Why NASA Redesigned Its Iconic Website Using WordPress?
Space fans, let’s go! NASA officially left beta testing with the launch of the rebuilt nasa.gov website, switching from Drupal to WordPress as its new content management system. Over the course of eighteen months, the voyage has been filled with data migration, content production, and web construction expertise. What was the outcome? A cutting-edge, space-age website that brilliantly captures the essence of NASA, an organization that has been creating ground-breaking discoveries for more than 65 astounding years. Is it not?
NASA started this multi-million dollar project a few years ago as a result of a great opportunity to reevaluate its web strategy presented by the end-of-life of Drupal 7 and the IDEA Act. None other than Lone Rock Point, a WordPress.com VIP Gold Agency Partner, was in the lead. They started a year-long journey into UX design and carefully considered every corporate CMS solution. The main prize is a content management system (CMS) that can create 3,023 original landing pages, transition 68,698 pages, and support 456 CMS users. NASA’s web infrastructure traveled from the vastness of Amazon Web Services to the friendly embrace of WordPress.com VIP as part of this remarkable expedition.
A behind-the-scenes look was given by Lone Rock Point President J.J. Toothman. Content writers expressed in the early stages of the project their wish for a CMS that would free them from the constraints of inflexible templates. User testing has proven that Gutenberg’s block-based authoring style has realized that dream. The variety of landing pages made with Gutenberg on the live site now confirms our choice.
NASA has investigated many CMS systems, including both private and open-source solutions. Out of more than one hundred applicants, four finalists—two open source and two commercial (WordPress and Drupal)—were chosen. Every one of these four finalists was prototyped and tested by users prior to NASA’s CMS selection process.
According to Toothman, this is what makes WordPress sparkle like a star in the night sky:
Obtaining Resources: WordPress has a thriving, wide-ranging community that keeps growing and improving the platform. It is a dependable option for institutions like NASA because of its combined knowledge and expertise. Commercial CMS solutions, on the other hand, frequently limit flexibility by requiring support visits to the original provider.
Strong Plugin Ecosystem: WordPress offers real-time content analysis in the admin area, with a focus on accessibility and SEO. Before content is published, authors can review it, which is an essential NASA function.
User-Friendly Content Authoring: Authors can more easily explore their creative potential with WordPress’ intuitive content authoring environment.
It’s a win for open source, said Toothman. “The combined efforts of the WordPress community have made many of the CMS functionality we required currently available.” To give an example, content writers can quickly and simply include photographs into their work thanks to NASA’s WordPress website’s seamless integration with the agency’s image repository at images.nasa.gov.
NASA Uses WordPress's Block Editor to Make a Significant Advance
NASA chose WordPress because of the block editor’s versatility in creating landing sites without being limited by pre-made layouts. 55 unique editing blocks were created by Lone Rock Point to enable NASA writers to convey their ground-breaking findings and narratives.
Toothman states, “We found a wide variety of familiarity with WordPress and Gutenberg among the nearly 400 content authors/editors on NASA’s WordPress CMS. Change management was a key component of the project, and there was a significant learning curve. While some people took to the block editor right away, others needed more help. Unlocking storytelling potential within the new design system and block editor was more important than simply learning a new content management system.
The team established interactive training sessions and an online knowledge library to facilitate the writers’ transition. Through weekly blogs and newsletters that included work-in-progress pages, they also promoted a collaborative atmosphere by stimulating dialogue and igniting innovation.
Users were encouraged to ask questions and explore new possibilities by seeing the creative uses of custom blocks and the work of their peers. To address questions, show off real-time workflows, and solicit input for future user resources, our content team hosted weekly office hours for managing editors, according to Toothman.
It surprised me how authors were able to break free from the original aim of the Gutenberg editor blocks and find creative new uses for them in different design layouts.
NASA Shows Off Her Love for WordPress
NASA intends to contribute to the WordPress community by making some of its unique blocks and project elements open-source. NASA’s confidence in the block editor and WordPress’s adaptability for enterprise-level projects with complicated publishing needs is demonstrated by this project, which has garnered significant attention.
“For years, many of us in the WordPress community have been dispelling two misconceptions:
(a) WordPress isn’t fit for enterprise; it’s just a blogging platform, and
(b) WordPress isn’t a secure CMS,”
writes J.J. Toothman in his concluding remarks. Although NASA’s decision won’t totally dispel these myths, it is another proof that WordPress is enterprise-class software that can withstand strict security requirements.
An exciting new chapter in WordPress’ illustrious history is its encounter with NASA. The updated website is proof of open source’s strength and the countless opportunities it presents to organizations of all kinds. NASA is prepared to take the digital frontier by storm, and WordPress will serve as its launchpad.
At UAEWEB3, we are experts at redesigning WordPress websites for well-known e-commerce and banking platforms, like Connectus and Garmin.
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