[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 232 (Monday, December 3, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Page 60226]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-29874]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION


Deployment of the NRC's Redesigned Public Web Site

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) plans to deploy its 
newly redesigned public Web site in a phased approach between now and 
the end of the year. The redesign gives the Web site a new and 
consistent look and feel. It is organized by content and topic rather 
than by NRC organizational structure, uses top-down logic going from 
the general to specific topics, makes navigation easy, gives greater 
visibility to frequently accessed information, uses plain language 
where possible, and complies with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation 
Act. As a result of the events of September 11, 2001, the NRC shut down 
its public Web site on October 11 and is conducting a thorough review 
of the original scope of the redesigned site. This review includes all 
of the content available at the NRC public Web site prior to October 
11. As reviews are completed, NRC will restore content incrementally in 
the redesigned format.

ADDRESSES: NRC's newly redesigned Web site will be made available at 
www.nrc.gov. For updates on the planned deployment, see the redesign 
notice at www.nrc.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Walter Oliu, Office of the Chief 
Information Officer, Mail Stop T-6 E7, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Telephone (301) 415-7823, or e-
mail [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: As a result of a public meeting to discuss 
NRC interactions with stakeholders on nuclear material and waste 
activities, the Commission directed the NRC staff to improve NRC's Web 
site by (1) reviewing other major Web sites as models for possible 
improvements to the NRC site; (2) soliciting the views of stakeholders, 
including members of the general public, researchers, and 
representatives of the library community; (3) implementing goals for 
the public site to support NRC's Strategic Plan; and (4) ensuring that 
the public site is compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
    The NRC staff established the following objectives for the external 
Web site to support the goals of NRC's Strategic Plan: (1) Increase 
public confidence in the NRC by providing information that enhances the 
ability of stakeholders to participate effectively in the regulatory 
process; provide information that enhances the public's understanding 
of NRC's mission, goals, and performance; make it easy to find desired 
information; ensure the timeliness and accuracy of information at the 
site; and (2) make doing business with the NRC more efficient and 
effective by providing easy access to necessary information and tools 
for conducting business electronically via the Web.
    The NRC formed two groups to provide agencywide input to the 
redesign effort: a Web Redesign Working Group, composed of staff who 
currently maintain the NRC's content at our public Web site, and a Web 
Redesign Steering Committee, composed of senior managers and chaired 
first by a representative from the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation 
and later by a representative from the Office of Public Affairs.
    The NRC staff contracted for a usability analysis of the existing 
Web site. Stakeholders, including representatives of public interest 
groups, librarians, licensees, State officials, members of the 
international nuclear regulatory community, and NRC staff who 
frequently interact with the public were involved in this process 
through several focus groups, a usability test at NRC's Regulatory 
Information Conference, and a Web survey. An expert evaluation of how 
well NRC's current Web site follows best practices and considers human 
factors, and how accessible it is to individuals with disabilities (in 
compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act) was also done. 
In addition, the staff compared NRC's Web site with other highly rated 
government sites and confirmed that there were significant 
opportunities to improve the current site's structure and organization, 
navigability, style, understandability, and accessibility. The 
recommendations included:
     Create a ``common look and feel'' for the entire NRC Web 
site (enforce standards);
     Organize by content and topic rather than by NRC 
organizational structure;
     Use top-down logic going from the general to the specific;
     Make navigation consistent (links to top-level pages, 
within-page navigational devices, and links to external non-NRC sites); 
and
     Comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (test 
pages on multiple platforms and with browsers favored by people with 
disabilities).
    The results of these assessments formed the basis for developing a 
prototype for the redesigned Web site. The prototype contained 
improvements adopted from all the recommendations listed above and was 
reviewed by the NRC Web staff, the Web Redesign Working Group, and the 
Web Redesign Steering Committee. In addition, NRC collected and 
evaluated comments on the prototype from stakeholders who were involved 
in the initial usability study, as well as others. The agency obtained 
OMB clearance to collect comments from stakeholders. The NRC staff as a 
whole was also provided an opportunity to comment.
    An analysis of the feedback on the prototype indicated that users 
were more satisfied with the prototype than with NRC's existing public 
Web site. Many suggestions for further improvements were adopted and 
implemented for the redesigned site.
    As a result of the events of September 11, 2001, the NRC shut down 
its public Web site on October 11 and is conducting a thorough review 
of the original scope of the redesigned site. This review includes all 
document collections available at the NRC public Web site prior to 
October 11 (over 50,000 pages and nearly all of the other content, over 
1,000 pages). As reviews are completed, NRC will restore content 
incrementally in the redesigned format. Updates on the redesign will be 
posted at the Web site (www.nrc.gov) as the deployment proceeds.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 27th day of November 2001.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Stuart Reiter,
Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 01-29874 Filed 11-30-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P