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National Park Service Centennial Will Include Revamped Websites

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These errors should be vanishing from national park websites as the Park Service staff works on implementing changes in advance of the agency's centennial.

While the 100th birthday of the National Park Service won't officially arrive until August 25, 2016, it's not too early to work on improving the agency's many park websites. And the agency's webmeisters are doing just that.

"As we prepare for the centennial, there will be several improvements made to NPS.gov," Park Service spokesman Jeff Olson said. "These improvements include a reorganization of content, responsive design for mobile devices, and a new look and feel for the site."

And while there are many times these days when you might run into a "Requested Page Not Found (404)," staff are trying to root all those out and present a more enjoyable web experience for visitors.

"Parks are taking the time leading up to the centennial to make content improvements. Web authors are being offered training on how to perform content inventories, evaluate online content, and create content strategies for their public websites," Mr. Olson said.

"There are minimum content requirements for park websites'”and most provide far more than that minimum. The content strategies parks create in the coming months will help guide decisions about their online offerings and how they can best use limited resources to make improvements to those offerings by 2016."

 

Comments

This would be a big plus for some park's websites. Anyone who has ever been responsible any website knows it can be a time consuming job, and in most, if not all parks, this is just one more task to be done on top of someone's primary duties. Let's hope the redesign will be as easy to use as possible for those park webmasters.


How much will this cost and does anyone from real world think this is necessary?


As much as folks turn to their computers/tablets/mobile devices for information today, I would say it's highly necessary, Beach. 


Kurt, I agree, it is striking to see how tuned in people are to the social/informational websites. Just working in a major park, visitors are checking my facts on tabets, IPhones, etc. on the informational tidbits I throw out. You have to be on your toes now, it is truly amazing. 


I agree as well. Like it or not, in today's "real world" park websites are an important source of information for any planning a trip - or who are in the midst of one. I don't know about the cost of those sites, but there is a tradeoff that cuts costs. I'm old enough to remember the days when you could call or write to a park, and have a park map and packet of information sent promptly by U. S. Mail. For better or worse, that's pretty well been replaced by on-line information - and the cost savings to larger parks ought to be substantial.


I have no problem viewing park websites on tablets or phones now. What problem is this going fix? Any examples? 


The upgrade in the underlying architecture will see that the site is properly formatted for the device you're viewing. Currently, you have to do a lot of maneuvering (scrolling back and forth, zooming in, etc) if you're trying to read a park's website on your phone.

This upgrade will do away with that. Just as the upgrade we're doing with the Traveler will do away with that scrolling need.

Hopefully, the upgrade also will better organize each park's content and do away with most, if not all, the 404 errors.


I think the NPS is making huge strides forward in reaching out to a public located far beyond park borders through use of the internet (park websites) and social media.  I think part of the recently observed increase in park visitation is due to the fact that for each NPS unit, park photos, park facts, and park news are being posted daily online, and copied and shared among families, friends, and acquaintences, giving national parks a daily presence in the minds and hearts of millions.  National Parks Traveler is also helping in this regard.


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