If you happen across NCTE’s website in the next few days, you’re likely to find yourself in the middle of a construction zone. Our new site has been a long time in coming. Once the dust clears early next week, I am confident you will find the content you’re looking for!
Building a different site for an organization and porting over content is always more difficult than imagining something that hasn’t yet existed. Always. Having led previous site launches, I reach a point in each project – particularly in the wireframing phase – when I swear this will be the last time I do this. Every time. It’s nerve wracking. So sterile – lines, boxes – for something that’s ultimately so human – an organization’s first connection to so many people it cares about, as well as many people it also wants to serve and know.
While this site has had those moments, what you’ll see upon completion is a design with the heart of NCTE at its center:
- NCTE members have shared insights – qualitatively and quantitatively — that helped to shape this outcome.
- With user data from various analytic tools, we’ve been able to learn a lot about what people are looking for, and why they’ve had a hard time finding it on our old site.
- We knew at the outset that if we wanted to be easily accessible to all our members, we had to be available when they’re on the go. That’s why we designed the site for mobile first.
NCTE is an organization built on principles and values. That too is at the heart of this – we’ve made finding NCTE position statements easier and also included a searchable database with various categories for them.
We’ve made every effort to ensure you find yourself reflected in these pages.
We pulled together the brightest minds in tech development and design from the Atlantic to the Pacific to create the best possible product within our budget. Staff have been working around the clock to cull, organize, and give clarity to so much work from members, current and past leaders, and volunteers.
Those closest to NCTE know this project has been on many drawing boards for many years, predating my arrival. I’m happy to share that it’s now being delivered, and we’re eager to continue developing and growing from here.
Another truth about all the websites I’ve ever launched: they begin to change and evolve the moment they’re released into the world. While we’ve gone to great lengths to make sure this site launches in the fullest way possible, we know it will be no exception to that rule. In fact, because we want NCTE to be a dynamic organization, we purposely built a site that can be equally dynamic.
Tell us what you find that should be tweaked. Broken link? No problem. Missing detail? Tell us about it. Have an idea for the future? We’re ready.
We urge you to connect with us. This is a website our members can be proud of. One we hope you will draw your colleagues, teaching teams, and others toward. One that speaks to why you are a proud member of NCTE. We built it to reflect our pride in having you in our community.