New day dawning for DHHS website

A message from Secretary Benton

DHHS Website Redesign Page

In June, DHHS will unveil a redesign of the departmental website. Members of eight content teams, appointed by division directors from across the department, contributed to the organization of the new site. It has truly been a collaborative effort. I commend all who have been involved.

This marks a new day for our department, demonstrating that all parts of DHHS are committed to working together to effectively communicate on the web. The web is a powerful tool and will only become more so in the coming years. We can no longer afford to keep generating web content in the silos of our divisions and offices, without considering how similar information--or information geared for similar audiences--is treated in another division or office.

Each of our division and office websites is many years old, some as old as a decade. If each were redesigned on its own, a conservative cost estimate would be $20,000 per site. Thus, unifying the design is a powerful cost-cutting measure for the department as well.

This design is intended to be:

1. Easy to use: The people we serve will be able to find our programs and services. The site tests extremely well with this audience.
2. Highly accessible for people with disabilities: Some accessibility features are scalable fonts, tabbed browsing, and high-contrast colors. The site tests well with a number of assistive technologies, such as screen readers for people who are blind.
3. Easy to incorporate: Webmasters across the department will receive Dreamweaver templates.
4. Learnable. Similar information will be treated in a similar fashion. Web writers will receive training in writing and style guides so that we can give the public a predictable website, not one that changes with each office or division.
5. Customizable: Each program or service, and each division, is encouraged to use a “signature image” that encapsulates their message and, if applicable, logo.
6. Adaptable: Unique templates can be created when a new page type is needed. For instance, specialized pages such articles for Medicaid bulletins may require a separate template.
7. Smart when it comes to printing: Printing any page provides only the content of the page. The header, footer, and side navigation are omitted. 

I want to extend my enthusiastic support to incorporating the new design in all of our divisions and offices. With a few exceptions for “branded” websites, the public should encounter a single predictable web interface on all DHHS websites. I realize this is no small task: it will take some years to accomplish this goal.

The June unveiling will be a “soft launch.” A link will appear on our home page to allow the public and DHHS employees a chance to look over the new site. Feedback will be encouraged, and problems ironed out. The redesign will then replace our current design later in the summer.

Initially the redesign will encompass only the departmental site. After it is fully operational and the kinks are worked out, templates will be developed to enable division and office webmasters to use the new design. This fall, I will go to division directors for volunteers on which divisions and offices will migrate to the new design first.