ITTS Update

The usability assessment (UA) was completed in November and a retreat to discuss the results and determine next steps was held in December. We have since contracted with UserWorks for completion of several of the recommendations from the UA, including a card sort and terminology prioritization exercise, as well as a rough draft of an information architecture for the site. Wireframes will debut at Annual Conference in Washington, DC, this summer. A longer-term proposal for a complete redesign of the website is being reviewed. The Web Editorial Board has also created three cross-unit working groups to work on high-priority improvements to the current site, such as Education and Careers, getting involved in ALA, and Awards and Scholarships. A week-long web clean-up project is being planned for April. The group is also working on implementing a new "skin" for the ALA home page to resolve an issue with weekly spotlights falling "below the fold."

In November, the Web Editorial Board heard from Sam Florio, Online Marketing Manager in Publishing, about search engine optimization techniques he uses to attract more viewers to ALA's e-commerce sites. The WEB will implement Sam's techniques across the website by including proper tagging and titling in Collage training classes.

The Web Editorial Board is proposing a "web retreat" to develop plans for the continual upgrade of the website. Plans are proceeding for a member "landing page" that will draw together sites and content of interest to members only, perhaps using an upgraded Online Communities login page as the entry point.

The WEB is planning a half-day session on coordinating web content management for ALA staff. The group looked at known projects under development, and saw the need for greater cooperation and coordination throughout the association.