A little more than a year ago, the FCC launched its first website redesign in nearly a decade. Building a website that serves many audiences is a complex challenge. And it is a challenge best met in partnership with the site’s frequent users. Included with the launch were prompts inviting our Web audience to tell us what they think, suggest improvements and report problems. We have responded to a significant portion of these so far and continue to do so.
In the last year, we have also:
- Launched MyFCC, FCC.gov/maps, added Headline Archives, and improved the homepage navigation to include Bureaus and Offices, expanded quick links, and additional documents available in the FCC Newsroom. Many of these changes were in response to feedback we heard from practitioners.
- Released two content management system components (Drupal modules) as open source tools. These tools allow other agencies and private websites to re-use the components, with 57 other websites incorporating them to date.
- Increased the agency’s library of public web services from six to nine, allowing easy integration of FCC data into third-party websites and applications.
- Hosted .Gov Developer Meet-up, with 16 federal agencies giving Ignite presentations centered on their Developer and API resources.
- Implemented social media strategies to introduce new communities to information relating to the FCC. This has increased the number of our Twitter followers from 361,000 to over 482,000, an increase of 25 percent. Our YouTube views went from 159,000 to 215,000, an increase of 26 percent. Our Facebook likes have increased over 9,400 and we now have 34,000 active monthly Facebook users.
- Pursuant to government-wide digital strategy, phased out 14 unnecessary domain names, thus saving taxpayer dollars and streamlining the FCC web presence.
We continue to improve on our work. Current efforts are focused on improving site search and navigation, and launching a mobile experience. A successful website is one that is always improving, and with each new development cycle, we are incorporating feedback from our users. For all those that haven’t yet, please join the conversation and help shape a better FCC.gov.