Those who have not been to the AACRAO website recently are in for a surprise – the staff worked for months internally and with outside vendors to completely redesign the look and feel of www.aacrao.org, culminating in a seamless transition on October 24th.
Content-driven change
The impetus behind the change came when our Director of Information Technology, Tim Rager, attended the 2012 Leadership Meeting. He kept hearing that many people, even our most engaged members, had trouble finding things on the AACRAO website.
“Hearing those comments, we decided to collectively reexamine the website and make it more user-friendly,” said Rager. “That was the start, but it eventually morphed into an opportunity for us as an organization to focus on content and provide resources not only to our members, but to non-members looking to find out more about the academic services profession.”
The staff and members volunteered for heuristic test sessions on the old site to determine things like how many clicks it took to navigate through to the desired page on the site and how often the search function was used. A list of keywords and tags were developed based on the content the site housed, and what was important to site visitors.
Executive Director Mike Reilly charged the staff to use the site overhaul as an opportunity to provide more usable content and resources for our members online. But the transition, as with any major project, did not come without challenges and obstacles to overcome. According to Rager, “the biggest challenge for us was to reinvent the way we saw the usefulness of the web for our association. Instead of being a central repository of transactions, we had to think of new ways to show that were are a leading source of material and content on enrollment and academic services.”
Early feedback
Christopher Tremblay, Associate Provost for Enrollment Management, Western Michigan University, finds the site “visually appealing” and “easy to find what you’re seeking.” He adds “I especially like Publications page because you can easily scan for relevant research and best practices that are highlighted.”
There is still work to be done, however. While Lee Furbeck echoed Temblay’s sentiment about the easy navigation of the site, she found certain things, like the member log-in and Jobs Online harder to find. Tremblay also mentioned a desire for Past Meetings to maintain presentation materials for more than just a year, as it would benefit not only those who could not attend those particular meetings, but those who wished to reference them again in the course of their work.
But more importantly, what do you think? Let us know – email connect@aacrao.org – or respond to our survey, coming before the end of the year.