AAPG’s Imperial Barrel Award Program’s website recently received a major overhaul to address a number of key requests. Still located at http://www.aapg.org/iba, the new site’s look is now consistent with the printed materials and displays already in use. It is designed to reflect the Program’s international stature and scale, accommodate wider variety of media, integrate modern social tools and enhance the user’s experience while streamlining more of available content.

The site’s organization is simple. Left column is navigation that remains constant during browsing, highlighting active site areas. Top of the middle column contains secondary navigation, highlighting pages within an active site area. Main content is within the white container; the footer contains links related to current page that may lead to other websites. The right-hand column is the place for widgets that may change depending on the page: a Countdown box, a Twitter box, a Sponsor-scroller box. There’s also a Share button and a Like button.

While the site’s new look may be the most visible change, it is by far not the only one. One completely new part of the site is dedicated to Sections and Regions, where each of them gets its own page, listing important dates, participating universities, sponsors, etc. If you have updated information for your Section or Region, please let know. Also, each Section and Region gets its own Coundown widget, which reminds users of the site of the next approaching deadline. (The home page has one, too, that counts down to the finals at the next ACE meeting.)

Smaller refinements have been incorporated throughout the site as well. Twitter feed has been integrated more fully into the site as it’s becoming a more and more popular platform for up-to-the-minute news updates. Along with Twitter, links to Facebook and LinkedIn are posted on the home page. Downloadable PDF files are now accompanied by icons. It is now possible to attach a file in an email form to certain email addresses. But perhaps the least noticeable feature of this dynamic and interactive site is that it is made without Flash or any kind of proprietary plugin technology, so it should work fine on your iPad.

So enjoy the new IBA website and be sure to write in the comments what you like (or dislike) about it! Perhaps something is missing, perhaps you have a question? We’re here to improve things!