FSIS and the eGovernment team hosted visioning sessions on August 26,
27, and 28 to gain input into the re-design of the Food Safety and
Inspection Service Web site. The purpose of these sessions was to
motivate creative conversation about Web design elements, the
organization of site content, and the ways in which FSIS online
audiences could be better served through the Web and other eGovernment
technologies. The thoughts captured from visioning session participants
will be documented in a report, and used as input to page design and the
re-organized information architecture. Preliminary notes from these
meetings are outlined below.

**[Definition of User Groups]{.underline}**

1.  What are the main target audiences of FSIS online? What are users'
    main interests? Why do they visit the current site?

-   ***Employees***

    -   Training

    -   Speeches

    -   Directives

    -   Regulations

    -   Notices (FSIS and Federal Register)

    -   Strategic Plan

    -   Public meetings/events

    -   HACCP

    -   SSOP

    -   Agency initiatives

    -   USDA Food Safety Mobile

    -   GAO audits

    -   Backgrounders and fact sheets

    -   Extension map

    -   Workplace Violence Prevention information

    -   Information on quality of work life

    -   Information on benefits, child care and elder care

    -   Classes, activities, training sessions, training materials

    -   FSRE- Food Safety Regulatory Essentials Training

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-   ***Scientists/Researchers***

    -   Policies/procedures

    -   Compliance issues

    -   Links to other agencies

    -   Food Safety education

    -   summaries

-   ***Industry & Consumer Groups***

    -   Regulations

    -   Directives

    -   Recalls

    -   Press Releases

    -   FOIA

    -   Speeches and meetings

    -   Policy processes

    -   Codex

    -   List of current plants

    -   License to start a plant

    -   Newsletters

    -   Agency initiatives

-   ***General Consumer***

    -   Food Safety Information

    -   Recalls

    -   Hot Topics

    -   FSIS mission area

    -   Handling Problems

    -   Program area descriptions

    -   Agency contacts

    -   Outbreak information

    -   Hotline information

    -   USDA Food Safety Mobile

-   ***Students/Kids***

    -   Food Safety education Information

-   ***Job Seekers/Headhunters***

    -   Careers at FSIS

    -   Online Applications

    -   FSIS mission

    -   Open positions/descriptions

    -   Career Fairs

    -   Recruiting efforts

-   ***International Users (Foreign governments)***

    -   Codex

    -   Import/export rules

    -   Inspection rules

    -   Product requirements

    -   Regulations for imports

    -   Latest forms and policies

    -   Pages translated in other languages

    -   Equivalence

    -   Agency initiatives

-   ***Press/Media***

    -   Releases

    -   High resolution photos

    -   Directives

    -   Speeches

    -   Responses to reports

    -   Events

    -   Contact information

-   ***Educators/Trainers/Universities/Outreach/Extension Agents***

    -   Training materials

    -   Presentations

    -   Videos

    -   new guidance materials

    -   workshops/HACCP

    -   Food Safety mobile

    -   Thermy

    -   Fight BAC!

    -   USDA Food Safety Mobile

-   ***Congress***

    -   State/Local information affecting constituents

    -   Recalls

    -   Notices & Directives

    -   Industry interests

    -   Budget information -- program area funding

    -   Policy

    -   Codex activities (congress and white house)

    -   General Food Safety

    -   FOIA

    -   GAO

    -   Publications

-   ***Federal/State Relations (includes state/federal/private labs)***

    -   Methods

    -   Licenses to work for FSIS as contract opportunities for import
        products

    -   Notices

    -   Directives

    -   Inspection

    -   Compliance

    -   Retail partnerships

    -   State program listing

-   ***Religious groups***

    -   Slaughter information - kosher, buddhist, halal

-   ***Advocacy groups***

    -   anti-factory farming

    -   humane handling

    -   Regulations

    -   General food safety information

-   ***Agricultural Producers/Plants***

    -   Farm to Table issues

    -   Labeling requirements

    -   Related USDA agencies: APHIS, ARS, AMS, FSA

    -   Animal production/food safety information

    -   State partnership information

    -   HACCP

    -   Training opportunities

    -   FSIS Resource contact information

-   ***Health Care providers***

    -   Outbreak information

    -   Hotline information

    -   Related USDA agencies -- APHIS, ARS, AMS, FSA

    -   Trend Information

-   ***Food Preparers/Chefs***

    -   Food safety information

    -   Link to School lunch program (FSA)

-   ***CDC***

    -   Interested in the same information as Health Care Providers

    -   Recall Information

-   ***APHIS***

    -   Interested in the same information as Health Care Providers,
        Food Preparers/Chefs, and Ag Producers/Plants

-   ***FNS***

-   ***FDA***

-   ***ARS***

-   ***AMS***

2.  How can FSIS online exceed user expectations? Think creatively,
    don't be bound to existing business functions.

-   Submitting forms online (new employee orientation forms)

-   Natural language processing, help and search

-   Create pre-made slide libraries for users

-   Maintain contacts with customer groups to understand their needs and
    interests

3.  How can FSIS meet the needs of users more directly? How can the
    agency be more responsive to user demands?

-   Create a tool that will allow FSIS job seekers to manage their
    resumes online.

-   Create a copy of the site on CD ROM and distribute it to people that
    do not have internet access.

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-   Improve the current search engine on the site to provide results
    that are sorted by relevance.

-   Eliminate duplicate pages and duplicate content.

-   Improve site navigation to allow users to find the appropriate
    content in a few clicks.

-   Provide an online form for users to submit questions about any topic
    and receive an email back with an answer.

-   Provide FSIS contact information in one central place that is easy
    to find.

-   Present the image of the agency as a world class public health
    agency.

-   Create a new design of the site that is engaging and attractive.

-   Provide a tool similar to "Ask Jeeves" that allows the users to ask
    questions in natural language and receive the appropriate results.

4.  How can FSIS improve awareness of, and participation in the agency's
    programs and services?

-   Provide clear explanations of the different program areas and
    services. What do they do? Who are they?

5.  How can FSIS work more collaboratively with its government, and
    private sector partners?

-   Provide links to other agency websites in appropriate areas of the
    site.

-   Describe what other agencies do and provide a guide to public health
    related agencies.

-   RSS feeds (press releases, headlines, notices, and announcements
    that are pushed to and displayed by Web aggregators like yahoo and
    newswire sites).

6.  How can FSIS conduct business transactions more efficiently and
    effectively?

-   Provide the ability for job seekers to store and manage their
    resumes online.

-   Implement the label approval process online. Allow users to apply
    and track the progress of the approval online.

-   Provide the ability to fill out and submit all forms online.

-   Be more proactive about providing links to related information on
    other websites.

-   Better organize listservs so that information is sent to only the
    intended recipients. Condense the information that is sent out via
    listservs.

-   Have more interaction with other government agencies where there is
    overlap.

**[FSIS Opportunities and Challenges]{.underline}**

1.  How can FSIS use technology solutions to further the agency mission,
    vision, and 5 identified agency priorities? Below are the 5 agency
    goals:

> -Improve the management and effectiveness of regulatory programs.
>
> -Ensure that policy decisions are based on science.
>
> -Improve coordination of food safety activities with other public
> health agencies.
>
> -Enhance public education efforts.
>
> -Protect meat, poultry, and egg products against intentional
> contamination.

-   Resources should be allocated to make public education information
    more interesting and accessible. Education information could include
    multimedia and multilingual elements.

-   Hand held devices could be useful for inspectors as they move
    through plants taking notes and completing standardized forms.
    Pocket PCs, PDAs, or some similar hand held device would provide
    easy fingertip access to resources.

-   Field employees NEED improved access.

-   The agency could publish alert information that is accessible via
    cellphone.

-   eForms would be useful if they could be easily accessed and
    downloaded quickly.

-   Participants desire tools that would allow online collaboration with
    other agencies.

-   There should be a visible CMS. Employees with content creating
    priviledges should be able to see where their content is in the
    workflow.

2.  What are key agency challenges?

-   There are a large number of food safety agencies, and the public
    does not differentiate between them. The public has little interest
    in the differences between FSIS, USDA, and FDA.

-   Recruiting and keeping strong resources is an agency challenge.

-   Morale is an issue. There is a disconnect between HQ and field
    employees

-   Communication is an issue, internally information needs to be
    distributed more effectively

-   Resource allocation is an issue (human, financial, and data)

-   Most information on the current site is difficult to find. Users
    frequently contact FSIS personnel for help with navigating the
    existing pages.

-   Proprietary information needs to be protected from customers. This
    and other security/privacy issues are a challenge.

-   There are infrastructure and access issues. Some employees have a
    very difficult time getting online. Field employees specifically do
    not receive the information they need to do their jobs well.

-   Agency Web pages have been created ad hoc in silos. The agency is
    "schizophrenic".

-   There is limited external awareness of new directives, notices, and
    regulations.

-   Personal agendas and politics often get in the way of forward
    progress.

-   There is no realistic or visible rewards system within the agency.
    Employees are not adequately recognized for performance. Career
    status should also be recognized, i.e. PhD etc.

-   Training needs to be improved. Employees who have been with the
    agency for years should be asked to participate in a re-orientation
    program.

-   Email accounts are not provided for all employees

-   There are too many levels of approval. Employees should be given
    autonomy to complete their jobs.

3.  What opportunities can be leveraged from the Department, other
    agencies, and private sector industries?

-   Survey capabilities (ERS Web site)

-   Directory address lists should be linked to the user's default email
    server

-   eLearning

-   eForms

-   eCommerce

-   Content sharing

-   Content Management!

-   Shipment tracking and notification

-   Hand held wireless solutions

-   Information sharing between departments, customs, ITDS, other
    agencies

-   GPEA activities

-   Usda.gov eGov activity integration

-   Integration of FDA, FSIS and state inspection services

-   Strong search engine

-   USDA online gift store

-   Maintenance of telephone and email directories

4.  How can new eGovernment initiatives help improve FSIS delivery of
    information and services via the web?

-   GIS

-   RFT

-   Digital signatures

-   Collaborative tools

-   RSS Feeds (press releases, headlines, notices, and announcements
    that are pushed to and displayed by Web aggregators like yahoo and
    newswire sites)

-   GoLearn

5.  How can FSIS streamline internal operations to make transactions
    faster and more effective for our customers?

-   Database driven, active Web pages

-   Reduction in the number of paper forms, eForms

-   Easier/faster way to approve and post web content, document
    management tool

-   Documents could be scanned for electronic storage, search and
    retrieval

-   Users need better access to the tech centers

**[Website Specifics]{.underline}**

1.  What are your expectations for the re-designed site?

-   The agency site should be similar to the look and feel of the
    re-designed usda.gov.

-   Navigation should be natural, logical, and repetitive.

-   The user should be able to learn the navigation system, i.e. utilize
    a standard, fixed top nav.

-   Content should be written in plain language, the national average
    reading ability is equivalent to a 6^th^ grade level.

-   The site should be designed to accommodate slower connections.

-   The last update date should be included in the same place on each
    page.

-   A link to contact us information should be included on each page.
    The user should be anchored to a specific portion of the contact us
    page depending upon where in the site they have selected to view
    contact information.

-   The site should display photo-realistic images. These images should
    be positive, exhibiting pride, strength, confidence, and also a
    level of seriousness. Images should include vets, inspectors, happy
    consumers, products, processed foods, and farm to table images.
    Images should be active, i.e.sampling process, plant assembly line.

-   The site should push current and relevant information to the front
    page, i.e. latest recalls, important press releases, job
    opportunities, regulations, food security information.

-   The site should be visually appealing, uncluttered, simple, crisp,
    with minimized text, and strong meaningful graphics.

-   The site should maintain and increase en Espanol section.

-   Site search capabilities should be improved.

-   Search engines should return ranked result sets.

-   Video clips should be included but should be elective so those with
    slower connections do not have to wait through long download times.

-   Content should be organized by user group, and by topics that cross
    organizational units. However, the link to program areas should not
    be eliminated. Some users are comfortable finding information by
    organizational units.

-   The site should provide interactivity, i.e. the opportunity to
    provide and receive feedback, the ability to place a supply order.

-   Information should be easily accessible.

-   Be aware of accessibility issues, specifically the use of high
    contrast colors.

-   Vertical scrolling should be minimized.

2.  What page or design elements would you like to see added,
    maintained, modified, or removed?

-   Images, photos

-   Navigational icons

-   Color, "snazz\"

-   Photos should be diverse, representative of the population

-   Rotating images

-   Multi-lingual elements

-   "Add to Favorites" button

-   Menus appearing on mouseover (DHTML)

-   Introduction of a policy area- a centralized area for the public to
    view information on notices, regulations and directives

-   Include a search tool for the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)

-   Include a directory with the location of accredited offices, service
    centers, and outbreak locations

-   Add a history of FSIS section

-   Too many logos on current site

-   Current pages lack creativity

-   Include a tagline summarizing FSIS for the vast majority of people
    who make no distinction between USDA and FSIS

3.  What functionalities should be incorporated to increase site
    usability? (i.e. search engine, interactive tools, etc.)

-   A strong, intuitive search engine should be added, engine should
    have advanced search capabilities

-   Site should include a glossary, A-Z index or site map

-   Users should have the ability to complete, submit, save, and print
    forms online.

4.  What design and organization elements from the examples provided in
    the beginning of the meeting did you like or dislike?

> **-NASA** (www.nasa.gov)

-   This is a favorite site. It's clean, organized intuitively and by
    user group, includes strong imagery and a good amount of information
    on the front page.

-   Minimized vertical scrolling

-   Clear top nav

> **-Vermont Personnel** (www.vermontpersonnel.org)

-   This site includes a photo next to each user type so that each group
    has a face. While this face may allow users to identify with a
    specific group, it may also create diversity issues.

-   User segmentation is strong making the user's navigation path
    logical

> **-Dept. of Education** (www.ed.gov)

-   The DoE site is not visually appealing but their design is a
    "necessary evil". A lot of information needs to be included on this
    page and they have done a good job of organizing links intuitively.

> **-MCI** (www.mci.com)

-   This page uses colors to subtly differentiate between user groups.
    FSIS could do something similar with program areas, or audience
    types.

-   Participants like the "choose a country" dropdown. On FSIS this type
    of dropdown could allow users to choose a region or a state and
    could link to corresponding district offices, information about
    special events, outbreaks, public meetings, etc.

-   "Tell me more" button

> **-Smithsonian** (www.smithsonian.org)

-   Very busy! While there is a lot of information included on this page
    we should create something less cluttered for FSIS.

-   Good images

> **-Altria** (www.altria.com)

-   This site has a very nice flash introduction but, something similar
    for FSIS could take a long time to load for those users with slow
    connection speeds.

-   Search field

-   Poor color choices make this page hard to read (especially for those
    users with visual disabilities)

5.  What are some current examples of websites you like, and find
    usable?

-   ABC News- clear, consistent, easy to navigate

-   USPS

-   Dept. of Education Intranet- content is organized functionally
    rather than by agency organization

-   CNN

-   Dept. of Commerce (HR portion)

-   USA Jobs

-   CDC- minimized logos, signature colors, space at the top for
    imagery, different program areas represented differently with a
    similar feel

-   FDA

-   Egov.gov- colors, tabular structure, clean, dropdown menu

-   National Cancer Inst.

-   Department of Defense

-   AirForce

-   USGS

-   DCAA

6.  What qualities, elements, and functionality will make the re-design
    effort successful?

-   The site MUST represent one cohesive agency and not individual
    program areas.

-   The site will be more appealing if it includes elements that private
    sector companies are including, i.e. a more commercial feel, a
    marketing focus, CREATIVITY.

7.  What concerns should be considered during the re-design effort?

-   The re-design team should not overlook the dichotomy between
    internet and intranet. Employees should be able to link from one to
    the other.

-   Users should not be type-casted as they enter the site. Not all
    information should be specific to one type of user group. Topics of
    interest should also be included on the front page.

-   One file, one place! The issue of document management is growing,
    there is no need to waste the time and effort to have several
    different pages existing on the same topic.

-   All types of people need to be incorporated into the new design.