Coming Soon: Your New DFM Web Site

With the rollout of the new Department of Family Medicine public Web site planned for mid October, here is a sneak peek at what you can expect:

A Department-Wide Site

With guidance from the Web Oversight Committee made up of members representing the various areas of the Department, the new site will focus on marketing the Department as a whole. This allows each area to capitalize on the strengths of the overall organization. One simple example of this is increased cross linking, whereby a visitor to the "Residency Programs" section might notice links highlighting "Research" or vice versa.

We have also created a more comprehensive "Our Department" section. This section will include a new "Department at a Glance" page and "In the News" area where we plan to continually highlight cases of DFM initiatives making the news.

A Fresh New Look

Perhaps the first thing you will notice when visiting the new DFM site is the updated look. We based our new look on Department feedback from our initial Web survey and input from Department leadership. One benefit of the new color theme is a more immediate identification with the University of Wisconsin.

Improved Navigation Usability

You will also notice an updated navigation scheme with the main navigation across the top which opens drop down menus when you roll on the navigation buttons. This should lead to fewer clicks when navigating the site, giving visitors a shortcut link to categories within each main section.

Updated Content

A critical aspect of any successful Web site is current, Web-friendly content. We worked with a freelance writer to help us better tell our Department's story in a way that is written for the Web. This means more bulleted lists and fewer long, wordy paragraphs on priority pages within the site.

We are also arranging a photo shoot to update faculty photos, with resources available for more photo opportunities in the future. A subcommittee is looking into producing a promotional Web video as well.

Improved Site Tools

A common frustration with the old site was an inadequate "site search" tool that returned irrelevant results. The new "site search" should dramatically improve search results for the public site. (The internal Web site and search will be part of a phase two project for 2007-2008.)

We have also updated the Faculty and Staff Directory lookup, adding a "browse by clinic" list which sorts the lookup results into categories such as:

• Faculty and Providers
• Residents
• Staff

New Site Features

In addition to improving familiar site features, we have added some new ones we hope you find useful:

• site map
• online donation forms,
• user-generated content (blog-like comments),
• printable pages, and
• many more

Highlighting DFM Community Involvement

Another new addition to the site is a top level section called, "Innovation & Outreach." In this section we will highlight our innovative programs and involvement serving statewide communities.

Marketing the Department Online

Aside from working to improve our rankings within natural search results (the main results that appear in the left body column of most search engines), ITS has established a yearly budget to promote the site via Paid Search. This will allow us to boost our visibility within competitive keyword searches and better reach our target audience.

Managing Site Content

Behind the scenes, we have implemented a content management system which will allow the Web team to manage content in a more efficient and consistent manner. One big advantage is that when a page is created and published, it is dynamically added to the site structure so it will appear in the navigation menu automatically. In the future, we have the ability to establish content editor roles, allowing content owners to manage and update their own content.

Going Forward: A Web Site Is Never Done

Launching the new public DFM site is exciting, but it is only the beginning in an ongoing process. Moving forward we will need to:

• Evaluate the effectiveness of the site
• Make improvements
• Expand on the partnerships we have established for managing and authoring new content.

The site's success depends on your continued involvement. Please send comments or questions to: webmaster@fammed.wisc.edu