Photo By Brian Godette | Matthew Wilson, Army Reserve Family Programs executive officer, checks the new...... read more read more
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FORT BRAGG, N.C. - The Army Reserve Family Programs division, here at the U.S. Army Reserve Command headquarters, has completely revamped their organization website.
The new website, www.arfp.org, was unveiled in
January 2015, ensuring continued access of information to Soldier’s and families.
Army Reserve Family Programs is designed to connect Soldiers, Families, and communities with a source of programs, training, and information to assist in the five phases in a Soldiers life cycle.
“The five colors in our new logo represent the five phases of a Soldiers life cycle,” said Matthew Wilson, AFRP executive officer. “We support Soldiers new to the Army Reserve, Soldiers new to their unit, mobilization sustainment reunions, Soldiers assuming
leadership roles, and transitioning Soldiers, either retiring or Wounded Warrior.”
The AFRP decided to introduce a new webpage after implementing a new marketing plan which incorporated the new logo and brochures, but did not immediately update the organization website.
“We decided to go right into the 21st century,” said Wilson. “We were in an old informational style page, where you go download documents and things weren’t real sharp.”
Wilson said the new website interface creates a one-stop shop for users, allowing them to access training, support groups, military resources, and the Army Reserve Family Programs Facebook page.
“A lot of Army sites are developed and are very structured and rigid, but this is Family Programs, so part of the site development was to capture what that Family member needs,” said Dewanna Comer, web-design team senior manager.
The idea is to determine what brings worth to the user and put that on the homepage, making it as accessible as possible, according to Comer.
“Our Family Programs directors and coordinators are all across the continental United States and overseas,” said Wilson. “So we've developed an interactive map that lets you hover your mouse over a state and the U.S. Army Reserve support specialist, the school support specialist, the Family Programs directors, all come up, making it very easy to find the help that you need.”
Another added feature and highlight is the Facebook-linked icon on the homepage that provides direct access to the ARFP Facebook page, a source of up to date information on programs and services in an already familiar platform. The ease of navigation and accessibility on the new page gives the user a simpler way to find what they need, but developing the webpage did not come without its challenges.
“Accessing the site from different locations and having it work on all the browsers as well as accessing it from a mobile device and ensuring it condenses to fit the screen, whether you are using Android or iPhone, was one of our challenges,” said Comer.
While the AFRP team and web designers tested webpage coding to get the uniformity they wanted for all browser applications, a strategy was also developed to keep information on the site up to date and timely.
“We worked collaboratively to put together a list of recurring events that we always wanted to discuss, so instead of someone having to remember, we have a pretty comprehensive, always evolving system,” said Wilson.
If there isn't something in the rotational program, there will always be an advertisement of the services in the sliders, according to Comer. This will help keep a stream of information and events consistent.“We also rededicated our effort in this office to look for and make the web team aware of things we need to talk about,” said Wilson. “Our goal is to never have anyone go to the site and say there is nothing new here.”
The AFRP team is looking towards the future of the website and interaction with its user base by focusing on possible changes to
several areas that could be beneficial.
“An online chat, manned by some of the people at Fort Family is something we are looking at,” said Wilson. “If someone doesn't want to talk about their marital problems or something like that, they could type with someone and maybe feel more comfortable in that venue.”
Revamping the AFRP magazine, Family Strong, is also on the agenda, getting it up to date, fresh, and incorporated with the new logo, according to Wilson.
“My goal is to have people go visit the site at AFRP.org and give us feedback, tell us what's not there,” said Wilson. “I don't want anyone who has been on the old website to not know that we have a new website.”
The AFRP team remains steadfast in its mission to help connect Soldiers, families, and communities, utilizing tools to simplify the process.
“We have good information that we are putting out there, we are keeping it up to date, and we encourage people to come look at
it,” said Comer.
| Date Taken: | 02.02.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 02.03.2015 09:58 |
| Story ID: | 153378 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 172 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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