Starting Aug. 1, troops and families will find a more user-friendly online resource when they visit Military OneSource.mil.
Information will be easier to find, and more relevant to the needs of the military community, said Zona Lewis, content manager of online applications for DoD's Office of Military Community and Family Policy.
"This is the first time we've taken the user experience into such priority consideration," Lewis said.
The technology has been updated so mobile users no longer will have to use a different web address. Whether you're pulling up the site on your mobile phone, an iPad or laptop, the technology will adjust to that medium. And while the current mobile version of the site can't access podcasts or webcasts, the relaunched version will have that capability.
The new site will streamline "military life topics" to make it easier to find what you're looking for, and will put more focus on military-specific information, rather than general information that people can find elsewhere.
The layout also will be cleaner and more organized. It moves the popular but hard-to-find DoD MWR Library up front on the website, so troops and families can easily find their link to thousands of digital books and other resources. The "MyTraining Hub" also moves out front on the website, with a variety of training programs for service members and families, and for providers of programs and services.
Officials launched the push to improve the website a year ago, Lewis said, and heavily involved service members and family members of how well their needs were being met by the Military OneSource website as a central online portal for information and services.
That included a "usability" study. The feedback from service members and families was that people "didn't realize so much was there," she said. "But it was difficult to find. They did like a lot of the features, but we needed to improve the navigation."
Officials then did a website navigation study with troops and family members. Participants said they found it overwhelming to look through the 23 military life topics to find what they needed, Lewis said.
Participants said the "confidential help" area was effective, so officials took the best practices of that area and regrouped the 23 military life topics into just six areas: family and relationships; health and wellness; financial and legal; education and employment; on- and off-base living; and deployment and transition.
Users also felt the amount of content was a bit overwhelming. "What people are looking for is military-specific content, Lewis said, but the website also had a lot of general information that could be found elsewhere. For example, information on being prepared for natural disasters was broad, rather than focused on military-specific preparedness.
Officials analyzed what visitors to the site were looking at, and how many times certain content was viewed in 2013 and 2014. Then program managers determined what information on what should be kept, and what should be removed.
All content has been rewritten to better tailor it to the needs of the military community, with more bulleted and numbered items that are easier to scan. There will be short, pithy descriptions of the content, with the option to "Read more." More images will be used, to make the pages more appealing to the eye.
As part of this process, the Military Youth on the Move website will be retiring, Lewis said, with the content, podcasts, posters and other items moved to Military OneSource.
Lewis said these changes are just a first step. Officials want users to provide feedback on the new site and pipe up if they're having trouble finding something.
"We want to know. We want the information to be relevant," she said.
According to Lewis, the most popular content on Military OneSource, in descending order, are:
- Tax services
- Electronic sponsorship
- Space-A travel
- Military recreational lodging facilities
- Divorced spouse legal rights
- Military ID cards
- Tax filing
- Terminating a lease due to a deployment
- Tips for making a successful final move
- College scholarships and financial assistance
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
