Viderity has Redesigned Archives.gov to be a User-Focused Website.

The Archives.gov redesign – part of the National Archives Flagship Open Government Initiative – reflects the ongoing effort to engage the public and make records of the National Archives easier to find and use. A multi-faceted participatory approach, including online cards sorts and user testing, was used to gather input to create a comprehensive understanding of how customers would organize the content on Archives.gov.

As part of the effort to provide a web site that is truly of, by, and for the people, the public was invited to view new Archives.gov homepage designs and provide feedback via the National Archives Redesign Open Government Idea Forum (http://archivesgovredesign.ideascale.com/). This online tool allows users to comment, discuss, and vote on the Archives.gov homepage designs and features. In addition, designs were displayed for a week at the entrance to the Public Vaults permanent exhibition at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, and in the Research Room lobbies at the Archives facilities in College Park, MD, and Washington, DC. The public is invited to vote in person at any of these locations through Friday, July 9. The hundreds of comments and votes were incorporated during the design phase.

The redesigned National Archives web site:

• Focuses on historical documents and military service records, which accounts for 81 percent of what visitors seek;      
• Reduces the amount of information and links on high-level pages to include only data pertinent to the page’s topic.
• Includes single topically organized sections focused on the needs of both casual browsers and professional researchers; and
• Provides easy links to National Archives’ social media sites, including Facebook,Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and their blogs.
• Includes interactive Bing maps and lists of National Archives facilities organized by their available services.

Visit the redesigned National Archives website at www.archives.gov.