Gemini Website Renovations

As of April 10th, the gemini.edu website has been completely revamped! This is the first release of a phased roll-out project. Future phases will include, among other things, a reworking of the web experience to align with the upcoming NOIRLab site. 
 
The new structure of the site has been under development for several years. At the core of this effort is the transition from the old website, which was organized like a collection of references, to a website that is “user-centric.” Organizing in a manner that allows you to find your own things is one thing, but organizing so someone else will find what they are looking for is something else altogether! Over the years, Gemini has received constructive criticism from users about how difficult it is to use the website when working on a proposal, observation programs, or data reduction. Also, Gemini’s support staff gathered a long list of questions from users that could have been better supported by the documentation on the website. This is why it was decided to initiate a remodeling of the Gemini website.
 
The best way to know how someone wants anything is (obviously) to ask them. Gemini serves 400 PIs per year, and collecting an opinion from each one would be time-consuming and confusing. Luckily, this is a very well known problem with a series of state-of-the-art solutions, including usability testing to understand the audience, workshops with observatory staff to converge on the best strategies, and short questionnaires to test new elements of the site.
 
We will keep tweaking the content and graphic design of the site after the launch, and we expect our new maintenance plan to guarantee that the site will be useful and relevant for many years to come. We will continue to monitor the performance of the website, and publish our results at a future SPIE conference.

To report any issues please email André-Nicolas Chené.