5 Things to Know about CompTIA’s New Certification Website

We’re proud to reintroduce you to certification.comptia.org. Many of you told us you would like a CompTIA website that is faster, gets you straight to what you’re looking for and enables you to quickly complete your tasks. This new site is the result of months of collaboration between CompTIA and many of our users to provide a much improved website experience.

So what’s new? Pretty much everything. We’ve overhauled the site’s design to bring it up to today’s standards, making it work just as well on your mobile device as it does on your desktop. We’ve enhanced its navigation. We’ve updated key applications. We’ve streamlined content and added new content where needed. You’ll discover that accessing key information here is now much more immediate and requires fewer clicks.

Many enhancements aren’t that obvious and will feel like natural elements when using the site. Researching certifications, learning how to get certified, finding training, scheduling your test and staying certified via Continuing Education are much easier and more intuitive. We don’t mind if you don’t notice these changes right away, because we believe that the best sites are those that get out of your way and simply let you do what you want.

The following are five highlights of the new site:

1. Responsive Design

   You can now get the full functionality of the website on your phone without compromises. We moved comptia.org to responsive design last year and learned what a big impact it has on user experience. Our members enjoy browsing the website when it looks and feels as refined on a mobile device as it does on their laptop. Mobile now represents over 20 percent (and growing) of our website traffic and the updated design and layout will make it much easier for you to check us out on the go.

    

2. Navigation

   We’ve decluttered the navigation and reduced it to what matters. The site is now organized to guide you through the certification process. Need to learn about certifications or complete a task related to a specific certification? You’ll find everything you need under Certifications. Want to find out what training and learning options you have? You can find all that under Training. Ready for your exam? All information you need can be found in Testing. And when you’re certified, we now have simplified information on how you keep your certification current via Continuing Education. We also share with you how you can get involved in CompTIA programs; such as becoming one of our volunteer subject matter experts.

   

3. Streamlined Content

   Our content is now organized to make it much easier to scan and read. We are not overwhelming you with links. We’re pointing out the relevant links to help you find specific information. You’ll find related, additional information on the right side of many pages.

   

4. Immediate Access

   We want to enable you to get the information you need as quickly as possible. You’ll experience this in how we’ve embedded forms on the new website. You can now request access to, for example, sample questions and exam objectives right from a certification product page without having to leave the page.

   

5. Wayfinding

In navigating anything, from a mall to a website, looking for immediately recognizable symbols helps us in getting to what we’re looking for faster – via wayfinding. Our new website uses visual cues to make it easier for you to reach your destination and reduces unnecessary detours.
           

What’s Next?

We’re not quite done with the improvements to the website yet. We have a list of additions that we’ll be introducing over the next year. Let me highlight just two for now.

First, we are localizing the entire website in several languages. Look for translated and regionalized versions of this website in other languages over the next few months. Second, we have begun working on a new version of our Career Roadmap. We know what a useful tool it has been for your certification path and want to provide the best experience possible to support your decisions.

Our goal is for present and future certification holders to come to the CompTIA website, be inspired by the possibilities, make discoveries here and go on a journey through the site easily.

IT is a great industry. We hope that we’ve made it easier for you to explore how CompTIA can help you take your first, next and future steps to a career in that industry. As such, we’d appreciate your feedback on our new site. When you have a few minutes, please send us an email and share your thoughts.

Randy Gross is chief information officer of CompTIA.