MEMBER ZONE

Sign up/in with USCG AUX

SEARCH NATIONAL SITE
SECURITY LEVELS

National Website Usability

Overview

 A key focus of the AuxIT team since NTRAIN has been improving the usability of the National website. This effort supports the Strategic Plan objective to "Streamline organizational processes and administration".

The overall effort has a number of components. Of these we are focusing on four at NACON - CGAUX.org front page, the member deck, work with us, and Directorate UX improvements.

  • Ongoing maintenance and changes
  • Search feature updates
  • CGAUX.org front page redesign
  • Member deck addition to help members find resources on the website
  • Work with us addition to help visitors find the appropriate resources and contacts
  • Recommendations for user experience improvements to the Directorate managed sites 
  • Planning for conversion of the National site to our new portal platform

CGAUX.org Front Page

The current front page of cgaux.org is dated and does not take advantage of any of our news. Until recently we were showing news items that were three years old. The new site:

  • Automatically displays the latest three articles from Auxiliary Live
  • Has a refreshed look
  • Has added navigation elements meant to appeal to key audiences     
  • Has a rotating banner element that we can adjust during the year (e.g. NSBW, NACON promo, #Notinmycoastguard, etc.) in addition to a changing set of evergreen messages

 Outstanding issues:

  • NEXCOM review
  • Navigation bar issue to remove the space at either end
  • Some code work on the area on the lower left to get search, NTAS, and MARSEC to display properly. We have a temporary image placeholder currently.
The site can be seen here: http://nws.cgaux.org/

 

Please note, once away from the page using the AUXHOME button will return you to the current active home page.

 

Member Deck & Work with Us

Starting in November we undertook an effort to understand our audience and users of the site. This analysis led to a number of conclusions. 

First, while the RBS messaging on the home page was adequate it could be strengthened.

Second, members new to the site (or those who had just given up) had no guidance on how to use the site and how to find the information they need.

Third, beyond members, prospective members, and boaters seeking RBS information we had no guidance for other visitors -- including our CG shipmates.

We have created two new areas on the site to serve as starting points to address these issues.

Work with us: http://nws.cgaux.org/workwithus/ 

Member deck: http://nws.cgaux.org/memberdeck/ 

At NACON: 

 

User Experience Improvements to the Directorate Pages

While the AuxIT team can change a few of our National pages directly, most of the National website content is managed by the Directorates. We are almost all on WOW but the organization and experience on each Directorate site varies widely. A member visiting one Directorate will find a significantly different experience on another. 

We have identified an initial 40 specific items to address with individual Directorates to improve both consistency and usability. These will be topics of conversation at both the ANACO and DIR level while onsite at NACON to build agreement. Follow up on the specific items will occur at the DVC/BC level following NACON, targeting 10 changes per month until NTRAIN.

During the process we identified a number of projects that will require greater coordination across Directorate lines. An example is the need to link all available training on the site back to the Training Directorate. A member finding training anywhere on the site should be led to the Member Training Compendium so they can find ALL the training we offer. AuxIT has been collaborating with the T Directorate on the MT compendium and a future replacement on the my.cgaux.org portal. A demo page can be seen here: https://wow.uscgaux.info/content.php?unit=IT-GROUP&category=mt-compendium

Concepts for the link that would go on all Directorate training pages is here: https://wow.uscgaux.info/content.php?unit=IT-GROUP&category=navigation-elements

The Future

All of the items discussed above are preparation for our planned transition to the my.cgaux.org platform. While most of the my.cgaux.org effort is focused on the member centric capabilities, the tool also allows us to host the National Website on a modern CMS with full integration of the advanced features of the portal.

If approved, we will likely transition the National site in phases starting with the public facing elements. As we look to the Directorate content we will ask our shipmates to transition within additional guidelines so, to the greatest extent possible, members and visitors have a uniform experience across the site.

That said, as we turn the member experience from a grocery store (stuff all over the place) to a restaurant (you get a table, place setting, you order, and service delivered), the structure of the Directorate sites will become much less critical for members.