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GCN Home > January 22, 2001 issue

Feds give the term tune-up new meaning

BY PATRICIA DAUKANTAS | GCN STAFF

Sometimes it takes a mechanic.

Managers of two federal Web sites recently hired the Web equivalent to look under the hoods of their sites and see if they are meeting users’ peak performance demands.

The Navy Recruiting Command’s national recruiting site, at www.navyjobs.com, underwent massive renovation last May, and Navy officials wanted to know whether the new design was doing the service any good.

In contrast, the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer, a group that promotes cooperation between government labs and industries, hadn’t redesigned its www.federallabs.org site for some time.

The Navy recruiters and the lab consortium both hired Webjectives Inc. of Media, Pa., to evaluate their sites.

The Navy has lured job seekers via the Web since the mid-1990s. Before last spring’s face-lift, the design had a dated look, said Lt. Cmdr. Nicholas Dodge, director of interactive marketing in Millington, Tenn.

The lab consortium went through “a long, drawn-out process to make sure our site is targeted to our customers’ needs,” said Jana Smith, who heads the consortium’s Marketing and Public Relations Committee. Smith is an analyst for the Energy Department’s National Petroleum Technology Office in Tulsa, Okla.

The consortium’s customers are federally funded national labs, industry, Congress and universities. Its current Web design features large amounts of text in a simple, sans serif typeface with links to members, patent and licensing information, and technology transfer success stories, all in two side-by-side scrollable frames.

Smith said the site format is “OK right now, it works, but it’s not the best it can be.”

Because the lab consortium promotes cutting-edge technology, its Web site should project a high-tech look and feel, said James Burdette, Webjectives’ president and founder.

In general, Burdette said, he avoids hard and fast rules about use of frames and related issues. He does, however, recommend against posting an online image for the sake of having an image.

“It should add value, not just download time,” Burdette said.

Webjectives’ site evaluation starts with meetings with stakeholders to define objectives. Then Burdette and his staff examine rival sites and install a pop-up user survey on the customer site.



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