CIT Presents a Dynamic Web Site to the World
Charles Mokotoff, TRB
On Friday, September 25, at 3 P.M., visits to http://www.cit.nih.gov took on a whole new look when the official Center for Information Technology (CIT) webpage was launched. The creation of this web site was prompted by the recent merging of three organizations—the Office of Telecommunications Management, the Office of Information Resource Management, and the Division of Computer Research and Technology. The bold new design allows users from NIH and the World Wide Web to easily navigate and gain access to the many services and resources of CIT directly from their desktops.
Special Features
Developed over several months by a task force of 20 CIT staff members, the CIT website is organized around services that are grouped into nine basic categories including "Applications," "Desktop," "IT Acquisition," "Security," and "Web Resources." Mouse "rollovers" are used to give a description of any page the mouse pauses over—before one clicks to go there. This simplifies the webpage and guides users to specific items. A "Popular Links" feature has been added to aid users. With this feature users can go directly to websites for such services as the ADB, Help Desk, NIH Data Warehouse, or Parachute.
To provide a fresh look each time the webpage is opened, dynamic web technology is employed to randomly change the graphics in a prominent box that features a specific CIT service. Just to the right of the box are "factoids" that also appear in random order. A "factoid" is a nugget of information in simple sentences—a good way to learn about other services available.
The new alphabetical index is convenient and up-to-date—befitting the move toward dynamic websites. Now when a user clicks on "A-B" for example, the database actually does a search for keywords beginning with those letters and returns results in alphabetical order. Consequently, the search of this data-base is much faster and more timely than what was on the previous index.
New Face to the World
The overall CIT webpage design is being inserted into existing webpages maintained by CIT’s labs and branches. In this way all web-pages for CIT’s resources connect graphically to each other, which gives coherence to the entire site. Putting on a new face to the world was a priority for management of CIT. Director Al Graeff is very pleased, "I asked them for an information-rich site—easy to use, well organized, and with an attractive manner. They gave me what I wanted and more. I think it is one of the finer web sites I have ever seen."
Please visit the site soon, and come back often. It is always changing, and we welcome your comments and feedback.
Interface 208 - December 15, 1998