WEBMASTERS COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

April 12, 2005

Present: Jamie Bethel, Marty Fettman, Charlie Kerlee, Jill Lenz, Erin Napier, Linda Tarnoff, Sallie Varner, Merry Wright

Jamie Bethel, Chair, began the meeting at 9:00 am.

Old Business

  1. We reviewed these recent college site's strengths and weaknesses with a focus on information flow, navigation, layout, text style and size, colors, graphics, typos, etc. Please note, some page content was not available yet.

    Brochure (Linda Tarnoff)
    http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/cvmbs/brochure/index.htm
    Comments: Like the colors, easy on the eyes. Clean look. Tom Harmon gave webmasters access to pages in this directory to keep their section updated. Jamie reminded everyone that when updating, to take down the most recent copy from the web server, update locally, then reload so they are working with the most recent copy.

    IVAPM (Pete Hellyer and Tara Raske)
    http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/ivapm/
    Comments: Like clean, simple design. Like animal collage with sepia tone. Where does it link from - Charlie said he added it to the Clinical Sciences page. Marty mentioned that it is an approved CSU Center and Pain Control is being used for a marketing tool. Suggests a link from the College Home Page, but does it belong under centers like the Animal Cancer Center or it is a separate academy? Videos in the Windows Media Video (wvx) format don't work on Macs also can't screen capture this movie format to capture a frame as a still picture. Would it be better to have the movies embedded on the page?

    Movies were created by Ron Bend from CSU Office of Instructional Services (OIS) Video Production and the movies are hosted on the OIS streaming server. We noticed the movie showed on the laptop but did not project to the screen through the projector. It's a memory issue with the laptop that can be worked around by toggling to "projector display only" vs. "projector and laptop display" with the laptop's function keys. On Dell laptops it's the function key held down in combination with the F8 key. Remember that this key may be different on each brand of laptop. On Sony laptops it's usually the F7 key.

    Wilusz Lab (Lesley Jones and Carol Wilusz)
    http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/mip/wiluszlab/index.htm
    Comments: Simple, colorful. No information up front. Shouldn't the most important critical info be on the home page, perhaps the "What We Do" content, when it's written, should appear on the home page? Or maybe the mailing address is most critical because samples are mailed in? What does the graphic mean? The logo takes up a lot of room height-wise causing a lot of scrolling to get to the content. This look doesn't use the standard college template, any concerns? At this level, it's OK to let them deviate from the template. Designers of these lower level pages appreciate this freedom to deviate.

    Tjalkens Lab (Ron Tjalkens)
    http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/erhs/tjalkenslab/
    Comments: Nice consistent navigation on left and top. Like colors and contrast. Erin mentioned the faculty feedback she gets consistently says they like the consistent navigation with only the content in the middle changing, seems to be the preferred style. What's the "Lorem ipsum" content? In the design world it's used as a content holder until content is provided. Merry will remind Ron about providing content. Not enough contrast between content text and background . . . maybe the left navigation with a different color or different font to differentiate between content and navigation. Jamie reminded everyone that colors look different on different monitors depending on the user's monitor settings.

    Virtual tour of the VTH (Charlie Kerlee)
    http://csuvets.colostate.edu/VTHTour/index.htm
    Comments: Very nice. Good job. Charlie mentioned that Dr. Lee has concerns about the map being too accurate for security reasons. The navigation corresponds to the order of the Annual Open House Tour. Add "next" and "previous" links in addition to the current navigation "Return to Main Page" button. Make text "Take Whole Tour" be a link. Charlie still has 10 more to shoot, using a digital still camera then stitching the images together. How about shots of "clean" surgeries. Dr. Lee doesn't like the horse alone in the barn. The attendant actually with the horse was cut out when the images were stitched together. Many liked the horse on the Computed Tomography (CT) VR movie, showing the public the kind of high-tech equipment and procedures at the VTH. The movie sizes range from 400-700 KB and take about 1.5 minutes to download on a 56K modem. How about a still picture as a placeholder that links to the movie. Charlie will discuss with Ron Bend.

    Equine Hospital Web Site (created by outside web designer Amanda Simmons for Dean Hendrickson.)
    http://csuvets.colostate.edu/equinehospital/
    Comments: Nice design and graphics. Equine Repro Faculty - why is only one faculty person listed, what about Squires, McCue, Carnevale, etc? Why is there no link to http://equinescience.colostate.edu/repro/ from this page? Why is there no link to http://equinescience.colostate.edu/nutr/ from Equine Nutrition? Sallie maintains these Equine Sciences pages and will contact Amanda regarding the links. How about links to completely different sites outside the college, such as those mentioned above, open in a new window so the user still has a window open to the Equine Hospital?

    University Relations – take a look at what is going on someplace else on campus
    http://universityrelations.colostate.edu/
    Comments: annoying images floating across page. Unnecessary stuff, music and sound effects. Flashing pictures are way too much. Is there some way to stop the music if you've been here before? Didn't realize these images were brochure covers until half way through. Don't like the UR logo. Like the layout, left hand navigation and simple top navigation of What, Who, Take.

    Side note: Many favorable comments on the MIP April 1st online newsletter edition. The article "Mac is Back" was a favorite April Fool's story. Erin, MIP webmaster, and Jeff Wilusz brainstorm together for topics and Jeff does most of the writing. There are many content-rich and timely items from the newsletter that could be featured on the MIP home page. We briefly looked a the MIP homepage and the Microbiology Student Association homepage.

New Business

  1. We reviewed the CVMBS homepage rotating content. Everyone liked it. There is a javascript that randomizes some .js files that are then displayed. Each time the homepage is loaded different content comes up. There is a top and a bottom content script. Having rotating content allows for more topics to be displayed on the homepage. Everyone liked the layout of two items displayed at a time to keep it tidy. Text used for links are well-written in understandable language, not too scientific. Jamie first experimented with doing this in Flash but Flash content is not easy to make accessible. This Javascript code is more accessible and validates with the W3C online validator.

    We discussed what kind of content should go into the rotating content area, such as what level of importance warrants display. What has been currently displayed, from internal events such as seminar series and the annual faculty/staff meeting to public news items from E-Insight, the college's monthly online newsletter written by Carol Borchert, were liked. Currently, most of the items come from E-Insight or Linda Tarnoff with news from the Dean's Office. This month was packed with news items, but this is not always the case. Jamie asked that everyone, especially webmasters and secretaries, feed him content on a regular basis. Marty suggested Jamie talk to Paul and JoEllen in the Office of Development for getting additional items on a monthly basis.

Reminder from Charlie about the "Projector Shootout" this Thursday, April 14th from 9-11 AM in room A234 at the VTH. Three vendors will showcase approximately seven different ultra portable projectors. Anyone attending is welcome to bring image and video files to compare projectors.

The meeting concluded at 10:00 am.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 10th, 9:00-10:00 am, W1 A/Z.

Minutes submitted by Jill Lenz.

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