Today, I received a tip that Monday night, CDC.gov launched it’s re-designed Web site–placing a larger emphasis on tools. I think it’s looking pretty good myself–especially the “connect” icons as I’m a large fan of communicating visually. Plus, icons are fun, right? What about you? What are your thoughts?
I think one of my all-time favorite features is the CDC.gov Tag Cloud. According to the Web site, “[the] Tag Cloud is an alphabetized list of the most popular search topics on the CDC.gov Web site. The text size of the term shows its relative popularity: bigger terms are more popular than smaller ones.” Even better, each term is click-able for information about that specific topic. Here’s a quick snap shot:
It’s simple. It’s user-generated (via consumer search queries). It offers a quick snapshot to what consumers are concerned about in regards to public health. And, thus, it’s powerful. And, it communicates all this and more, visually. For a visual learner like myself, I give it two thumbs up. I’m envisioning that one day, we might be able to update these types of queries in real-time, though from my own experience, I also know it’s going to be a challenge.
I have got to say that the home page still looks the same to me, though I like it. It is visually appealing. I like the way the info is “chunked;” makes it easier to identify.
It does look like a number of the topics specific pages are re-designed. More white space, chunking of info.
I do like the tag cloud.
Thanks for sharing this, Alex
Hey Mike-
Thanks for the comment. I was able to connect with them again to get more info on the specific updates that were made, so I updated the post to reflect that. My excitement superseded the full-on information gathering, which isn’t like me, so I’ll work on containing that next time. We miss you down here tho!
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I am really impressed with the changes. It always amazes me the massive amount of data that is on their site. I am happy the have a process to always strive to make the information more available to everyone. Thanks for the heads up on the change Alex!
Thanks for drawing attention to the new CDC website. I don’t think I would have noticed all the ways the CDC is willing to connect.
As someone who wants to help governments and other public agencies embrace web 2.0, I think the CDC is ahead of it’s time.
I’m especially impressed with the CDC Second Life island! That’s so awesome.