Last year NASA announced the launching of their Beta site and then subsequent official “publishing” that was built on the WordPress CMS. This undertaking was massive with around 70,000 pages and much more being migrated over. Needless to say, this was/is a significant project all based on WordPress. This says a lot about the capability of WordPress on so many levels.
I want to start off by saying that the NASA website looks great and that Lone Rock Point did an amazing front end design of it. However there are a couple of things that I think needs improvement. I’ll run through these issues point by point:
1. It was built using the Gutenberg Blocks system.
Numerous contributors to that project have repeatedly acknowledge is no where close to FSE (Full Site Editing) or as a Page Builder. Hence why Lone Rock Point had to build an additional 55 custom Gutenberg Blocks to help overcome this significant shortcoming. The block system is fine for basic post layouts, but not for “full custom websites” despite Matt Mullenweg’s claim.
I’ll drop this article Kevin Geary did that outlines some of the bigger issues. Make sure you read the comments as well and you’ll see several contributors chime in to confirm what he’s brought up. Does this mean that Gutenberg is garbage? No, but without a ton of extra coding it’s impossible to make it a workable full site editor like Lone Rock Point was able to accomplish and it’s not easy to replicate (although some will argue for it and mention how if you add a bunch of 3rd party block components you can… but that’s the point. Gutenberg as is, is not capable without extra coding).
2. Poor site optimization.
They should be using a CDN to improve asset delivery. A CDN or Content Delivery Network, can offer better performance, reliability, and security for web properties because it’s reducing the demand on the main server the site is hosted on. With the volume of assets they have, it makes no sense for them to not use a CDN.
Although they do use some sort of caching (probably server side), it’s obvious that even with that the content loading needs improvement by implement better control over the caching as well. They have multiple file types (scripts and css) that’s being called that could be compressed and combined down to fewer files. Better Caching would help reduce that along giving them the ability to prefetch external urls and even the font they host.
The reality is that for the money they spent (see point 4), it should be better. First interaction load time is 41 seconds… each subsequent visit averaged between 5-15 seconds. Having a CDN, better caching, and converting all their images to next gen, would significantly improve this
3. Potential Privacy and Tracking Concerns
These days most big businesses and Government orgs are all about privacy. You go to their site and a popup gives a general request to allow cookies, tracking pixels, etc to be used while you visit the site, in which you either accept or decline.
Unfortunately they offer nothing of the sort despite the fact they are using multiple tracking methods and and should be aware of the privacy implications behind it. (Parsely.com, Foresee.com, and Google Analytics)…. and despite the fact they state in their Privacy Policy that “Submitting information is strictly voluntary.” It’s not voluntary when you have no way to opt out of it to begin with.
4. Multi-Million Dollar Project
They started around 2019 to modernize the NASA websites as noted in a 2020 report. Years later and a couple million spent, they revealed a website that looks nice and functions, but for the amount spent should have been significantly better. I’m sorry but their sites are not worth millions despite all the content on them. Unfortunately this kind of wasteful spending is typical for Government entities.
So what is good about their site then?
Honestly there’s quite a bit of great things going on with their sites. So here’s a run down of a few things that stood out:
1. They are using a Framework for Utility Classes, and more. (Although they fall short and don’t use variables)
Yep! Apparently even the Government sees value in using a Framework. The United States Web Design System or USWDS. I’m actually quite impressed that their are this far ahead considering how many things they seem to be years behind on. Unfortunately they still have some catching up to do with variables as they didn’t appear to support them at this time.
2. Using REM Unit Sizing instead of PX
REM or Root EM (my parent element’s font-size) which means that the sizing is always relative to the root element. By default, most browsers use a font size value of 16px, so everything is relative to that sizing. In short this means that the sizing is always adjusting to this value and will also adjust to screen size of the device.
You may ask why not just use pixels or PX then? Pixels are a fixed value that does not change, so 40 pixels on a laptop will still look the same as 40 pixels on a phone. This means some seriously large text on the phone that’s unnecessary.
3. They are using Next Gen image types.
The majority of their images were optimized and converted to WebP. That makes a huge different when serving up large images and helps speed up page loading. So that’s a big plus for them.
4. The site looks great.
The front end design looks great and the layout doesn’t feel overwhelming in spite of the sheer amount of information on it… and it is a lot. Overall I like it even though it was built with Gutenberg.
5. They used WordPress.
The fact that WordPress handles the sheer volume of content on the site is a testament to it’s capability, because many believe that WordPress can’t handle large sites. I thinks this simply solidifies itself as a capable CMS for most applications.
At the end of the day this site is a testament to the power that WordPress hold in the hands of a designer/developer that can use it at it’s full potential and exactly why I build on WordPress. I love it and love to create fantastic sites that use this potential based on what the customer needs.
