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NIH's Center for Information
Technology's Website Gets Award
CIT
Receives Web Business Honors
By Gregory
Roa
NIH's Center
for Information Technology recently won the CIO Web Business 50/50
award for online business excellence. The honor from CIO
magazine recognizes 50 Internet and 50 intranet/extranet sites that
deliver outstanding business value. CIT's Web site was the only
civilian federal government site to be named as one of the top 50
on the Internet.
Winners are
selected from hundreds of nominees by a panel of Web developers,
art designers, editors and writers with CIO magazine. The
judges look for sites that successfully integrate creative design
and high quality technical attributes in ways that contribute to
an organization's overall objective and meet the needs of its target
audience.
Not Just a Pretty
Face
In building
CIT's site, Webmaster Charles Mokotoff sought "to get away from
organizational aspects and develop something more functional" to
help visitors find information quickly and easily. The home page
had to be "dense" but easily navigable.
Two things
helped achieve that goal. From the start, a team of planners considered,
above all, the needs of CIT's users — primarily NIH staff seeking
answers to questions on everything from computer training, security,
email solutions and telecommunications, to complex scientific computing.
Second, Mokotoff
and designer Richard Barnes combined an eye-pleasing palette of
cool colors with innovative techniques: alternating feature graphics,
a sidebar of "popular links" mined from CIT's Help Desk Knowledgebase,
plus "factoids," frequently updated technology tips submitted by
users. These interactive elements work by "bringing information
buried in the site up to the front," says Barnes. The package promotes
a fresh appearance that channels viewers swiftly to their destination.
Taking Care of Business
Mokotoff and
Barnes are pleased the Web site garnered an accolade for online
business — it means CIT stands out in an industry still learning
how to utilize the Internet's full potential to provide quality
service. Delivering Web-based resources to its customers —
NIH researchers and administrators — is just one way that CIT
is striving for excellence as a partner in the NIH business of biomedical
discovery.
CIT and the
other winners "exemplify leadership and innovation in an ever-changing
interactive environment," according to CIO magazine, which
is published by International Data Group, a leading provider of
information technology media and research. Visit the award-winning
site at http://cit.nih.gov, or
find complete coverage of the 1999 CIO Web Business 50/50 Awards
at http://www.cio.com.
This
story appeared in the Aug. 24, 1999 issue of The
NIH Record, an employee newsletter.
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