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Bank's New Home Page: A Preview of More to Come

Julia Ross's picture

Today the World Bank unveils a new home page as a preliminary step in a broader, site-wide redesign, which we’ll begin rolling out at the end of 2010.

We’ve revamped the page to align with the Bank’s new web content strategy and in response to extensive user feedback. Our objectives for the new site are to:

Provide premier development content. Present the latest news, results, project information, data, documents, and reports from across our global organization, in the spirit of openness, mutual learning and knowledge-sharing.

Improve access to information. Offer our online audience open access to all of Bank data, research and tools, through regularly updated content, mobile devices, e-mail alerts, social media and other venues as they emerge. Provide relevant, localized multilingual content to non-English speaking audiences.

Embrace an open exchange of content and ideas. Engage with colleagues, clients, and partners through online dialogue on development issues—initiating conversations and gaining insight that may serve as valuable input to the Bank’s work. Invite users to make use of social media tools, including blogs, Twitter and Facebook, and respond to discussions as they occur.

We’ve designed the home page to embrace these principles and offer a visually compelling entry point into the Bank’s site. Consider it a preview of more to come!

In the meantime, tell us what you think. We’d love to hear from you.

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous on
Your resources for looks like breadcrumb. Later I recognized that breadcrumbs are below (Awkward isn't). Countries in top navigation and topics are key you did good separating it. But most users start left to right scan. Then these two are last to come across (wasting time) and losing ease feel. I hope you got best guys to do it. But, trying to much and coming with elements that violate experience is bad in long run. People just dont have time. Its really annoying to just have one section ready, just say whole site dint change. Enough of bad things: New design emotional feel is awesome. You really got it well right.

Submitted by Anonymous on
Your web site has been the best, most comprehensive and clear web site I use for my research. Please don't change it too much! I think it is just fine as it is.

Submitted by Dani on
Congrats to everyone involved in this project. The new home page is beautiful - but more importantly everything about it makes sense!

Submitted by E. Villarino on
I love the new look of your website - definitely leaps in improvement from the previous one. It's pleasing to the eyes, and it does invite people to explore the site more. Kudos to the team who developed/designed it!

Submitted by Enkhtamir on
Looks good, but it still has some bugs. It's not campatible with Safari browser etc...

Submitted by Jee on
Congrats! I know how hard it is to convince and please everyone who has a stake in this highly visted site. Hats off to all!

Submitted by temka on
But when Russian and Chinese versions will be done?

Submitted by Anonymous on
New things are normally hard to accept, I'v been used to the old design, but I think I can adjust to the new one, change take time!!

Submitted by Anonymous on
this information is very hard to access, comapred to the former format.

Submitted by Rosan Zorrilla on
The jobs link should be placed in the resources section rather than the bottom in grey. People look for this site most often. If I'm not mistaken, the jobs site has the most hits in the Bank's website. Thanks.

Submitted by Julia Ross on
No doubt, this is a popular section of the Bank's web site. After consultation with our HR department, we decided it was appropriate to separate "Jobs" from other target audience groups currently under Resources (civil society, governments, etc.) We also looked at best practices across UN, media and think tank sites. The majority of these place jobs in the home page footer.

Submitted by T.M. Pulido on
I love the new feel and look of the website. As a recent graduate, I was often frustrated by the cumbersome and decentralized manner of finding information needed. However, I also notice that there is a stronger emphasis on what the Bank has accomplished. While I understand its importance, I would advise moderation; part of what makes the World Bank site so appealing is that it is a knowledge bank of development issues.

Submitted by Anonymous on
The slideshow at the top of the home page appears to be in too large a frame. The frame size may be reduced since it may hamper opening of homepage from home or outside office, where many of us do not have a high-speed internet connection.

Submitted by Julia Ross on
Thanks for your comment. The size of the photos in the feature carousel cannot be changed, but we're working to optimize all home page elements to reduce download times for those without high-speed Internet. We're aware that this is a problem--bear with us.

Submitted by Anonymous on
beautiful

Submitted by Habtom on
Dear Sir, Congratulation for your new web site I did know completely your changes in the web site however the website is generally looks excellent. In the former web site home page there were links for Conference, consultation and competition pages however I didn't get then in this new websites. If they are not included please include them since they are very important. The reason may also me I didn't know where to find. Thanks, Habtom Ghebrehiwet

Submitted by Anonymous on
Under the redesigned website l realize Resources for those who are interested in doing business with the Bank is not found on the page. Could that be reinstated.

Submitted by Julia Ross on
Thanks for the comment. We have redesigned our 'Resources' section to better target key audiences. The Investors link now provides information for those who are interested in doing business with the Bank.

Submitted by Anonymous on
Your little feedback balloon is blocking the Countries Link on the home page. Please move it or shrink it!

Submitted by Anonymous on
It seems not all countries are included because I could not find Lebanon, Iraq and Syria.

Submitted by Julia Ross on
If you'll look under our Countries tab at the top right of the home page, you'll find links to our country pages for each of these.

Submitted by PAUDYAL Dhruba P on
Congratulations for new design and look-up.

Submitted by Anonymous on
Why don't you start actually helping third world countries instead of depleting their water supply and forcing countries further into debt? You're not suppose to be just a big buisness corporation, you're suppose to help.

Submitted by Eric on
The new look of your website - definitely is great improvement from the previous one. It's pleasing to the eyes, and it is inviting. Very interactive as it does invite people to explore the site more. Great job to the design team, job well done

Submitted by Anonymous on
The look is good but where do you go if you want information on specific sectors like education, infrastructure etc..

Submitted by Julia Ross on
Look in the top navigation bar, all the way to the right. You'll see a "Topics" link, which will take you to a list of these sectors.

Submitted by Janet Karanja on
Great job with the new website. Its more user friendly and inviting.

Submitted by Mustaqur Rahman on
The home page is now cleaner, eye soothing and readability has improved substantially. One small request, if there were a small tab/ button somewhere in the home page itself leading to procurement sub page would be great.

Submitted by Anonymous on
Hi all, Congratulations to everyone involved. I could empathise how much blood, sweat and tears went into launching a new design. The new look and feel is more user-friendly than the previous design. But I guess you tried too hard to cram everything on the frontpage: looks like the whole of World Bank once a piece of this precious space. So to please everyone, I assumed that each 'important' section either got a link, a navigation title, a box, etc. I was a bit confused by the two-navigation approach, the breadcrumbs at the bottom screaming for attention with a deep red background and (maybe) 12-size font. In my opinion, the 'Resources' bit should not be too prominent since we're quite adamant to find what we want from the site: if we want it, we'll find it. The old side has this relatively muted links on the left-hand, something similar would have been enough. I think the 'In-depth' should have a more prominent place. I honestly don't get the difference why are those topics on the first-half when it only lead to articles in contrast to In-depth, which is more comprehensive and look like subsites. Good initiative of asking for feedback from users, I guess this would be a good addition to your usability study. Congrats again everyone, including the IT people. :-) M. Stryk

Submitted by Anonymous on
Nice website. But I would like to know what was the reason for your decision of changing the WB Blue color to Red? I feel like the WB website (although prettier) is losing its identity.

Submitted by Julia Ross on
Thanks for your comment. Actually, we chose red color palette deliberately, to signal a move from the old “blue” Bank to new, more open and approachable Bank. The color change announces to visitors that they are about to embark on an entirely new online experience. The new look and feel will be consistent across all parts of the web site, creating a stronger visual identity that what we've had in the past.

Submitted by Chrissy on
Hi Julia, in a quick scan to find 'education' I had trouble locating how to get there. Eventually, I saw the topic feature in the right corner. But my first instinct was to click on topics under results, which takes you to a slightly random page that just lists results profiles: http://go.worldbank.org/WV2K4WP970. To get to the actual education page (www.worldbank.org/education) took more work and I think isn't quite obvious enough for the general public. Maybe to make the presentation a bit more issues-driven you could have a drop down for all topic portal pages, either further left in the top navigation or centrally located in the content block of the page. Thanks, this is looking nice. Hope my suggestion helps. Best, Chrissy

Submitted by Julia Ross on
Thanks for your feedback. The relative placement of the main Topics link-- at the far right of the top navigation-- is the same as in the previous design of the World Bank's external home page, although this navigation bar is lower on the page. We're hoping that the new design will not impair most users' understanding of this link as being at a higher level than the Topics link in the Results section. But we're noting all feedback on the design to help determine anything we might need to change.

Submitted by Anonymous on
I terribly miss the old website... This is hard to read for me; may be too light in color and resolution.... The content is even vague or it feels that way... I wish someone would re-install the old website, or I need the magic wand to do it on my own!

Submitted by Anonymous on
Hello from Ukraine Please test the site properly. There are a lot of bugs :( It is very disappointing that such organization as “The word bank” has so low quality web-site. There is a bug even on the homepage! Submit button next to the “Browse results” lost its position and looks awkward (goggle Chrome). You’d better to add slide animation to the “hear you are area” and fade/slide effect to the top slideshow. When I chosen Russian language I was no longer able to switch back to English as the link didn’t work. Seems there is a problem in your CMS.

Submitted by Anonymous on
now you can't access topics at all...not only is the location difficult but, the feedback button is covering the topic text.could you please fix that....

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