As the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 loomed, interest in NASA
history became a national pastime. Stories of where one (or one’s
parents) was, how it felt, and memorabilia collected at the time
were pretty much guaranteed to keep a party conversation going.
All would be well until someone would turn to the NASA website to
try to find a small fact that couldn’t quite be recalled. That’s
when the embarrassing pause in conversation would start because
the NASA History website did not function in a way that supported
modern users. As our metrics showed the climb of users with a
decreasing bounce time, it was obvious that the long-debated
overhaul could not wait. With the blessing of my wonderful boss,
the support and talent of my visual designer, and the patience of
teenagers, the overhaul rolled out publicly just in time for
Anniversary. Much was learned along the way and makes for an
excellent case study in finding resources, capitalizing on hidden
talents, and why Pop-Tarts are still important in web
development.