In September, Pew Research Center published findings about internet usage that pretty much confirm what we’ve been seeing at Acton: More and more people all over the world are using the web to find information, news and educational resources.
In America, the vast majority of people are online. Back in 2000, 86 percent of adults 65 and older did not go online; today that figure has been cut in half. Not surprisingly, only 1 percent of 18- to 29-yearolds are now offline.
Acton’s web traffic to its main site and blog reached 2.2 million visitors in 2016, an increase of 10 percent over the previous year. To keep up, in January we launched a newly designed site using the latest publishing technology, with plans to update other stand-alone sites, such as PovertyCure and For the Life of the World, later.
The new Acton.org site will also be optimized for a web world increasingly shifting to smartphones and tablets. In 2016, Acton’s mobile traffic topped 44 percent and we expect that to increase.
Keeping pace with on-the-go users is crucial for an international research and educational organization like Acton, with a growing following in developing nations.
According to media buying agency Zenith, 75 percent of internet usage will be mobile in 2017. In four years, mobile usage has gone from 40 percent to 70 percent (of total internet use) in mobile.
We began the process of updating Acton.org in mid-2015 with a deep study of how users interact with our site, which now numbers more than 4,000 unique pages. A team comprised of Acton staff and outside developers and designers interviewed users, studied their feedback and went over all the key sections with an eye for major improvements.
The new site gives Acton a platform that showcases the content from our experts in a much more engaging, easy-to-use way. Navigation will be simplified, and the pages will have a brighter, more graphical look.
Be sure to check out the new site at www.acton.org.
