New Search Function Added to FCC.gov, in Advance of December Launch of Updated Site
One major piece of the updated FCC.gov is in place, as the agency this summer put out a new search application and integrated it into the existing website, said Deanna Stephens, project manager of the website modernization effort. That faceted search goes through both FCC.gov and the Electronic Document Management System for results, though the search can be filtered, and will be carried over into the new site expected to go live in mid-December, agency representatives said Wednesday. So far, the site is getting good reviews from those we interviewed.
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The prototype site was shown to mostly FCC staff Wednesday in a live demonstration, with a couple of other demonstrations for outside-the-agency users planned before it goes live, said Sarah Millican, senior digital strategy adviser to Chief Information Officer David Bray. The agency has worked on updating the site for more than a year, based on the recognition that the current FCC.gov lacks a clear information architecture, making things difficult to find, and that typical site visitors don't go there to browse, Millican said.
One of the biggest changes is the move from a flat structure with no hierarchy of information and a lack of links tying content together to a much bigger focus on such links and hierarchy and multiple routes to accessing the same content, Stephens said. For example, she said, a database in the updated version found under the "Licensing & Databases" tab on the homepage might also be linked to the pages for the individual bureau or office affiliated with that database.
Much of the new site architecture is aimed at practitioner users such as attorneys and engineers, with content aimed at consumers largely segregated into separate channels, Stephens said. All data on the current FCC.gov site also exist on the prototype site, though with IT staffers in "content clean-up mode," working on links and menus, some links might not be active yet in the new site, she said.
After the live demo, NCTA staffer Galen Pospisil said he still needs to try out the new system, but it looks to him to be more intuitive and usable than the current one, which he checks multiple times a day.
The current FCC site, particularly the Electronic Comment Filing System, "is remarkably better" than it was a handful of years ago, said Pennsylvania State University Palmer Chair in Telecom Sascha Meinrath. "The last one was horrible and everyone knew it; this one at least allows you to do some basic searching” but still lacks usability taken for granted in many searches, Meinrath said. It also lacks the functionality to push out information to people interested in particular docket items or filers, he said: "We now take for granted we can set Google alerts on just about anything. The fact we can't do anything like that is a real problem.” However, the biggest positive change the FCC could make would be in more transparency about the types of information it has, even if that information itself is not publicly accessible, Meinrath said: "We're in danger of creating incredible databases full of chaff and all the wheat is hidden away in some secret grainery."