Redesigning

BNL.GOV

A Journey in Five Acts

@gary_schroeder

(or How We Blew Up the Death Star)

Hi. I’m Gary Schroeder @gary_schroeder

Redesigning a website is a big, hairy deal that involves extreme challenges, risks, adventures

and intense battles

Obviously, it’s just like

Call to Adventure Our web team was trapped on Tatooine, stuck on a moisture farm with no hope of ever getting into the Academy, a complete life of unfulfilled boredom

UNLESS…

OMG, we’re going on a

REDESIGN ADVENTURE

So, what was wrong with BNL.GOV?

EVERYTHING

BORING Long passages of text that no one would ever read

www.shorpy.com/node/15673

OUTDATED Last major update was NINE YEARS ago

MISSION? Can anybody tell if we even have a

‘Some kinda scienc-ey stuff?’

ORG CHART Death by

No one gives a rip about internal fiefdoms

AMATEURS We looked like

(Amateurs have no credibility)

APATHY

Redesigning a website is a big, hairy deal that involves extreme challenges, risks, adventures

and intense battles

CONTENT STRATEGY Since we don’t have one, let’s start with a

Content strategy plans for the

creation, publication, and governance

of useful, usable content.

Kristina Halvorson

www.flickr.com/photos/45923218@N00/4835160197

Publishing Criteria Why are you publishing this?

Info Architecture Is it logically arranged, findable?

Content Strategy

Messages What do you want them to know?

ID Audiences Who are you trying to reach? (And why?)

Work Flow Routine process for scheduling, producing, publishing

Measure success (or lack of it)

Metrics

The content strategist defines not only which content will be published, but why it’s being published in the first place. Without a strategy, we’re just running a production line for content that nobody needs or wants.

www.shorpy.com/node/15585

A Mentor Journey begins following contact with sages or wizards who give guidance

Between regular baseline work and a relentless stream of unscheduled work requests, our available resources are fully subscribed. We have insufficient reserve capacity to sustain a project that requires the long-term focus that a full content overhaul requires.

(Actual quote!)

Erin Kissane Author of ‘The Elements of Content Strategy’

www.flickr.com/photos/webstock06/6885493653/

CORE TEAM

CS DELIVERABLES

Accessibility Guides Publishing Workflow

Benchmarks Qualitative Content Audit

Channel Strategies Quantitative Content Audit

Competitive Analyses Resource Review

Content Style Guide SEO Review

Content Templates Success Metrics

Editorial Calendars User Persona

Example Content User Research Plans

Feature Descriptions User Scenarios

Gap Analyses Workflow Recommendations

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

AUDIT Oh boy! It’s time for a content

TOTAL DRAG

STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEWS

Our home page is a blizzard.

There’s too much information

right away.

www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2551851700

Our website should facilitate a two-way conversation with industry.

www.flickr.com/photos/anmm_thecommons/8533281990

Our site lacks a compelling vision. What’s our version of ‘we helped put a man on the moon’?

www.flickr.com/photos/bergen_public_library/5427117205

Potential recruits are our most important audience.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2552861639

The website needs to work better for elected officials, high-level industry reps and community

members.

www.flickr.com/photos/floridamemory/9031464131

Audiences Dept. of Energy Current employees

Elected officials (staffers) Students

Community members Journalists/Media

Science-interested public Facility Users

Potential employees Potential facility users

Top Tasks Find contact information Learn how to apply for a job

Evaluate programs or facilities Find relevant research news

Understand what BNL does Learn how to become a facility user

See available jobs See what BNL offers industry

Recommended Site Structure

Content Templates

0. Home Page 1.0 Landing Page 1.1 Sub Page

Template 1.0: ‘Our Science’ Landing Page

Intro to BNL’s work Brookhaven’s scientific breakthroughs ensure a successful energy future for our nation. We research: 1. nuclear and particle physics, to understand more about matter, energy, space, and time; 2. photon sciences and nanomaterials, to research new kinds of energy production; and 3. the relationship between climate change, sustainable energy, and the Earth’s ecosystems.

Themes Energy Security: We collaborate with industry and academic partners to reduce the carbon footprint of our economy through efficiency and renewable fuels. Light as a Discovery Tool: Our light sources work as powerful microscopes to help researchers find solutions to the grand energy challenges facing the US. Etc. …

Our Science

Science Powering Industry Short blurb, link to case study, small image.

About BNL Brookhaven carries out critical energy research at the frontier of science and operates world-leading research facilities on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Success Metrics Unique visits Subscriber volume Number of shares

What number indicates ‘success’?

Time on site Is a high number or a low number good? High number might mean they couldn’t find desired content. Low number might mean they didn’t stop to read content.

www.flickr.com/photos/60527064@N00/3538962602

What We Had at end of CS consult

• Who we were trying to reach • What we wanted to tell them • What we thought they wanted to do (top tasks) • Suggestions for how to arrange content in a way that

would be easy for them to find it • List of content to dump b/c it had no WHY • Where the content gaps were and what had to be

written to better explain the Lab’s mission, capabilities, national value and achievements

• The attention of management and our own writing staff

Frustration Far from reaching the goal because there’s a series of obstacles

USER INTERFACE Uh oh, we need a new

Many of BNL CMS functions write out database records in "slats" format, where each record is returned as a unique <li> where <ul class="slats">.

BNL.GOV/COMMON

HOME PAGE The Big Bone of Contention, the

www.flickr.com/photos/38611695@N00/2210578063/

Home Page Content Priorities

START SKETCHING

RESPONSIVE Yup, it’s

NEW CONTENT Time to write

www.shorpy.com/node/15322

CORE TEAM

NO PROJECTS WITHOUT

MILESTONES

Template 1.0: ‘Our Science’ Landing Page

Intro to BNL’s work Brookhaven’s scientific breakthroughs ensure a successful energy future for our nation. We research: 1. nuclear and particle physics, to understand more about matter, energy, space, and time; 2. photon sciences and nanomaterials, to research new kinds of energy production; and 3. the relationship between climate change, sustainable energy, and the Earth’s ecosystems.

Themes Energy Security: We collaborate with industry and academic partners to reduce the carbon footprint of our economy through efficiency and renewable fuels. Light as a Discovery Tool: Our light sources work as powerful microscopes to help researchers find solutions to the grand energy challenges facing the US. Etc. …

Our Science

Science Powering Industry Short blurb, link to case study, small image.

About BNL Brookhaven carries out critical energy research at the frontier of science and operates world-leading research facilities on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy.

‘RIGOROUSLY FRIENDLY’

www.flickr.com/photos/x-ray_delta_one/8755526695

Document Control

The Final Ordeal Culminating in a great battle

Communications ALD

Stakeholder Relations

Chief Information Officer

Deputy Director for Ops

Management Council

PRESENTATIONS

THE DIRECTOR In which we present to

I applaud your motivation and expect that the results will be fantastic. However, I was shocked earlier this month when CERN rolled out their new web pages. Perhaps it was the way I used the old web pages, but it is much harder to find the links which were trivially available on the old CERN site.

Goal Achieved After a thrilling escape from death, the goal is finally won and order is restored

PARTY TIME

I had friends on that Death Star…

PUT THE PHONE BOOK LINK BACK ON THE FRONT PAGE!!!!!

billyhunt.smugmug.com/Projects/Screamotron3000

billyhunt.smugmug.com/Projects/Screamotron3000

Where is the phone directory? It used to be right on the home page.

billyhunt.smugmug.com/Projects/Screamotron3000

You changed the way to look up phone numbers. The old way was much simpler. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

billyhunt.smugmug.com/Projects/Screamotron3000

The menu bar at the top is way too small !

billyhunt.smugmug.com/Projects/Screamotron3000

I have large margins of dead space on the left and right sides that I don’t recall seeing before.

billyhunt.smugmug.com/Projects/Screamotron3000

I know it’s job security for you folks to revise web pages, but this revision was not only unnecessary, it was in the retrograde direction.

NO, THERE IS ANOTHER ‘That redesign was our last one.’