Transcript hearst_usagov_ideas

Ideas for USA.gov
Marti Hearst
USA.gov & Web Best Practices Team Meeting
July 29, 2009
Why am I talking about this?
1. These are my teaching/research areas.
2. Success for USAsearch.gov critically
depends on the content of USA.gov.
Three Main Topics
What is/are the goals of USA.gov?
Content at USA.gov.
Faceted metadata for USA.gov
What is/are USA.gov’s goals?
 “Government Made Easy”?
 Implies services, activity, findability
 “How do I” functionality
 Curation?
 Best of the government web
 Easily navigable
 Comprehensive Information?
 All government libraries
 All cities’ web sites
 A Centralized Digital Library?
 All government news feeds
 All government reports
My focus here
Content is Key
If there is no good page for a query,
then Search fails.
Currently, how searchusa helps fill in
the gaps:
 Spotlights
 FAQs
Should USA.gov fill in those gaps?
Fill in the gap: 1040
Fill in the gap: 1099
How to fill in content gaps
 Make the answers for the FAQs
available as html pages on USA.gov
How to fill in content gaps
Make the answers for the FAQs
available as html pages on USA.gov
Perhaps write explanatory content
pages for common query types.
 Example: 1099 query on major search engines
brings up nice explanation from wiseGeek
How to fill in content gaps
Make the answers for the FAQs
available as html pages on USA.gov
Perhaps write explanatory content
pages for common query types.
 Maybe USA.gov pages should be more like FAQ
answer pages, more like Wikipedia pages
 Wikipedia: an authorative page, written in a
narrative style, on a topic, with related links.
How to fill in content gaps
Make the answers for the FAQs
available as html pages on USA.gov
Perhaps write explanatory content
pages for common query types.
Perhaps have a community help fill in
the gaps
 Example: business.gov has an active
community.
 Helps with locality-based questions
 Uses everyday language; aids query matching
 Many people like the human touch
Three Main Topics
What is/are the goals of USA.gov?
Content at USA.gov.
Faceted metadata for USA.gov:
 Can improve navigation, search, and an
advanced “how do I” support system.
Faceted Categories vs. Hierarchies
Stickers vs. Folders
vs
Example:
Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Scam
If you have folders, have to place the
item into multiple folders:
Health
Elderly
Safety
Drugs
Fraud
At USA.gov
Unlike many hierarchical directories,
USA.gov does a good job of placing
items into multiple folders.
However, this is likely to lead to:
 Inconsistency
 Disorganized lists of items
Example: Food Safety
Currently on USA.gov, how do you
navigate to www.foodsafety.gov ?
 Family, Home, Community > Family Issues >
Alphabetical list of ~80 links
 Health and Nutrition > Food, Nutrition, &
Fitness > Alphabetical list of ~30 links
 Public Safety & Law > Personal & Public Safety
> Consumer Protection > Consumer Protection
A-Z > … food safety, but not the target site.
Example: Teen info
 Has subcategories:
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Driving
Education
Environmental Consciousness
Health and Safety
Internet and Mobile
Jobs and Volunteering
Money
Travel and Recreation
 These are needed for most other kinds of
people too …
 … so make these standard categories
 and show the teen category whenever you
are at one of these other topic types.
Alternative: assign stickers to the item:
Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Scam
Assign categories to the item, rather
than put the item into categories
Health
Drugs
Elderly
Safety
Physicians
Scams
Faceted Navigation:
Bringing it Together
 User can start with any category, and see
the results grouped by the other categories.
 Example:
 Start with Health
 See results grouped by subcategories of Health, such as
Drugs, Nutrition
 Alternatively, user can group results by other categories:
 Click on Financial, see Insurance, Payments, etc
 Click on Teens, see results relevant to teens
Examples of Faceted Layouts
Examples of Faceted Layouts
Another Advantage:
Create Question/Answer Types
 “How do I get a driver’s license in Indiana?”
 Convert it to these facets:
 Vehicle > Operation +
 Official Document > License +
 State > Indiana
 Can be useful for call centers too
 Can also show facets not present in the
question; user can select these to refine:
 Age > Teen
 Rural
Summary:
Three Main Topics
 What is/are the goals of USA.gov?
 If curation and navigability, see the ideas below!
 Ideas for content at USA.gov
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Put Answers into web pages
Write wikipedia-style content pages to fill gaps
Use search’s query/web log analysis to identify gaps
Maybe consider community conversation?
 Faceted metadata for USA.gov:
 Can improve navigation, search, and an advanced “how
do I” support system.
 Should be done instead of a hierarchical directory.
Thank you!