[LINK] How Obama Will Use Web Technology

Jan Whitaker jwhit at melbpc.org.au
Sun Jan 25 19:28:51 AEDT 2009


At 06:54 PM 25/01/2009, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
>We're eager to see the use of these
>technologies extended to www.WhiteHouse.gov initially and from there we'd
>love to see more government agencies quickly embrace web technologies to
>promote communication, transparency and participation.

They are going to have their work cut out for them structuring the 
information so it is discoverable. The categories available under the 
Briefing Room do not include the press office. I wanted to find the 
language on the rescission of the restriction on Federal Funds for 
family planning organisations and went to executive orders. Nope. 
Turns out it's a memo to the SecState. Fortunately the Blog has an 
article about it that points to it under the Press Office directory. 
Guess what: there is no Press Office listing on any of the drop down menus.

OK, it's a minor issue, but will be key to meeting the goal of transparency.

AH! It's a vocabulary problem! By back-deleting to the directory of 
that particular item, come to find out the Press Office *is* the 
Briefing Room! See how easy it is to mess up something so 
simple?  But it still doesn't list this memo!

I think it's time to drop them a line.......

here's what I sent to their email address, not using the online form 
that limits to 500 characters and requires a US postcode!!!
==========


Congratulations on a beautiful new website. Now for the problem.

The categories available under the Briefing Room do not include the 
press office. I wanted to find the language on the rescission of the 
restriction on Federal Funds for family planning organisations and 
went to executive orders. Nope. Turns out it's a memo to the 
SecState. Fortunately the Blog has an article about it that points to 
it under the Press Office directory. Guess what: there is no Press 
Office listing on any of the drop down menus. Might be worthwhile 
putting a self-referring link in the drop down that says Press 
Office. Briefing Room is a place, not a function. Minor programming 
without having to redo anything much on the site.

OK, it's a minor issue, but will be key to meeting the goal of transparency.

But it still doesn't list this memo! Where are memos kept? What 
happens when the blog post about that item disappears off the front 
page, as it should as time passes?

So I tried the search box. Typed in 'birth control' without the '. 
Gave me nothing. In fact it gave me a Get Updates page:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/GetUpdates/?e=jjcu1suMbwxJRGH8LsVtMJLZ5Mndb0Rn%2fx7SUfzzhGQ%3d&z=xnFAkbNx7nCp6ruefu%2fwZ6F70v1C6oO9k2Eoy6fpA%2fM%3d
No clue what updates has to do with search or birth control.
Ah! Discovery - typing in the terms and hitting return results in 
this page. One must click the Search button. You might want to 
rethink that behaviour. Most search engines conduct the search with a 
return after entering terms and don't require clicking a separate 
button. e.g. Google tool bar.

Then I tried the 'birth control' term and got four results, none of 
which were about the rescission, and two were of the same biography 
of Ellen Wilson for the word 'birth' only.

I give up.

Suggestions:
1. add a self-referencing label on the drop down menu of each of the 
main ones, otherwise the user doesn't realise there is a page that 
links directly from those main headings.
2. work on your search engine, including providing a Search Help 
function [e.g. acceptable search term formats]. Once the site is 
populated, folks won't have a chance of finding anything otherwise.
3. Not sure if you're using metadata terms [e.g. my use of birth 
control instead of family planning didn't return the document] for 
each document, but it is worth considering
4. make a hard return [Enter key] in the search box a function 
equivalent to clinking the Search button.

Best regards,
Jan Whitaker
website designer and Expat American who is once again proud to say so!


Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
personal: http://www.janwhitaker.com/personal/
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

Writing Lesson #54:
Learn to love revision. Think of it as polishing the silver for 
guests. - JW, May, 2007
_ __________________ _




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