Project Overview
Seattle Public Schools Website Redesign
Seattle Public Schools (SPS) is working improve the user experience of our websites. The redesigned district and school websites went live August 2021.
The project, which began in 2019, is centered around the user experience of our students and families. Thank you to the more than 4,000 students, staff, and families who provided feedback and helped guide this redesign!
Website Redesign Updates
December 2021
New Multilingual Feature and Family Webpage Usability Study: SPS is running a usability study on a draft for a new family resource webpage and multilingual feature. You are invited to participate in an online session where you will be asked to complete several short tasks. Your participation is important to us!
It should take less than 10 minutes to complete and is open until Tuesday, December 21.
Join the website usability study.
አዲስ የብዝሃ ቋንቋ ገፅ እና የቤተሰብ መገልገያ ድረ-ገጽ የአጠቃቀም ጥናት
አዲስ የብዝሃ ቋንቋ ገፅታ እና አዲስ የቤተሰብ መገልገያ ገፅ ወደ የሲያትል የህዝብ ትምህርት ቤቶች ድህረ ገጽ በቅርቡ ይመጣል!
ባለፈው አመት ስለ የድረ ገፃችን መሻሻል አስመክቶ በተደረጉ ቃለመጠይቆች፤አንዳንድ ቤተሰቦች በድረገፃችን ላይ የተሻለ የድር ጣቢያ ትርጉም ማቅረብ እንዳለብን አሰውቆውናል።
新的多语言功能和家庭网页可用性研究
西雅图校区正在对新的家庭资源网页和多语言功能的草案进行可用性研究。
你被邀请参加在线会议，你将被要求在会议上完成几项简短的任务。 你的参与对我们很重要！
它应该需要不到 10 分钟的时间来完成，并且会一直开放到 12 月 21 日星期二为止。
Tilmaamaha Luqadaha Badan ee Cusub iyo Daraasada Isticmaalka ee Bogga Mareegaha Ilaha Qoyska
Muuqaal cusub oo luuqado badan ku hadla iyo bogga cusub ee ilaha qoyska ayaa dhawaan imaanaya website-ka degmada SPS!
Inta lagu guda jiro mareegtayada dib u habeynta wareysiyada sanadkii hore, qoysaska qaar ayaa na ogeysiiyay inaan u baahanahay inaan bixino turjumaada mareegta ee boggaga muhiimka ah.
Estudio de Usabilidad de Nuevas Funciones Multilingües y Páginas Web Familiares
SPS está llevando a cabo un estudio de usabilidad sobre un borrador de una nueva página web de recursos familiares y una función multilingüe.
Está invitado a participar en una sesión en línea en la que se le pedirá que complete varias tareas breves. ¡Su participación es importante para nosotros!
Debería tardar menos de 10 minutos en completarse y está abierto hasta el martes 21 de diciembre.
Únase al estudio de usabilidad del sitio web.
Tính năng đa ngôn ngữ mới và cuộc nghiên cứu khả năng sử dụng trang web gia đình
SPS đang làm một nghiên cứu khả năng sử dụng trên một bản nháp cho một trang web tài nguyên dành cho phụ huynh mới và tính năng đa ngôn ngữ.
Qúy vị được mời tham gia vào một phiên trực tuyến, nơi quý vị sẽ được yêu cầu hoàn thành một số nhiệm vụ ngắn. Sự tham gia của quý vị rất quan trọng đối với chúng tôi!
Cần ít hơn 10 phút để hoàn thành và được mở cho đến thứ Ba, ngày 21 tháng 12.
Tham gia nghiên cứu khả năng sử dụng trang web
September 2021
Since launching the new Seattle Public Schools district and school websites in August, we have welcomed feedback from hundreds of families, students, and staff. These messages — both positive feedback and constructive criticism — are helping SPS improve our websites.
Thank you to everyone who has shared thoughts and suggestions through the web services team Let’s Talk feedback form.
From the start, this project has been inspired, lead, and refined by student and family feedback.
The web services team is committed to continuous improvement, and we know website management and enhancement is never done.
Based on this feedback, we have made updates to the design, functionality, and content on the SPS websites.
Some of these changes include updating the font, size, and scale of our webpage headlines. The team is creating dropdown menus so visitors can quickly get to pages on school websites. We continue to work with our accessibility testers to ensure our websites are accessible for all our web readers regardless of the type of device they use to visit our sites.
We launched a new series of workshops for our web editors who work on department and school websites across our large school district. The workshops help demonstrate and teach best practices in web content publishing.
This October, the team will be engaging with our multilingual families to conduct usability studies as we prepare to launch the multilingual feature of our district website.
Website improvement work is never done and we are always looking for ways to improve. Please keep sending us your feedback via Let’s Talk!
About this Project
The SPS websites are the primary communication tool for staff and families and acts as the digital hub for district and school educational resources and information. Serving over 100 schools and close to 53,000 students, SPS sites need to work for students, current and prospective families, staff, and community members.
The project goals center user experience, and include: increase accessibility and community feedback in the final design, improve navigation and search functionality to help readers find resources, improve access with a mobile-first design, build a user-friendly system for content publishers, and provide a more stable web hosting environment – ensuring reliability of services and that our sites are ‘always on.’
Project Phases
Throughout the phases of the project, there have been and will continue to be opportunities to share your voice and priorities.
The new design is based on user feedback with information gathered through interviews with students, families, community partners, and staff, surveys, usability testing, and website analytics. We are prioritizing engagement with students and families furthest from educational justice.
Phase 1 November – December 2020: Interviews and focus groups with students and families furthest from educational justice, survey of all SPS website users, and web analytics review.
Phase 2 January – March 2021: Navigation studies to discover logical navigation structure and webpage grouping (information architecture).
Phase 3 March – April 2021: Design and development of look and feel with usability studies to ensure the navigation, categories, and design meet the needs of our families, students, staff, partners and broader community.
Phase 4 April – August 2021: Content migration and new website goes live! New sites will go live in August.
New Website Features
- Prioritized key resources for students and families
- Mobile-friendly design
- Improved navigation
- Expanded multilingual translation services
- New colors and visual design inspired by the Pacific Northwest
- Artwork from local Northwest Coast Native Artist Andrea Wilbur-Sigo, Squaxin/Skokomish
What is included?
This project includes the district and school websites.
It will not change tools such as The Source, Schoology, or Clever the student portal.
Why are we making this change?
Providing consistent and predictable updates has been a challenge with the current website host and content management system (CMS).
The web services team is excited that the new system will provide ease of use for the district’s 500 editors who maintain the individual school sites, the SPS staff website, and the public district site.
Putting Students and Families First
The guiding question of the redesign is “How do we design a web experience that centers the goals, needs, and challenges of students and families who are furthest from educational justice?”
By unapologetically centering the experience and engagement with students and families of Color, the project directly supports the goals of our strategic plan Seattle Excellence.
In November and December, our community participated in an all-call web survey that was translated into six languages. Nearly 4,000 total people participated.
The team also conducted a series of focus groups with middle and high school students, African American families, Native families, and families supported by Amharic, Cantonese, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese interpreters. As well as interviews with staff and community-based organizations who support families furthest from educational justice.
Throughout the process, the web services team reengaged with these community members to share how their feedback was incorporated in the design and make sure the design responsive to families’ needs through user testing.
The web team will loop back with these same families in Fall 2021 and share another all-call website satisfaction and feedback survey to look for opportunities for improvement.
Key Redesign Priorities Based on User Research
- Navigation: improve navigation to make information easier to find.
- Content and Design: design needs to highlight important resources for students and families.
- Visuals and Icons: use more imagery and video to help readers find information.
- Language Support: Lack of translation or accurate translation of key content created confusion among users and put them in a position where they feel unsupported and at a disadvantage.
- Don’t Change Everything: Some resources such as the “Select a School” and location of the Student Family Portal link work well.