ECMWF’s web services were initially developed in 2002 to provide members of the public and our Member States with greater and more flexible access to ECMWF information and forecast data. Our users and members of the public now have higher expectations of what should be available to them via the website and the level of service that should be provided.
The ECMWF website will be significantly re-developed. ECMWF recognises that our website is an important resource providing many types of information to a wide and growing range of people. Its importance has increased significantly over the years as people have come to rely on the Web as the best way to get the information they need quickly and easily. There are also indications that consideration needs to be given to significantly refresh the website in terms of content, presentation, organisation and technical approach.
Going forward, our website must continue to provide services to our Member State users while also meeting the needs of various research communities and serving as the public face of the Centre. As ECMWF and weather forecasts develop, our website will need also to evolve to support our mission.
Three stakes in a website. The emphasis is on assessing business needs, user/customer needs and technical capability
The project runs for two years to February 2014 but we are planning to release our first preview website as early as possible, probably around late summer 2012. This first preview will not be the final product, be completely designed or contain everything required but it should give a first indication of our new website. As the project progresses further we will continuously update and change this preview, possibly even substantial changes if users that review it identify significant design or structural issues. By January 2013 the website will be classified as beta-release which means we will be confident that it won’t undergo any further significant changes. We will then continue to refine it and add content and services and will classify the website as in full production (replacing the existing website) towards the end of 2013 or very early in 2014.
Until the end of May 2012 we are working with a content strategy consultant to identify a set of users who are representative of all our users. Working with these users we will generate a set of user personas that describe in general terms the scope of use of our website. We will publish these personas publicly so you will be able give feedback on them. After analysing our strategy we will create a content model which we can use to create a very basic prototype website. The aim is to make this documentation publicly accessible and we would welcome feedback on it.
Iterative process for creating a new website. This involves research, concept, design, implementation and launch.
Our project website is publicly available at http://www.ecmwf.int/web2013/ and we will be publishing all of our project products here including our user personas and pointers to our prototype websites as soon as we are able to release them.
You can help us. Information about the development of the website will be made publicly accessible and we would welcome feedback about any aspect.