The United States Mint overnight rolled out another series of tweaks to its website at www.usmint.gov. The most visible changes appear within the pages of its online store.
Featured U.S. Mint products and new announcements are shown front and center. This page now includes an announcement about the improvements the U.S. Mint is making.
"We have gathered much feedback from many customers about how we can improve our Website to make it easier for you to use," the U.S. Mint states. "We’ve heard you. Beginning September 2012, customers will see small but helpful changes that should improve the user experience of our site."
Visitors to the website’s online store will also immediately notice new search tools in the upper left that include "Product Search" and "Price Search" options. The product search feature suggests uses of keywords or product numbers while the search by price offers a handy drop down with selections of:
- $0.01-$19.99
- $20-$49.99
- $50-$99.99
- $100-$199.99
- $200-$399.99
- $400 and up
Another prominent addition in the shopping area is a new navigation menu on the left side of the website entitled "Precious Metals." Clicking it brings the user to a new section that showcases some of the Mint’s major coins produced in silver, gold and platinum. A link to the U.S. Mint pricing policy for gold and platinum coins is also more visible.
Other improvements will be forthcoming, and some of the current additions will be refined. One of the challenges in website development can be presenting a common user experience across the various types of browsers — Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, etc. Over the last several days the home page of the U.S. Mint website has had some minor formatting issues with some of these browsers.
In a series of images, the U.S. Mint describes some of its website changes at:
