When I first saw the ACHA home page a few years ago, I thought: not bad, a bit cluttered. I checked archive.org for earlier versions of the website, and found that the design has not changed much since April of 2010. As I started to think about this evaluation, I found that my reaction had not changed. I have used the ACHA website as a utility — to find out about conferences, mainly. I was not tempted to linger there. But now that I have taken a closer look, I see that it has much to offer. I think that a somewhat less cluttered look would have been more attractive and might have tempted me to do a more extensive examination before the mandate of this committee made it a duty.
HOME. What would I prefer for the ACHA Home page? I would like to see something that looks more like the Resources page — two columns, with a striking photograph under the banner at the left and text with links under it. All the same links could be there in the same order (though in the present page, with various blocks of uneven length arranged in two or three uneven columns, perhaps the idea is to eliminate any particular order and attract the eye after a glace to the block of greatest interest).
RESOURCES. The Archival Resources list is pretty short. Can we expand it to include other repositories? Catholic University and Marquette spring to mind, but there are many other repositories and special collections that could be included. And we might include a link to the big list of archives maintained by Terry Abraham at the University of Idaho
http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html
We should certainly also include a link to the web portal of the Catholic Research Resources Alliance http://www.catholicresearch.net/
I think the Syllabus Archive is a great resource — and it would be great to expand it, if we can find more volunteers. With the Obituaries, it would be nice to have a link at the bottom to earlier obits.
ABOUT. The overview here is good, and the choice of images excellent, as it is almost everywhere on the site except on the Home page. I like the two column layout; I don’t like the ads. Membership benefits sound great, but at first I didn’t remember my password, and I gave up after repeated attempts to get an email reset failed. The Officer’s page is good, but on the Presidents page Prof. Noble is still reigning. I wonder why the Donate page has a heading here, but also its own tab, and shows up on every page at the right. Does that really work, or do prospective donors find it a bit much, like an NPR fund drive?
CONFERENCES. I can hardly complain about this section, since it is the one I have used to good effect in the past. I like the links to recent programs, and I like the appropriate use of PDF files here and elsewhere on the site. I also admire the page of non-ACHA conferences — certainly of interest to members.
AWARDS. The departure from the two-column format for the Shea prize winners makes this page less attractive than others. I think it would be better to stick to two columns and list the winners under the other text in the column at the left. I found the repeated presence of the same block ads on the right increasingly annoying as I went through the pages. Could we have fewer in-your-face images, more text links as in the Member Services block? I also think that it would be helpful to have, at the top of the right column, plain text links to all the sub-headings in the pop-down list that you see when you put your mouse over tabs (e.g., for Resources, links to the Syllabus Archive and Obituaries).
CHR. The links to style guides and to a CV (as part of “meet the staff”) again strike me as appropriate uses of PDF files linked to the website. The CHR section makes me wonder, though, to what extent members might like to have a web outlet for work in progress, something like the Cushwa Center’s series of Working Papers. I see from the April 2010 version of the website that scholars were expected to write a regular feature describing their research — which seems to me a great thing from the point of view of a reader. But (to cast doubt on my own work-in-progress idea) I wonder if it did not continue because it offered too little in the way of a reward for the writers.
DONATE. Should this tab be eliminated, or should some other locations for the Donate link disappear? Maybe the multiple opportunities do constitute good advertising. Do we have any statistics on how often people use this facility to donate?
DISCUSSIONS. We need to ask why more members are not participating in these discussions. I have read that mathematicians use the internet to make rapid progress by collectively or collaboratively working their way to proofs, and it is my impression that scientists also help each other via the internet more than historians do. I have admired how historians interact and help each other in the archives reading room and at conferences. Maybe they simply prefer other internet mechanisms, such as listservs.
SEARCH. The Google search mechanism worked well for me.
PETTY CARPING. I notice that the right column has a link to Resources at the bottom on some pages but not on others. I also noticed one broken link to the Resources page (which had “resources/” instead of “resource/”) but I don’t remember on which page I saw it. The headers on many pages, if they wrap on to a second line, have no space between the lines.
POSSIBLE ADDITIONS. I think it would be a good idea to offer a page of announcements of new archival collections available for research (for which we would have to rely on the desire of archivists to announce what they have); a page of pertinent job announcements might be appreciated by members; I would support a reinstatement of “my research” or “work in progress”. I would also like to see a page we might call “of interest on the internet” which would call attention to websites of interest to members, especially public domain resources now available. I imagine this as a page that could keep growing as members contribute their suggestions. Though it could be done as a blog, I think it would be better to have suggestions sent to an editor and have the page maintained as a fairly simple list, without much commentary.
I’m glad the website has no annoying animations. But perhaps we should consider imbedded video, which could be hosted on YouTube and made seamlessly available on our website. The content might be part of the resources included in “of interest on the internet” since there are videos already out there that should interest us. But we might also make some of our own. In fact, depending on the skills of the individual scholar, it might actually be easier for some of us to present “my research” or “work in progress” as an audio or video recording talking about it informally rather than being obliged to write a paper.
Inevitably the question of social media arises. I don’t have strong feelings for or against having an ACHA Facebook page. I don’t see the value of Twitter for ACHA. If somebody is willing to maintain a blog, I’m in favor.
The look of the web has changed quite a bit since the early 1990s. Nearly all the change has been towards greater complication — pages that remind me of glossy magazines rather than books, with smaller print and multiple columns. The ACHA does not go too far in this direction, except perhaps on the Home page. In general I think we have a good website, and I recognize that we have to be realistic in efforts to make it even better, since between the dream and the reality the question arises: who will actually do the work? I hope that our committee’s reactions will at least start some discussion about what we want to change and how realistic our aspirations may be.
Wm. Kevin Cawley, University of Notre Dame
Mary Beth Fraser Connolly, Valparaiso University
Michael Carter, University of Dayton
ACHA Website Improvements: Summary
Introduction
The launch of ACHAhistory.org four years ago marked a significant milestone for the Association. The website provided the Association with two new tools that have become the core of its day-to-day operations: 1) A platform for communicating with members and promoting the association to the public; and 2) the digital member-management system that replaced the previous paper and postcard system.
The website has been very successful; nearly all Association business is now carried out online–everything from conference registration to award nominations is now handled digitally. The website, however, is four years old–an eternity on the Web. With a few modifications, we are still using the same design and membership management system that we employed when we launched four years ago. With four years of experience under our belts–and feedback from members and the Web committee–we are well-equipped to make improvements that members will appreciate and that will benefit the Association.
Key goals:
• Modernize design of website; make key information easier to find
• Improve renewal process for members
• Increase retention of members
• Increase profile of the Catholic Historical Review
• Streamline administrative tasks
Key improvements:
Design overhaul: A complete overhaul of the now four-year-old website design will be the most visible part of this project. The guiding principles will be to make important information easy to find, and to keep a consistent design between the forward-facing parts of the website and the membership management area, where members join, renew, and manage their accounts.
Improve renewal/sign-up process for members: The existing membership management system is an amalgamation of several systems. This was the most elegant solution in 2009, but is no longer in 2013. The most meaningful part of this project will be the combining of the many different systems into a single unified system. Our years of experience have taught us how members use the system and what features they value most. With this valuable feedback in hand, the guiding principle will be to simplify the member areas and common member tasks. This will mean fewer and more straightforward steps for members who are joining or renewing. Moving to a single management system will also allow us to have complete control over the look and appearance of member areas–including the sign-up and renewal sections.
Increase retention of members: The new member management system will allow us to automatically bill members’ credit cards for annual membership renewals. This is the single most important improvement that can be made to increase membership retention. I expect it to have a significant impact on membership numbers, as it would all but eliminate those members who allow their memberships to lapse for weeks or months between expiration and renewal. Members, of course, will have the option of opting out of a renewal. Auto-renewals will eliminate the need for the Association to solicit its members to renew every year–a task enjoyed by neither members nor the administrators.
Increase the profile of the Catholic Historical Review: This quarter, the Association’s standard membership will begin giving members access to the CHR only via the Web; a membership including a mailed copy of the print journal will command a $30 premium. This means that access to the CHR will quickly become one of the key functions of the website. As such, the journal must be featured prominently, marketed effectively, and access to the journal for members made seamless. I envision featuring the CHR above the fold on the front page with an image of the current issue, previews of each article, and one-click access to the entire contents of the issue. This will require reorienting the site’s design and software to make the CHR a tent pole feature of the site–on par with membership management and Association news.
Streamline administrative tasks: Combining the myriad systems the Association uses to manage its membership will yield benefits not only for members, but will markedly streamline the administration of regular Association business. At the moment, we operate separate systems for processing payments, generating mailing lists, sending renewal notices, and processing renewals and new memberships. This is a legacy of the limitations of the 2009-era software available when we launched. When we have introduced new features, we’ve had to shoehorn them in to our workflow by creating new systems to manage new functions. Not only is better software now available, but it is much more customizable and extendable, allowing us to unify these disparate systems. Using a unified system for these tasks–and future tasks yet unimagined–will allow for easier operation by members and the administration alike.
Cost and time frame
The fee for the project, including all software, will be $750 per month for 22 months beginning in Fall 2013 and ending in 2015. The new system and design will launch in Spring 2014. Development of design and software will begin immediately. A prototype of the new website design and membership system will be presented at the Annual Meeting in Washington in January, and revisions will be made based on feedback received at the meeting.
Andrew Metzger
Web coordinator, ACHAhistory.org
Principal, Symmetrical Design