ITTS Update

Updated 2009

The redesigned site was launched in September 2009 and is live at http://ala.org.  Please use the contact form on this site or on the ALA website to send us questions or comments about the site. Thank you to everyone who provided feedback to help launch the new site.

Updated September 19

At its meeting on August 27, the Web Editorial Board (WEB) conducted a thorough status review of progress on the redevelopment of the ALA website in accordance with the results of the usability study, conducted over the past two years. The WEB assessed progress in nine areas, adding a tenth during the analysis. The ten objectives are those that must be completed prior to launching the new site, with the new design and the new information architecture (IA).

There is substantial progress towards all of these ten objectives, but there remain enough critical issues that the Web Editorial Board, in consultation with ALA’s senior management, has determined that the final launch can only occur when these key objectives are met. Because the ALA membership is awaiting the launch, we are going to need to continue – and increase – our efforts so that we can launch within the next 10 days to two weeks.

We are now targeting completion of the revisions to the staging site to meet these objectives by the close of business on September 18 (that’s 4:30 p.m. Central Time). This will allow for fine tuning of the site and transfer of its contents from staging to the live servers for launch on September 22.

The goal remains to launch on September 22–likely late morning.

While the work is continuing,The goal remains to launch on September 22–likely late morning. the current site will remain active and key content, such as the registration for the Midwinter Meeting, will be updated. The project staff for the redevelopment will undertake daily progress reviews, and the WEB will review these as frequently as necessary. Progress reports will be posted regularly on this page.

The key performance objectives are:

• All home page quicklinks (”dropdowns” along the bottom of the header) working correctly. (100% as of 9/18, up from 99% complete as of 9/10, up from 80% complete, as of 9/4)
• Registration pages set up and working. (90% complete, as of 9/4)
• First level landing pages (e.g., “About Us) pristine, with both content and design in place and properly formatted. (95% complete as of 9/19 (a few don’t have bullet points) up from 50% complete as of 9/10, which was up from 30% complete, as of 9/4)
• Second level pages have appropriate content, with brief “scope” notes for these written, vetted & installed. (90% complete, as of 9/4)
• Listing pages have appropriate content built using tags, or appropriate placeholder pages. (as of 9/19 we’re pursuing a major bug, but much tagging is in place; 30% complete as of 9/10, up from 20% complete, as of 9/4)
• Headquarters operations (offices, such as HR and the Library) pages in place. (100% as of 9/17, up from 95% complete, as of 9/4)
• Round Table announcement about redevelopment by volunteer contributors to come. (70% complete, as of 9/4)
• ALA Suggestions (”Key matches”) implemented in the Google Search Appliance. (80% complete, as of 9/4) – this is a last step, but is ready to go
• Removal of navigation on applications serving from Active Matter, something that affects some databases and forms. (50% complete as of 9/10, up from10% complete, as of 9/4) – also a last step
• Accurate links and text for the site navigation links at the very top (such as “Join ALA”, “FAQ”). (100% complete as of 9/10, up from 60% complete, as of 9/4)

P.S. to WEB DEVELOPERS: Please continue reviewing content, bringing as many pages as possible into compliance with the usability standards presented at several training sessions, reorganizing navigation as appropriate, and tagging content for the dynamic pages! We are also asking everyone to review progress on the staging site www.ala.org/preview and to send any and all suggestions for improvements or corrections to ia_implementation@ala.org. Please be specific, describing the content at issue and the navigation path used to reach that page–and most important, offering a suggestion for resolving the matter!

The WEB thanks the 100+ content developers who have been working on the site redevelopment over the past 5-6 weeks. Enormous progress has been made towards recasting the site’s 80-90,000 files into a new structure that will better serve our visitors. We will never be “finished”, as there will always be improvements to make, but we are eager to present ALA’s vast resources in the improved design and navigation as quickly as the remaining work on the objectives can be achieved.