CVMBS Webpage Redesign Subcommittee Meeting Minutes

May 12, 2003

Members Present: Jamie Bethel, Tom Harmon, Jill Lenz, Mary Pridgen, Sallie Varner

Reports on progress:

Tom Harmon started working on simplified sample flyout menu, and promises to have something ready to show for the June Webmaster's Committee meeting.

Jill Lenz showed us an example she put together of the current page incorporating a Search CSU box and a "Quick Links" dropdown menu. Mary objects to the use of the dropdown menu as she feels it makes the links that much more obscure. The group likes the idea of putting a Search CSU box on the page for now, and wants to explore the possibility of creating a more specialized search engine that would just search the CVMBS pages later on. We want to ask Joe Strecker about that idea. Tom suggested that to eliminate the necessity of using the "back" button to return to CVMBS from the Search CSU link, we create it so that it opens a new window.

Sallie Varner showed us a page she had put some buttons on for the Vet Hospital, PVM Program, and Giving. We again discussed our confusion about why it's the "PVM" program and not the "DVM" program. We want to bring this up in the Webmasters Committee meeting-perhaps Linda Tarnoff knows. Other options for the "Giving" button might be "Online Giving" or "Gift Giving." The group generally liked this idea over the dropdown "Quick Links" option. We want to determine who the web administrator is for the Giving page, as they have the antiquated page banner on their page still. (It may be ACNS?)

Our Objectives for this redesign:

Add a search engine.

Make the page more visually appealing by adding a background of either the caduceus logo or a photo-collage that is faded to make text more visible. Jamie will work on this for our next meeting. Jill tried in Dreamweaver and was unable to make it work.

Make certain items (Giving, PVM Program, VTH) highly visible and navigable on the page.

Simplify the javascript in the flyout menu.

Things we'd like to work toward in the future (but simply haven't got time for now):

Create a page that is more visually appealing, a la Colorado School of Mines page.

The next meeting is scheduled for 3:30 Monday, June 2, 2003 in Jill's office.

Submitted by Mary Pridgen 5/12/03

Return to Webmaster Committee Minutes page