of Redesign in 2006

• For 2006, well be redesigning the CORE website
• The CORE defined
• The CORE website will include all subject matter
  pages and sections
• The CORE website will include the search engine
• What the CORE isnt
• The Data Hub, the Calendar Application,
  Geography Apps

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The Process
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The Process
Content Process Content Templates
Audience Known Issues Log File Analysis Usability
Needs Assessment
Pubs
Multi.
Glossary
Maps
Photos
Data
Contacts
Content
Grants
Info Architecture
Content Mgmt System Scoping Process
Nav Model
Content Audit / Edit
Content Management System
Meta Model
Website Design (CSS, XHTML, C)
- under way
- completed
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Known Issues
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Known Website Issues

• Navigation
• Better indication of main navigation at the top
  of the page
• Lack of consistent location of navigation
• Design
• Design is built using old design standards and
  methods
• Lack of consistent design across all web pages
• Design based upon accessibility standards
  (Section 508)

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Known Website Issues

• Information Management
• Need central management of components (links,
  images, charts, maps, etc.)
• Need to eliminate overlap of information
• Information / Content
• Press info and news arent integrated fully
  enough into design
• Bay Journal and Gateways info needs to be more
  fully integrated
• Comments about specific subjects should be
  directed to the subject matter expert
• Assignment of content ownership is lacking

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Known Website Issues

• Searching
• Search is inefficient
• Doesnt search all holdings of information
• Publications search relies upon metadata instead
  of searching actual documents (i.e. pdfs)
• More importance of search its one of two ways
  to find info on our site.

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Audiences
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Audiences for chesapeakebay.net

• Interested Public
• Someone who has identified reasons that the
  Chesapeake Bay is important to him or her as an
  individual. They recognize a connection between
  the values of the Chesapeake Bay and their own
  personal interests.
• Implementer Groups (Our stakeholder audiences)
• Community, Environmental and Watershed
  Organizations
• Local Governments (Elected officials
  professional staff)
• Businesses and Developers
• Special Audiences
• Educators
• Scientists
• State and Federal Bay Program Partner Agencies
• Media

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Audiences for chesapeakebay.net
Base Layer of Information
How to get involved
Bay Facts
Bay History
Interested Public Implementer Groups Special
Audiences
How are crabs?
Bay Maps
Bay Images
Bay Health
How the Bay works
Applications Tools
Data
Committee Info, Grants
Implementer Groups Special Audiences
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Usability
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Audiences Tested

• Several audiences were tested
• Students 3rd, 4th, 5th grades
• Watershed Orgs a wide range of org types
• Teachers mostly science teachers

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Random Usability Observations

• Less interest in what CBP does and more interest
  in the Bay
• Restoration means ways to get involved and
  ongoing projects
• Some confusion with CBF
• Most people are search dominated (Google) when
  it comes to tasks
• Homepage is probably a little too
  information-rich
• Better use of tabbed navigation
• Better integration of local information
• Kids, given their choice, wouldnt be on our site

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Needs Assessment(Focus Groups)
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Focus Group Analysis

• Contracted through SAIC to help guide our
  communications effort
• Focused on Local Govts, Watershed Orgs
• Findings are due out very soon in a report
• Finding should help us determine what content
  and applications are needed by audience

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Focus Group Analysis Preliminary Findings

• Design should be cleaner, less cluttered
• Search interface isnt cutting it
• Focus on the Bay story up front
• Refocus watershed profiles on community
  watershed needs
• Emphasize grants and funding information

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The Process
Content Process Content Templates
Audience Known Issues Log File Analysis Usability
Needs Assessment
Pubs
Multi.
Glossary
Maps
Photos
Data
Contacts
Content
Grants
Info Architecture
Content Mgmt System Scoping Process
Nav Model
Content Audit / Edit
Content Management System
Meta Model
Website Design (CSS, XHTML, C)
- under way
- completed
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Information Architecture
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Information Architecture
Definition 1. The combination of organization,
labeling, and navigation schemes within an
information system. 2. The structural design of
an information space to facilitate task
completion and intuitive access to content. 3.
The art and science of structuring and
classifying web sites to help people find and
manage information.
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A Balance is Necessary
Context business goals, politics, culture,
technology, resources, and constraints Content
document / data types, content objects, volume,
existing structure Users audience, tasks,
needs, information seeking behavior, experience
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Information Architecture
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Content Audit
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The Process
Content Process Content Templates
Audience Known Issues Log File Analysis Usability
Needs Assessment
Pubs
Multi.
Glossary
Maps
Photos
Data
Contacts
Content
Grants
Info Architecture
Content Mgmt System Scoping Process
Nav Model
Content Audit / Edit
Content Management System
Meta Model
Website Design (CSS, XHTML, C)
- under way
- completed
33
Content Audit

• The content audit includes
• Applications (tools, interfaces)
• Current Text
• Content Gaps
• Goals
• Identify applications/ content that lack(s)
  targeted audience(s) and set of definable goals
• Repurpose applications/content that need(s) more
  focus.
• Identify content that is out of date or
  unnecessary

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Content Audit

• Goals
• Establish content templates or guides
• Ensure consistent messaging is happening
• Identify content gaps
• establishing ownership for content
• Greening our content

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Content Management
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The Process
Content Process Content Templates
Audience Known Issues Log File Analysis Usability
Needs Assessment
Pubs
Multi.
Glossary
Maps
Photos
Data
Contacts
Content
Grants
Info Architecture
Content Mgmt System Scoping Process
Nav Model
Content Audit / Edit
Content Management System
Meta Model
Website Design (CSS, XHTML, C)
- under way
- completed
37
Content Management Solution

• The CMS will
• Be built into the current intranet
• Utilize an authorization scheme
• Provide access to the common elements that exist
  currently on the intranet (contacts, photos, etc)
  and those that will be added (video / audio)
• Allow the creation of webpages and addition /
  update of content

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Content Responsibility
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Content Responsibility

• Identify ownership for all major components and
  underlying pages of the website
• Coordinators will be the primary point of
  contact for content responsibility
• All content will go through the communications
  office to ensure that major Bay Program messages
  are seeded within a storyline context and the new
  programmatic areas and priorities get fully
  reflected in the content.
• Enforcement at the very top

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MetaModel
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The Process
Content Process Content Templates
Audience Known Issues Log File Analysis Usability
Needs Assessment
Pubs
Multi.
Glossary
Maps
Photos
Data
Contacts
Content
Grants
Info Architecture
Content Mgmt System Scoping Process
Nav Model
Content Audit / Edit
Content Management System
Meta Model
Website Design (CSS, XHTML, C)
- under way
- completed
42
MetaModel

• A backend database system that
• provides storage for all of our data (photos,
  maps, scientific data, content)
• facilitates elimination of data redundancy (i.e.
  duplicate contact info, etc.)
• can be leveraged to pull data and information
  for the website
• allows us to separate content from design

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Timeline
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2006 Timeline
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Project Wrap-up
NEIEN/BMP, CFD Calculator, DNR Shallow Water
Planning, Etc.
Launch 01/01/07
CMS Decision 04/17/05
Intensive Focus
Core Web Redesign
Info Architecture, Content Mgt System, Design,
Etc.
Web Activites 07
DataHub, Geography, Etc.
New Activities
Non-Tidal, Etc.
On-going Support
On-Going Support
Web, Application, GIS, Etc.
Planning
Implementation