We're looking for plant-level input

The magazine staff had a conversation recently about online information sources, websites in general and our website in particular. Some would argue that website design must highlight prominently the content we have available. Visitors should find it easy to locate links to longer articles, white papers, new product releases, shorter articles by columnists, case studies and the like. The idea is that we should let everyone know we have these online resources available for plant professionals engaged in the industrial maintenance and reliability arena. The argument is that they come to a website to see what new content might be available.

The other side of the discussion holds that those plant professionals engaged in the industrial maintenance and reliability arena are using the Internet to research solutions to problems that arise every day. One might have a need to learn about pump bearings, another might be struggling with compressor efficiency, and a third might be looking for best practices in hydraulic system repair. The argument here is that those plant professionals have an acute, overriding technical problem that needs to be solved immediately.

In theory, a single website design can satisfy both sets of visitors.

So, we wondered how you use technical websites on a day-to-day basis. Are you looking for new offerings, or are you trying to make some plant-floor problem vanish?

If you’re willing, we’d like to connect with you via phone and walk through the plant services website together so that we can get your reactions to both the content offerings and the underlying design. Maybe it will help decide the matters our earlier conversation raised.