David Herring NOAA Climate Program Office May 28, 2013 NOAA Climate.gov A brief overview and highlights of what’s new

NOAA Climate.gov recently got a facelift Climate.gov began as a rapid prototyping effort, first published in February 2010 so we could gather feedback to develop & evolve the site in user-driven ways.

5 Lessons learned after extensive evaluation, and resulting next steps 1. Our navigation structure is confusing » simplify & improve 2. Some of our terms are confusing » use plain English terms to contextualize content & enhance navigation 3. People want “actionable” climate information » produce timely & topical content that is relevant to people’s motivations » Information about significant climate-related events » Information about significant NOAA releases & new findings 4. People expect different content types to be thematically aggregated » build curated frames with topical, sectoral &/or regional foci 5. People want more & easier access to climate data » format and interpret data for usability & extensibility » Our focus groups, usability studies, and Quality of Relationship survey revealed…

The who: start at the audience interface and work backward into the agency Public ContinuumEducatorsData UsersPolicy / Decision Makers NOAA Climate Science NOAA Virtual Teams Target Audiences Climate Science Community NOAA Coastal Marine Fisheries National Weather Service NOAA

Simplify & improve site’s structural hierarchy Search & Browse

Our 3-pronged strategy for building relationships with target audiences NOAA Science Communication Personnel Engagements for Dialog & Feedback Climate.gov & Social Media Partners & Trusted Sources Target Audiences

ClimateWatch Magazine—soon to be “News & Features” An online magazine written and designed in a popular style. Goal is to grow an attentive public to NOAA & climate. Contains 3 types of content: Articles and stories Images with captions & annotations Videos with scientists’ commentaries Features social media tools for subscriptions & RSS feeds, content rating, forward to a friend, and forms for facilitated feedback.

Understanding Climate renamed Decision Support Peer-reviewed resources for policy leaders & decision makers to help them manage their climate-related risks & opportunities Content aggregated into categories: - Society & Environment (i.e., sectors) - Topics - Regions - Agencies & Organizations Content types: - Reports & Assessments - Decision Support Tools - Datasets - Fact Sheets & Presentations - Professional Development Opportunities

NOAA’s Climate.gov Teaching Climate Redesign and Expansion The NOAA Climate Portal’s Teaching Climate section provides a syndication of the CLEAN collection (cleanet.org) with the other section content The section features educator- focused sections: Teaching Climate Literacy provide educators detailed discussions and strategies Curriculum Maps of Climate Concepts for grades 3-5 to Professional Development Resources and Opportunities Reviewed Educational Resources on Climate and Energy topics from the CLEAN Collection

Content sortable by categories: - Global Maps - Regional Maps - United States Maps - Global Climate Dashboard Search types: - Integrated Maps Application - Text Search for data sets and services - Browse Library NOAA’s Climate.gov Data Section Redesign and Expansion

Just as a dashboard gives instant information on the status of a vehicle’s various systems, NOAA’s Global Climate Dashboard presents an overview of the current state of Earth’s climate system in historical context. The Dashboard is designed for people seeking a synoptic view about what we know about climate variability and change, particularly policy leaders. Global Climate Dashboard Adjustable sliders allow users to focus on the time period of interest. Hover cursor over graphs to see specific values for each data point. Click on “Learn More” to jump to more detailed landing pages with more details produced in a popular style.

Plans for new ‘Climate Conditions’ section  Public-friendly digest of recent & near-future climate conditions.  Initial emphasis on ‘mature’ products of high public interest & relevance  Will provide extensible maps & trends with links to source providers.  Will give entrée to subject experts to provide value-added interpretation.

Plans for interactive ‘Climate Explorer’

15 If you have feedback &/or would like to be a contributor to any section of Climate.gov, please contact the sections team leaders:  Climate Conditions:  News & Features:  Teaching Climate  Data  Decision Support  Climate Dashboard:  Climate.gov in general: Gathering Feedback & Enhancing Collaborations