[Nfb-web] Help NewsU Build their Next Site

[Everett Gavel]

Here's a chance to give positive feedback on making sure their site
offerings are fully accessible and usable by all.

Strive On!
Everett
everettg at successfuladaptations.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Poynter's News University" <newsunewsletters at email.poynter.org>
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 12:30 PM
Subject: NewsU Next: Help Us Build the Next Site


Introducing NewsU Next. Help us build the next site

Welcome to the newsletter version of NewsU Next. This is a blog about the
future of Poynter's News University. This is our formal announcement that
we are starting on recreating NewsU's technology and user experience. We
want to share our new design ideas and the new features being planned for
the world's leading e-learning site for journalism and media training for
professionals, educators, students and the public. We'll post our progress
and ask you questions about what you want. You get the idea. For more
details, read the blog at next.newsu.org
[http://www.mailer.poynter.org/link.php?M=68251&N=47&L=23&F=T]. And then
please join us in this exciting reinvention process.

Building our bold future

The crew at Poynter’s News University is about to embark on our most
important project since we launched four years ago: redesign of the site.
However, this isn’t just about a new look – although we really need a
face-lift. This is about reimagining how best to serve our audience. How
can we make NewsU more useful to our more than 100,000 registered users in
more than 200 countries? That’s why we are launching this blog. We want
you to know what we are doing and why. Our hope is that you’ll add your
thoughts, comments and ideas. We’ll keep you posted on our progress and,
at certain points, ask for feedback and suggestions.

To get started, here are some of the specifics. We are working with a
Denver-based company called Aten Design Group
[http://www.mailer.poynter.org/link.php?M=68251&N=47&L=18&F=T]. The new
site will be based on Drupal, an open-source content management system.
Why Drupal?

Continue reading
[http://www.mailer.poynter.org/link.php?M=68251&N=47&L=20&F=T]

Help us to help you find your training

Online training, no matter how effective or engrossing, isn't much use if
you can't find what you're looking for. That's why we're spending a lot of
time thinking about the best ways to help you, our users, get to our
courses. We want to make it easy and intuitive to browse and find the
courses that matter most to you.

You find courses now through the "Course List," by picking one of 20
categories and seeing all the matching courses underneath. This worked
well for a while. But, as our course list grows, so does the need for
other ways to find the training most important to you.

So, we need your help. Please take our survey so we know the criteria
you'd use most often to find courses on NewsU. Or leave us a comment on
the blog.

Continue reading
[http://www.mailer.poynter.org/link.php?M=68251&N=47&L=22&F=T]

Information architecture is under way

Last week we had a handful of volunteers in the Aten Design Group office
performing card-sorting tests for the NewsU redesign. Card-sorting is a
user-led design exercise that provides insight into how users expect to
see content categorized. We use card-sorting as an early step in the
redesign process to assist in the creation of consistent, site-wide
navigation. From here, we establish an information architecture for the
Web site, produce wireframes and plunge ahead into technical
implementation and visual design.
Continue reading
[http://www.mailer.poynter.org/link.php?M=68251&N=47&L=21&F=T]

News University
[http://www.mailer.poynter.org/link.php?M=68251&N=47&L=14&F=T] is a
project of The Poynter Institute
[http://www.mailer.poynter.org/link.php?M=68251&N=47&L=25&F=T] funded by
the Knight Foundation.
[http://www.mailer.poynter.org/link.php?M=68251&N=47&L=26&F=T]

We plan to send this newsletter three or four more times during the next
six months. If you don't want to receive it, we understand.  All you need
to do is follow this link: Unsubscribe me from this newsletter mailing
list...