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our new look
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Welcome to the fresh face of the Economic Research Service
at www.ers.usda.gov!
We've spent quite a bit of time over the past months listening
to our users to find out how to improve. We hope that our
changes, the latest in a series of incremental enhancements,
will make it easier to see what ERS offers and easier to get
to the wealth of our products and services.
Only the homepage, site banner, and data page
have changed. Once you click on a link, you'll be taken to
a familiar-looking page with the information you are used
to finding.
In order to fully enjoy the experience of our new homepage,
you will need the Macromedia Flash Player installed on your
PC. If you do not have this plug-in installed on your PC,
we strongly urge you download the latest version of this free
player from Macromedia's website.
Not to worry, though… For the few customers without Flash,
we'll automatically/seamlessly provide a non-Flash (static)
page (so that small percent of users won't know what they
are missing), and we'll offer a link to download the free
software.
Let us know
if you have any feedback about our new look.
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site history and development
ERS's external website began
in July 1995 as a fledgling startup dedicated to delivering the
agency's research and publications on the Internet. In 2000, ERS
Administrator Susan Offutt initiated a comprehensive site redesign
project. She charged the agency with developing a website that "establishes
ERS as a premier provider of real-time, real-value economic analysis
via the World Wide Web to our primary customers."
On January 2, 2001, the newly re-engineered ERS website was launched
with a brand new look; streamlined, easy-to-use format with quick
and simple navigation; advanced search functions; news on the latest
products and events; comprehensive commodity and trade data; and
more. Since then, the site has grown to serve as the agency's primary
communications vehicle—a critical tool in helping the agency
accomplish its mission.
improved online services
The ERS website features:
- Five research emphasis areas that reflect the agency's strategic
goals;
- More than 80 briefing rooms offering in-depth synthesis of the
economic issues that frame the research;
- 22 key topic areas populated with data, publications, and other
products;
- Access to around 9,000 data sets;
- Hundreds of publications; and
- An "About ERS" section pointing to subject specialists,
job listings, and other services.
Over time, www.ers.usda.gov
has become part of a comprehensive suite of online services offered
by the agency for its customers. Referred to as "ERS Online,"
these services also include:
- A subscription-based electronic notification service that supplies
e-mail alerts on newly released or updated products covering 50
different topic areas;
- Extranets that provide private workspaces for ERS staff to collaborate
with other Federal agencies and private organizations;
- Amber Waves
"e-zine"—an electronic magazine covering the economics
of food, farming, natural resources, and rural America.
ERS's Information Services Division provides for the site's strategic
direction and planning, technical and operational administration,
content development and design, training, assistance, and new services.
The division works closely with the agency's program divisions to
manage and coordinate all aspects of the site's development and
growth.
strategic directions for the future
More and more of our users have come to expect, and want more,
high-quality products and services from ERS The agency currently
is focusing on five key strategic areas to further enhance its online
services:
(1) Providing high-value service to ERS's core audiences.
Recent milestones include:
(2) Enhancing the user experience. Recent milestones include:
- Launching a web customer satisfaction survey to get feedback
on what users want and need from our website, and using the results
to benchmark, measure, and improve performance;
- Incorporating iterative usability
testing as an important part of our standard web product development
process; and
- Instituting significant search engine improvements and redesigning
the site's search interfaces.
- Developing a new site archive for data and publications to bring
the most current information from our vast collection to the forefront,
and to ensure historical perpetuity of research.
(3) Leveraging and extending core ERS data products. Recent
milestones include:
- Launching the Foodborne
Illness Cost Calculator. This interactive "model"
provides information on the assumptions behind foodborne illness
cost estimates—and gives users a chance to make their own
assumptions and calculate their own cost estimates.
- Providing fully interactive
mapping programs. These "map machines" provide
maximum flexibility in data access with the latest, on-the-fly,
geographic information system (GIS) mapping and database retrieval
technologies.
- Launching a new, improved data "portal" page, showcasing
the scope and breadth of data available from ERS in an easy-to-navigate
format.
(4) Improving internal operations and management for ERS Online.
Recent milestones include:
- Appointing a web analytics
manager to oversee web performance measurement and user-centric
initiatives.
- Providing monthly "State of the Web" reports to disseminate
key data from site log files and present these findings in an
easy-to-read and understand format. Management and staff use this
information to effectively guide ongoing website development and
glean helpful insights into the way visitors use their web products
and the sort of information they seek.
- Presenting monthly, inhouse Web Brown Bag Seminars on topics
ranging from basic taxonomy development, to web content management
system implementation, and to leveraging Flash as a web application
development tool.
- Installing a web design lab to provide a physical "home"
for the ERS web community, as well as a dedicated place to hold
web usability testing, accessibility testing, and other product-evaluation
techniques.
(5) Enhancing ERS Online's technical infrastructure. Recent
milestones include:
- Defining ERS's needs and opportunities for web content management
and document management system implementation;
- Leading USDA's requirements gathering process for a Departmentwide
web content and document management system;
- Developing a white paper addressing ERS's key CMS pre-implementation
activities; and
- Providing staff training on writing for the web, information
architecture, and data visualization.
Review the ERS Online Strategic
Plan for 2003 & Beyond for more information on these
five areas.
for more information, contact: Gina
Pearson
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