USDA ERS Enhances Website to Improve User Experience

USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) has updated the ERS website. While most of the adjustments are behind the scenes and aimed at improving the underlying systems and performance, USDA said that a number are designed to improve visitor experience, including:

• Larger fonts and use of more screen “real estate” to improve online viewing.
• Mobile-friendly pages that automatically adapt to the PC, tablet, and smartphone—without having to pinch or expand.
• An updated navigation bar, with a few adjustments to improve getting around the site.
• Simpler, shorter URLs. Where URLs to specific reports, data files, charts, and Amber Waves articles have changed, users may need to update browser Favorites or Bookmarks.

The restructuring requires the department to rework its APIs (and pre-made widgets for embedding charts), so these will be temporarily offline. USDA will continue to keep users updated on the progress.

USDA also requests feedback on the changes and/or reporting of any problems through the Contact Us link at the bottom of each page. Visit the site at http://www.ers.usda.gov/.