FCC web architect departs amid grumbling about revamped site

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Managing Director Steve VanRoekel is leaving the agency to join the US Agency for International Development (USAID). VanRoekel, who oversaw a comprehensive overhaul of the agency's website launched last month, has decided to accept the new opportunity at a moment when complaints are flaring up about FCC.gov.

The overhaul has received a particularly poor reception among private sector lawyers tasked with filing documents through the online system. "You can't find what you are looking for. And if you have enough time on your hands to figure out where something is, it will take you multiple clicks to get there. If you put the old and new websites side-by-side, you can see it is so much easier to navigate the old site. It’s kinda like old vs new coke. While the old site wasn't perfect, it worked much better than the new one,” one industry lawyer said.
VanRoekel is expected to depart his position next week.