The Department of Labor recently made changes to its web site in an effort to improve look and functionality.
Here are the changes, according to the agency.
- We revised the DOL.gov home page to enhance usability and readability.
Based on the feedback we received from this free testing, we darkened the home page font, lightened the background color, adjusted the header to remove a confusing text box and, most importantly, we prioritized the placement of the sections of the home page to match what users need the most.- We changed our search engine.
Providing great search results across the vast amount of content that is available throughout all of our websites is a challenge. With so many documents available in our search index, a simple search for a term like “training” would return all of the correct documents, but without regard to the popularity or relevancy of the different results. Furthermore, it required a great deal of processing power to create and maintain accurate search indexes, resulting in it taking some time for the newest content to be included in search results. The DOL.gov search engine is now powered by the free USASearch affiliate program offered by GSA. The “out of the box” search results are much more relevant than our prior search results because it harnesses the power of a world-class search engine and the program offers us a great amount of control for suggesting the best links for certain search results and ensuring that new content or breaking news is included in the search results.- We’re asking for your feedback.
On Monday we added a feature at the top of pages on DOL.gov that asks “Was this page helpful?”. This feature allows us to get your reaction to the specific content you are using on our website. If you particularly like a page or you can’t find what you need, please take a moment to answer the “Yes” or “No” question and add a brief comment. On our end, we can see what pages are receiving negative feedback and target those pages for updates. We can also track the rating of a page over time, so we’ll know if our changes are improving your satisfaction.
