GSA revamps Web site

The General Services Administration redesigned its main Web site earlier this month in an attempt to make it easier to navigate.

The reorganized site includes separate sections for different types of visitors. One contains information for government employees and agencies, another holds material applicable to vendors and a third is for other members of the public.

A standard set of tabs runs across the top of the site, dividing information into five topics: buildings, products, services, technology and policy. Other tabs link back to the homepage and to a page with information about GSA.

GSA's main Web site ranks near the bottom of the American Customer Satisfaction Index in the most recent federal agency category. On the latest set of scores, which cover the third quarter of fiscal 2005, the agency earned a score of 64 on a 100-point scale.

The government average for that quarter was 73.5 points; 13 agencies achieved scores of 80 or above.

Even though its mark remains relatively low, GSA has made progress in Web site customer satisfaction, with scores creeping steadily upward from an average of 56 points for fiscal 2004 to an average of 63 so far in fiscal 2005.

The index for the last quarter of fiscal 2005 is due out Dec. 15. The redesign will not be reflected in those scores because the report only covers user opinions collected from Aug. 5 through Nov. 4. The redesign was announced Nov. 2.

"GSA is enthusiastic about its progress," said GSA spokeswoman MaryAnne Beatty. "The improvement in ACSI scores is due to listening to the customer [and] using customer feedback to continuously improve GSA.gov."

To help in the redesign, GSA gathered feedback from federal customer agencies, vendors and others who use the site, said M.J. Pizzella, the agency's associate administrator for citizen services and communications.

"These changes to GSA.gov allow us to get our visitors what they need quickly," Pizzella said.

Eight Web sites administered by GSA are included in the rankings. The agency's Global Supply site ranked second in the e-commerce/transactions category for the third quarter of fiscal 2005. Experts reviewing the rankings often have attributed the agency's low score for the main site to the fact that it serves a wide variety of visitors.

"The problem with government Web sites is that they can't be all things to all people," said Larry Freed, president and CEO of the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based online strategy firm ForeSee Results. "Some of these sites just have huge challenges in terms of their audiences."

ForeSee Results publishes commentary analyzing the ACSI index scores compiled every four months by the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan Business School.

Freed said that GSA's new design could end up as a model in terms of clarity, due to the user-friendly navigational tabs at the top and a clearly laid out center section.

"[But] at the end of the day, it does not matter what I think," Freed said. "It's what the users think."

Viewers' opinions of the redesign won't necessarily be positive, Freed added. The reorganization requires an adjustment for frequent visitors, he said.

"They made some really good steps here, but unfortunately the timing of the index will not help them tell that story," Freed said. "It'll probably take two indexes to show those changes."