HISD Launches New Web Site Design to Better Serve Users
The Houston Independent School District launched its latest redesign of the district Web site, HISDConnect, on Monday, March 30, 2009.
Changes were made on the basis of hundreds of responses the district received to requests for feedback, as well as surveys conducted during development among internal focus groups. Just a few of the site’s new features include:
- Better Layout—The district created three separate areas for its largest groups of visitors (parents & students, community members, and employees) so that users can find what they are looking for more easily.
- Interactive Elements—Visitors can now make comments on designated articles so that HISD can get immediate feedback from its stakeholders. Users can also rate select articles’ usefulness by answering a simple question with one click.
- Dynamic Content—To reduce “visual clutter” and make the site more appealing, news stories now rotate through a single feature area on the site’s splash page, and “scrollable” sections containing frequently sought-out information are also in other content-heavy channels (such as Parents & Students).
“We are constantly striving to improve the site’s organization and navigability,” explained HISD Webmaster Marcy Spears. “And one of the biggest complaints we received about the previous design was that it was ‘too busy.’ We are hoping that the separation of information will help resolve that issue. The feedback we have received so far has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Spears said that another common complaint was the position of the “employee login” at the upper-right-hand-side of the site. “It was so close to the search field that people got them confused and ended up annoyed and frustrated,” she said. “Moving it to a completely different page should prevent that from happening.”
To share your thoughts on the new site, please take a few minutes to complete this survey. Your feedback will help us improve the site even more!
For some helpful tips on how to use the new site, see related article here.
Special Note to Employees: Click on the "employee" section to login to the portal or access your e-mail.
