After more than a year of careful planning, design, and development, the new BVSD website will launch on March 31. Along with a sleek look and an improved navigation system, the new site features a vastly improved search engine.
This project, which began in early 2007, has been a major collaborative effort between the district’s Information Technology and Communications divisions, the Board of Education, many BVSD staff members, and perhaps most importantly, BVSD community members.
A survey posted on the BVSD website in September was designed to gather information on how the site was used. The results from more than 400 respondants showed that over 50 percent of the use of the site came from parents, with employees being the next largest constituent. After reviewing the results of the survey, the web team began researching award-winning educational sites, ranging from K-12 institutions to higher education websites. Focus groups began meeting around this time as well, during which participants were asked what they would like to see on the site, what they have trouble finding, and how they would like the content to be organized.
Taking all this information into account, the web team formulated several new design and navigation possibilities for the future website and, with the help of the focus groups, created an “audience-centric” layout that will best serve the site’s visitors. Four main audiences were identifi ed: students, parents, community, and employees. Each of these audiences will have specific areas of the site devoted to their interests. From these “landing pages,” a visitor to the site will be able to find what he or she is looking for quickly and easily. Web usability testing is taking place now and adjustments are being made based on the findings.
For a sneak preview, visit www2.bvsd.org. It is still under construction, but the main design of it is in place and most features are working well. The web team is particularly pleased with the functionality of the new site's search engine which can be continually adjusted so that it produces the most sought-after pages and documents for each search. Our Webmaster Eric Howell and Web Developer Ryan Keller are interested in hearing about your experiences with the new search engine, so that they can have it working as well as possible for the March 31 launch. Email them at webmast@bvsd.org