WASHINGTON (Jan. 6, 2009) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers homepage, located at www.usace.army.mil, received a new look and feel on the first of the year.

The updated format is easier to navigate.

"The new Web site better serves the public because information is presented in a more intuitive format," said Suzanne Fournier, director of public affairs.

The new look retains the traditional engineer castle and red and white colors, while incorporating the camouflage colors of the Army Combat Uniform and the U.S. Army’s trademarked star.

"Our intent is to restore the visual connection of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the U.S. Army," said Tesia Williams, web transition project lead. "The uniform pattern, as well as the digitized world map, are subtle reminders of the Corps’ 205-year-old military heritage that continues today through our military leadership and support of the Global War on Terror."

The homepage features an improved news section with up to three stories and images representing the work of the Corps world-wide. In addition, the most popular content from the previous website, to include "About Us," "Services," "Business with Us," and "Careers" is easily located through the navigation bar fitted with pull-down menus.

"The site is further modernized through the use of ‘breadcrumb’ text that appears horizontally near the top of each webpage to help users keep track of their location within the site," Williams said.

The look and feel of the new USACE Web site was unveiled by the Chief of Engineers, LTG Van Antwerp, at the Summer Leaders Conference in August 2008. It was then tested by the Corps’ New Orleans district which transformed their Web site and conducted a usability study, which served as the basis for the headquarters redesign.

The new Web site was built using a SharePoint web platform, which provides content owners a simple way to post content without the need to understand html or other computer code. During the transition, content owners across headquarters became directly responsible for their own content.

Based on analysis and usage studies, content owners chose not to transition approximately 90% of the previous web content which they deemed outdated. "Over time, we expect content owners to update and add additional web content to best meet the public’s information needs," Fournier said.

The Corps maintains a Web site to meet its legislative requirements to communicate with Soldiers, employees and the American people.

Under the guidance of the Corps’ Corporate Information directorate, the Corps’ major subordinate commands will transition their Web sites into the new look and feel.

"Over the next year, refinements will continue as all U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Web sites transition to the same format," Fournier said.