Have you ever looked inside your house and decided it's time to re-arrange the contents and remodel the space as well? Well, that's exactly what APsaA has been doing with its Web site (apsa.org). A redesign of APsaA's Web site has been in the works over the past several years under the aegis of the Task Force on the APsaA Web site chaired by APsaA member Kerry Sulkowicz. It will debut at the 95th Annual Meeting in June.
The Association's Web site was created more than 10 years ago by APsaA member, Paul Mosher, who anticipated the coming explosion of the World Wide Web. Mosher devoted significant time and energy to the development effort and did so on a volunteer basis. The result of his efforts allowed the Association to have a Web site early in the history of the Internet.
Users will find the new site more usable and more graphically exciting.
As Web site design and functionality became more specialized, and as greater numbers of people had access to the Internet, APsaA's site became less competitive and less appealing to the new generation of Web site users. Most significantly, the site continued to grow “topsy-turvy” (or randomly) and users had difficulty finding the information they were seeking. So the Association set about investigating Web site development companies, and found the right one.
The Association also applied for and received a grant to support the costs of developing the new Web site, especially for an expanded Public Information section, from the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA). APsaA owes a great deal of gratitude to the IPA for its support. We've been at work over the last year on developing the new site.
Many lessons have been learned along the way and difficulties encountered have been smoothed out. And now the new Web site is about to launch. It's clean and fresh in design; user friendly, and its information architecture (the manner in which the information is organized) is well ordered. Moreover, users will find the new site more usable and more graphically exciting.
The purpose of the Web site is to serve members, other mental health professionals, and the public with relevant information that advances the profession and practice of psychoanalysis.
As much as possible, the Web site will link to its accredited training institutes, centers, and affiliate societies. For example, the Web site will have a comprehensive section on psychoanalytic training and education, featuring not only those programs in adult psychoanalysis but also those in child and adolescent psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy training. Each of these sections will feature hyperlinks to the respective programs at APsaA's training institutes across the country. As members well know, APsaA is an organization of both individual members as well as organizational members. As much as possible, APsaA's Web site will work to build visibility not only for the Association and the profession but for its organizational members.
In the same spirit of expressing the scope of APsaA as an organization, the home page of will feature a Calendar of Events that showcases APsaA's biannual scientific meetings plus the programs and scientific meetings held around the country under the aegis of the training institutes, centers, societies, local foundations, and study groups. This Calendar of Events will help convey to the public that APsaA and its members compose a vibrant profession with a wealth of psychoanalytic programs taking place throughout the year. Instructions will be sent to the Association of Administrators as well as to the leaders and/or webmasters for submissions of calendar listings (preferably in the format of a hyperlink) to the National Office. These submissions will then be posted to the Calendar of Events by APsaA staff.
Members will be most pleased with the increased functionality of the new Web site. Here are just a few of the offerings.
Members will be able to go to their profile and update the information (address, title, e-mail address, etc.) themselves. The information will go directly into APsaA's database without someone needing to re-enter the information.
Members will have access to the most current membership roster.
Members will be able to renew their memberships online.
And as members have already experienced, members and non-members can easily register for our meetings online without needing to enter all of their contact information.
Members will be able to go to APsaA's Web site and confirm which committee meetings they are planning to attend during the biannual meetings.
Again, as some members have already experienced, individuals who have registered for a meeting can easily download scientific papers being presented at that meeting.
Members and non-members will be able to make contributions online.
In the Members Section of the Web site, committees will have their own “virtual meeting rooms” where they can post relevant documents for members of the committee to review.
The process of developing this new Web site took longer than anticipated. And as all modern Web sites are, it will remain a work-in-progress.
At the beginning, we optimistically believed that we could identify a few promising Web site development firms, have some conversations with them, and have a new Web site in a few months. But we quickly learned how mistaken that was. An outside colleague advised the Association to develop the site map for the Web site first along with the site's desired functionality; then have Web site development companies bid based on those parameters. A Web site map is essentially a road map in which information is organized on a Web site. And the organization of that information is typically referred to as the “information architecture.” Because of the time spent carefully mapping out the Web site, we feel that the information architecture for the new site is structurally sound and user-friendly.
In particular, the Public Information section has been greatly expanded, including psychoanalytic perspectives on a number of mental health terms frequently searched by the public, such as ADHD and depression; a section on “Your Career in Psychoanalysis,” which covers professional paths from that of a clinician to one of a business consultant to that of an educator applying psychoanalytic principles in a school setting. We will work to make sure that this information shows up in online searches resulting in more traffic to the APsaA Web site from those Internet users looking for information on mental health.
Yes, APsaA's new Web site will feature a comprehensive search engine. Presently, back issues of TAP, Forward!, and recent issues of JAPA are available online in Adobe Acrobat files. To the frustration of many members, these files have not been searchable on the old Web site. The situation has been remedied—and user-friendly access to the invaluable information contained in these publications has been established.
Information about the new Web site will be distributed to members in a special ENews Bulletin, APsaA's electronic newsletter. Members who have questions about the Web site should contact APsaA staff members Brian Canty, manager, Computer Information Systems () or Dottie Jeffries, director of Public Affairs (HYPERLINK “mailto:” ).