UW Business School Web Editors Blog

Web Steering Committee 1_3_07

2007-01-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

Old Business
New writers
i. Clark is interviewing; hire by second week of Jan.
ii. Steve has new writer
Faculty & Research: Steve
i. Call into L. Schall re: accreditation in order to get valuable content for faculty & research Web site
ii. New stories needed on Fac & Depts landing: Ann to add
iii. Admins will do updates to Academic Dept sites & keep bios up to date
Alternate text for home page message area: Steve drafted one on exec ed and MBA programs

Web Projects Update
MBA: Ann & Andrea developing sample content
CISB: Deanna has done a great job developing new content, with help from Rick and Ann; will showcase at next Web Editors Forum
ISOM: stopped development due to content ownership issues. Ann will isolate examples and issues and take to Vicki/Pete (see below)

New Business
Content ownership discussion: determine highest level of decision-making needed and meet with these stakeholders, giving examples of types of inconsistencies or overlap/duplication of content between sites. Eventually develop written guidelines for “content ownership”

Comprehensive Style/Identity Guide: Cornell’s Johnson School

Web Steering Committee Agenda

2006-12-11T09:20:00.000-08:00

Mon., Dec. 11
1:30 – 2:30 – Lewis Conference Room

Old Business
Faculty & Research on the Web (Steve) -1:30 – 1:55
Style Guide – default font (Clark) - 1:55 - 2:00
Home Page – MBA/exec marketing msg. (Clark) 2:00 – 2:05
New Business
RSS Feeds (Paul) 2:05 – 2:15
Resources for Content Development (Ann) - 1:55 – 2:00
Web Projects update (Ann) 2:15 – 2:30

Web Credibility: Will they believe you?

2006-11-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

B.J. Fogg is the usability expert at Stanford that I told the Web Editors about at our recent forum meeting. Here's a nice "top ten" list from him.

Web Editors Forum: Oct 18, 2006

2006-11-15T11:52:00.000-08:00

1. IT update (Mick): Vista will not be delivered to school until bundling of all the pieces (e.g. Office 7.0) is done. Reservation system underway; for conference room and projector reservations and to replace Tim Yao’s student reservation system. Staging server is up and running and Terry and Drew are creating a new development environment on it; it will also be a place to “stage” Web site changes.
2. Style Guide Update (Clark): did not attend
3. Kiosk Project (Drew): Undergrads and MBAs will have kiosks in their café/lounges that highlight events and other content specific to them. Will also post one in lobby to replace faculty photos.
4. Profile gallery (Rick): Thumbnail gallery to be posted on intranet for use of profiles and photos on any of the school’s Web site. Rick to check with Communications on dating the stories so we don’t post a “student profile” for someone who has graduated.
5. Web Projects Update (Ann)
a. SEO handout circulated
i. Vendor selection underway
ii. Content development huge bottleneck
iii. See progress chart circulated
c. Update from Web Steering
i. Exploring better Faculty & Research positioning
ii. Two new half-time writer positions in Communications and Marketing
d. ISOM re-do progress
i. Need for a mentor photo
ii. May provide a model for other academic departments
e. Rochester Conference highlights
i. Presentation and handouts from conference
ii. Ann delivered presentation on the “end of the Web as we know it”

Wisdom from Jakob Nielsen

2006-11-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

Notes from Nielsen's newsletter....

Breadcrumbs and Windows Vista
If you heard Tjeerd Hoek's talk about Windows Vista at our Seattle conference (or if you're going to hear him in London on Wednesday), you might have noticed a small interface element that he didn't even discuss
much: breadcrumbs.

For Web designers, this means that the time is over when you had to discuss whether to use breadcrumbs. The answer is clear now: yes, use breadcrumbs if your IA lends itself to hierarchical navigation. Most users will become accustomed to using breadcrumbs to navigate their own files, so they will know and expect this feature on websites as well.

Hopefully somebody will release a Web-widget to give online breadcrumbs the same cross-hierarchy menus found in Vista. But even plain breadcrumbs will gain increased usability next year, simply from people's experience on their PC.

Web Steering Committee, Nov. 1 2006

2006-11-02T09:54:00.000-08:00

New Business
Web Projects Update (Ann)
Higher Ed Web Dev: Ann showed presentation on futurist's view of Web and will make all other presentations available from this blog after they are posted to the High Ed Web Dev site

MBA update: Vendor selection underway. Content development is biggest bottleneck. Marketing writer not available until Dec. due to delays in hiring a second half time writer. Communications committed to the print guide on faculty.

Other Web News
Home page: Marketing will write up messages on MBA, etc.
Ann suggested all, especially press release writers and research posters, use the Fair Use tool developed by U of Minn Libraries

Style Guide Update (Clark): will talk more about standard font being Verdana

Old Business
Pete Dukes’ intranet request: Will go on Sharepoint when that product is released. Tabled for now.
Faculty & Research presence on Web site (Steve)
· Raise awareness of school
· Lots of variation on faculty profile pages: Suresh is stellar example. To stimulate more activity, Tom suggests that admins take on that job responsibility. He’s happy to kick off. Set mtg w/Taunya, Tom, Steve, Ann
· Look at Stanford to improve our presence since we won’t have a research engine soon.
· Clark working on 110-page book with downloaded info of faculty Web content. Discovered things aren’t up to date. Book: each dept list of faculty, index and areas of expertise. Result = clean, accurate bio of each person. Tom to help with hold outs. Audience of book = media, recruiters, and donors. (last one was 1986) Due out at end of year if back and forth works.
· Better text on what a research institution we are, Paul suggests. Nice to know if we have faculty with expertise in particular subject.
· Group suggests that Communications go through current Business magazine, flag and re-purpose the content, e.g. quotes, photos, etc., awards, research....and post on Web
· Profiles will be demo’d at next Web editor’s forum. Similar to image database. Ann to ask Rick

Web Steering Committee - October 4, 2006

2006-10-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

MBA Renovation Project update (Ann)
Content development status
i. Project delayed. Phase 3 dependent upon budget which wasn’t approved until 10 days ago, so working with vendor on navigation schema, site mapping, CSS stylesheets, etc. can’t happen yet. Also tremendous need for content development. Marketing has taken on majority – kudos to them! MBA staff is swamped and can’t write for another 2 weeks.
ii. Need for faculty content: Request writing assistance for this area of the MBA project.
iii. Sharepoint status (Mick): Beta version should be available for us soon (Mick to check with Spencer). Enables groups/teams to collaborate online in a share of a server, w/o IT intervention.

RFP draft spec: Mick is working w/Purchasing on how to expedite vendor selection.

Web Projects update (Ann)
Faculty Advisory (Tom): Jim and others in this group now recognizing importance of the Web, especially MBA project and incoming freshman. Tom will help “crank up the heat” to speed MBA project.
Redesign of ISOM : Ann presented this to Faculty Advisory group but discussion mostly diverted to bigger issues. Hope to get buy-in from other depts. on ISOM as a model; good progress in identifying a single point of contact for each dept., rather than one person for 5 depts.
New pages: CIE, CISB, Alumni Regional Events, RMP registration, BCCN. Ann’s efforts over past month have gone here.
Strengthening SPOC model: continuing progress, see b. above
Higher Ed Web Conference: Ann will present again in Rochester in late October.

New Business
Pete Duke’s intranet request (Clark): Mick and Clark will discuss with Pete, arranging for Sharepoint as a collaboration tool. Clark will supply content.

Old Business
Faculty & Research on the Web (Steve): Steve led a discussion about the potential value of having these topics more prominent on the Web. Tom cited three: new faculty, media, people looking for distribution of research. Discussion to be continued at next steering committee meeting.
Style Guide (Clark). Group needs to meet again. Paul is working on a text version. Group handled logo question.
Home Page (Clark). Clark presented mockup. Will get Steve H’s approval of messaging and we’ll implement.

Web Editors Forum - Wed, Aug. 20, 2006

2006-09-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

IT update (Mick)

Registration system underway working w/Sam: scoping before RFP to vendors
Scheduling of equip. & rms: looking at outside solution
Sharepoint to replace mapped drives (late Beta)
Content dev. process - .net 2.0 underway
Office 2007& Vista: ship Nov.-big implications for training our community

Web Projects Update (Ann)

Status and importance of SPOC model
All project requests to Ann (SPOC) who will allocate resources. Know that priorities are set in a queue that gets exceptionally full at the start of school year. Please give adequate lead time and/or up your expertise to make your own updates in DW.
Good progress on getting SPOCs for areas of our Web site. Example: Sarah Massey on About the School
MBA update
Content migration plan done and content development beginning.
Budget of outside consultant to be hired in a month or so.
Project priorities and process
Use spoc process
Priorities: top of list is always MBA. More than 13 major projects in the queue right now.
Developer project/ priorities (Drew)
Drew shared “cool” corner of IN
Designer projects/priorities (Rick)
Studying CSS table-less design vis a vis accessibility
Awaiting content on projects

Style Guide Update (Clark)

Last mtg cancelled; nothing new
Paul working on a text version of guide
Goal is to replace bschool.css
Verdana is body copy font
Suggestion Box (Rick)
Use this to report problems on pages

Demo (cont’d): Using CSS to Build Pages without Tables (Drew)

MBA project will pilot this much cleaner approach to building pages

Showcase – Sarah’s cards

Prep for redoing navigation by working with cards of content to sort and Visio to chart new nav paths

Web Steering Committee: Aug. 2 Meeting Notes

2006-08-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

1. MBA Renovation Project update (Ann):
Shared activities of third phase; creation of the content map and buy-in on new information architecture from all key internal stakeholders. Working on detailed outline of content with Marketing and MBA staffs. Good participation from all. Project is on track, hoping for budget approval to hire consultants for site mapping, new nav schema, and design mock ups.
2. Old Business:
a. (Clark) Style Guide – Group has still not been able to meet; hope to meet this week
i. When will Web policy on logos & links be posted on intranet? TBD?
1. Clark asked about policies at Corp Council mtg
2. Style guide group will offer guidelines & templates at next forum
3. Clark will amend draft policy & discuss at next WEF
4. Discussion of any exclusions/exemption from policy for major donors

b. (Clark) Home page: Clark will write a mission/description paragraph to circulate for review & for Rick to include in mock up; Clark will call together the home page group for subsequent meeting

c.(Tom) Budgets & priorities
i. Decisions underway; cuts underway
ii. Mktg hopes to cut ops, not position for half-time writer for Web
iii. Mick must make cut of $150,000

3. (Ann) Wed Editor Assignments
a. Support for the SPOC model; progress made
b. Clark reports that Sarah Massey will help out with writing & Web editing; no projection on budget to hire new writer in Comm
c.Ann to discuss Web editor roles for faculty & depts. with Taunya
d. Ann to discuss GBC Web editorship with center’s staff

Web Editors Forum: Wed, Aug 16, 10-11, McCabe

2006-08-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

1. IT and MBA Project Update (Ann)

Intro and orientation for new Web editors
Staging Server
Status of registration forms (Drew)
Sharepoint ahead

2. Style Guide Update (Clark)
3. Demo: How to insert logo into PowerPoint and Word (Rick)
4. Demo: Deleting old pages (Paul)
5. Demo (cont’d): Using CSS to Build Pages without Tables (Drew)
6. Showcase - GBC's new conference pages (Krista)

FERPA Guidelines

2006-08-07T16:45:00.000-07:00

Here's info from UW on what you can and can't post about a student:

http://www.washington.edu/students/reg/ferpafac.html

W3C Guidelines for Clarity & Simplicity

2006-07-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

Take a quick look at some guidelines that will improve communication on your pages.

Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site's content. See Comprehension
Supplement text with graphic or auditory presentations where they will facilitate comprehension of the page. See Comprehension
Create a style of presentation that is consistent across pages. See: Navigation
See CSS Techniques: Decrease maintenance and increase consistency

Web Editors Forum: July Meeting Notes

2006-07-18T08:37:00.000-07:00

Agenda
Wed., July 19, 2006
10:00 – 11:00 – Balmer 212

1. IT Update (Mick)
2. File Naming Best Practices(Mick)

Mick had a schedule conflict and was unable to attend.
3. MBA Project Update (Ann)

Ann described progress in MBA Web site renovation project, and discussed the technique of card sorting to derive categories of content from target audiences. Also discussed use of outside consultants to assist with interaction design and navigation that could result in a new MBA site, and in turn provide a model for other programs to follow.

4. Tips & Techniques (Ann)
Ann shared Michael Stoner's presentation on the redesign process. See mStoner

5. Demo: Using CSS to Build Pages without Tables (Drew)

Drew introduced the idea of using CSS rather than nested tables to format Web pages. Questions about the advantages. For some answers here's info from evolt.org by Craig Salia. Or here's the short version of a justification:

... three common reasons are presented again and again:

Semantics: The HTML table was conceived as a means to display tabular data. Using tables for layout was mentioned in HTML 3.2, but only to acknowledge existing use—the concept didn't appear in the original RFC. In future recommendations, the W3C said style sheets, not tables, should be used for layout. Using tables for layouts is like wearing dress shoes jogging—both work, but they're the wrong tools for the job.
Accessibility: Screen readers and text browsers struggle to read table-based layouts. In fact, the W3C, in its Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, explicitly says “[d]o not use tables for layout...” A tableless-layout designed using CSS can present the most appropriate, and usable design for each user agent—be it a cell phone, a screen reader, a TV-based browser, or a browser running on a desktop computer.
Efficiency: For both the site developer and the reader, a CSS-based design offers a degree of flexibility nearly impossible in restrictive table-based layouts. Not only can developers quickly and easily redesign an entire site by modifying one file, they can also present alternate designs for the reader. Separating content from the detailed structure table-based layouts provide, has the added benefit of future compatibility and portability.

6. Showcase - GBC's new conference pages (Krista) - tabled until next meeting due to room conflict.

Stanford's Top Ten for Web Success

2006-06-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

http://credibility.stanford.edu/guidelines/index.html

Take a look at this list of ten factors that influence users in a positive way - ideas come from research done by BJ Fogg and his team at Stanford's Persuasive Technology Lab.

Web Steering Committee Notes (6/7/06)

2006-06-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

Attendees: Bangs, Westrick, Gibson, Kromer (McCann arriving late, Vandor out sick)

Old Business

Style Guide: Meeting had not taken place as of June 7, but Clark said he would move forward on this. (Meeting set of 6/12.)

Vanity URLs: Marketing will continue to use vanity URLs for graduate programs due to their established usefulness for marketing purposes. No strong objection to this.

Home page re-design: No meeting as of June 7. Clark said he would move forward on this. (Rick wrequests space set up on a separate server to test ideas.)

New Business

Marketing and Communications each plan to ask for budget for .5 to 1 FTE in postiions focused on content development for the Web.

Nielsen on Email Newsletters

2006-06-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

Jakob Nielsen has a new study out on email newsletter efficacy. Not many of us could afford to purchase the full report but there are good highlights in the digest. For example, ...

the average time allocated to a newsletter after opening it was only 51 seconds. "Reading" is not even the right word, since participants fully read only 19% of newsletters. The predominant user behavior was scanning. Often, users didn't even scan the entire newsletter: 35% of the time, participants only skimmed a small part of the newsletter or glanced at the content.
People were highly inclined to skip the introductory blah-blah text in newsletters...

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/newsletters.html

Web Steering Committee Notes: May 3, 2006

2006-05-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

Old Business

Policies: Logos and linking
i. Recognition that some programs want to acknowledge corporate sponsors on Web sites. Discussion about how to appropriately use text links or logos to do this.

ii. Clark will discuss further with Steve Hatting. Clark will ask Steve to take the wider issue of corporate sponsorship recognition (Web and other) to the Executive Committee. Clark will hold policy draft until then.

iii. Style guide group will recommend possible treatments for sponsor recognition on Web sites (Ann will forward a wireframe for sponsor material for new GBC Trade Policy Forum)

iv. Clark will report back to Web steering in June.
Style Guide –(reported to Web Editors Forum on 4/19 under that still under construction/consideration were photo gallery template, student clubs page logo, contact info presentation) Follow-up: Group hasn’t been able to meet. Clark will call a meeting for next week, for possible firming up of these issues to be presented to Web Editors Forum on 5/17

Projects

i. BEDP status –Launched new site 4/20/06

ii. MBA project – Phase I project report submitted to Dan Poston 4/20/06. Ann will forward to Clark et al (pending Dan’s review.)

iii. GBC – has asked for a new site for Forum on Trade Policy. Ann re-doing info architecture and Mick assigning new URLs in anticipation of cleaning up whole site over the summer, but Krista is swamped now.

Vanity URLs
Issue of vanity urls is outstanding. Revisit at next meeting when Mick is present.

Home page
(After review of mockups at last meeting, consensus that progress has been slow, and we should abandon effort for now with possibility of making re-do part of a larger re-design, if Web Steering deems such a priority for 2006-07.) Clark will call meeting to revisit issue with Rick, Steve, Paul, and Ann, following next style guide meeting.

New Business
Project and budget priorities for FY 07 - Discussion

Redesign project(s) for FY 07 – Discussion of MBA project recommendations at year’s end setting a course for other sites to possibly follow, pending availability of resources and buy-in broadly across school.

ACTION ITEM: IT, Marketing, and Communications bring budget items related to above discussion to next meeting.

Email Tips from Bob Johnson

2006-04-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

From Bob Johnson's email marketing newsletter:

"... what makes email effective today. Some of the "new basics" include simplicity and directness of copy, avoidance of graphics that interfere with the message in the copy, and the return of "double opt-in" steps to help build in-house email lists.

One emerging practical tip: a trend to large font size for basic text. Expect to see more email using 12 point fonts this year, reflecting the fact that text content is the most important element."

Google Analytics Update

2006-04-19T14:37:00.000-07:00

Excerpt below from the Google Analytics blog. Apparently, just having a gmail account which used to authorize you is no longer enough. An invitation codes are now required. If you can't see our reports in GA, do some sleuthing and see if you can find an invitation code.

There has been such a huge demand for this free tool that, as Timothy posted last week, Google Analytics invitation codes have started showing up on eBay. With increased capacity for new accounts, this might mean that new sign-ups won't have to wait quite as long as before to get a peek into their website's performance, and they might not have to resort to bidding wars. So, if (for whatever reason) you've been waiting to sign up, now's the time.
All the above changes are being rolled out to all Google Analytics users and should be available in their accounts currently, or within the next few days.
What do you think about the new features? How are you planning on using them in your current Google Analytics setup? Any feature requests that didn't make it into this round of updates? We'd love to hear what you have to say.

Ann

Web Editors Forum: Wed. Apr. 19, 10 - 11: McCabe

2006-04-18T14:29:00.001-07:00

1. Announcements/Status of Ongoing Projects

a. Dreamweaver Training, May 2
b. IT Notes – Mick
c. MBA Project – Ann
d. Style Guide - under construction/consideration: photo gallery template, student clubs page logo, contact info presentation
e. Google Analytics - anyone have news?

2. Demos

a. Link colors - Drew
b. asp forms - Drew
c. File naming – Mick

3. Showcase - BEDC - Wil

Web Steering Committee Notes

2006-04-05T08:08:00.000-07:00

Meeting Notes
Wed., April 5, 2006
10:00 – 11:00 McKenzie 367
Excused: Tom Lee, Ed Kromer, Mick Westrick

1. MBA Project Update (Ann) Compiling results, impressions and data from first phase (research & discovery) of MBA site renovation project. Expect a first phase report to Dan Poston in the new two weeks.

2. Google Analytics (Ann) Encourage all to send Ann a google mail address if you want to review reports and learn to use GA for your own purposes. Request by Steve Bangs for a separate session just on this technology. Let's do this after all have had a chance to play with it for awhile. Communications will track posting dates of various press releases in order to get from GA the kind of data they'd like to see, rather than employing wireframe or page archiving. Advent of Contribute (a step beyond wireframes) may help Communications and other departments and programs automate content updates and tracking.

3. Home Page (Clark) Review of mockups. Discussion revealed various levels of satisfaction with existing home page, and thus with how/why/whether we should proceed with changes. Consensus that progress has been slow, and we should abandon effort for now with possibility of making re-do part of a larger re-design, if Web Steering deems such a priority for 2006-07.

4. Web Editor Assignments (Postponed until next meeting.)

Forum Notes: Wed. Mar 15

2006-03-13T14:10:00.000-08:00

First a reminder from Jakob Nielsen:

What's the common theme in ...usability problems? They all involve simple usability principles that have been the same for ten years. None of them involve advanced "Web 2.0" technology; none would be fixed by implementing any of the fancy stuff that everybody's talking about. Indeed, the biggest design flaws ... involve:

• Communicating clearly so that users understand you. Users allocate minimal time to initial website visits, so you must quickly convince them that the site's worthwhile.
• Providing information users want. Users must be able to easily determine whether your services meet their needs and why they should do business with you.
• Offering simple, consistent page design, clear navigation, and an information architecture that puts things where users expect to find them.

Meeting Notes
• Style guidelines updates
Clark will have a specific proposal on how to post contact info on your pages. Soon will offer a template for photo galleries on site. More next month.

•Display of email template on handheld devices (Rick)
See Rick's write up on the intranet

• Web editing process (Ann)
See the slide show at:
http://intranet.bschool.washington.edu/WEF/WEF%203_15.ppt

• Template for student clubs (Paul)
There's a nice forms-based template available through Catalyst for any of your students who want to create a nice club site. Paul will meet with IT and work out usage and a log on for students wanting this. He'll recommend a student club "logo" to use on these pages. More next month.

link to Catlyst tools http://catalyst.washington.edu/ and to the tech report http://catalyst.washington.edu/projects/edtech_2005report.html

• Google Analytics reporting demo (Ann)
Report access requires that you have a gmail account. Send this to Ann when you get it."Msg from Karen: Ann, apparently I can invite 3 people to join gmail, so if any of the web editors need an account, I have a few to offer."

Dreamweaver Training

2006-02-23T11:52:00.000-08:00

Next Intro to Dreamweaver (Code R550, Cost $162/81) offered by C & C is scheduled for Wed. Mar 29. After that, May 2.

Inside Page Links: A Nielsen Opinion

2006-02-23T10:32:00.000-08:00

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for February 21 is now online at:
> http://www.useit.com/alertbox/within_page_links.html

Summary:
On the Web, users have a clear mental model for a hypertext link:
it should bring up a new page.
Within-page links violate this model and thus cause confusion.

Web Editors Forum: Web Feb 15

2006-02-13T14:49:00.000-08:00

Wed., Feb. 15, 2005
10:00 – 11:00 – BAEEC 310

1. IT Update on vanity URLs (Mick)
Please consult with Mick when you want a new URL name. He or Paul can help you get it created on UW servers. Reminder that we'll be building toward a less horizontal directory structure, e.g. a new folder called CS (Current Students) will have sub folders for MBA, EMBA, etc.

2. Events Calendar (Drew & Samantha)
Nice presentation on this new goody. You can enter events on admin page. Plan to create a nice page for the event itself if you use the [more...] designation on the detailed event notice, linkable from within the calendar; don't just paste up a pdf or document. For Calendar 2.0, will add integration of intenal and external calendars, examine possibility of certain centers being able to list outside events on their calendars, add permissions on admin page, and supply online registration.

3. Follow up on Google code workshops (Drew)
Good participation of editors working with Drew to insert the Google Analytics code. Contact him - if you don't enter it, you won't know what kind of hits your pages are getting.

4. Draft: Staff Profiles (Rick)
Send content to Rick and Ann if you want to create profiles (paste this link)
http://intranet.bschool.washington.edu/templates/staff_profiles/template1.html

5. Update on logos and linking policy (Clark)
Clark advises don't use logos without checking with him and avoid linking to companies without good reason. He'll continue to work with Web Steering on draft policy. Rick advises: if you use a co. logo, be sure to get hi-res (eps) image.

6. Usability testing demo (Ann)
Tina was a brave guinea pig and we demo'd the use of Camtasia and the rationale of usability testing.

7. Showcase - none

2006-02-01T11:55:00.000-08:00

Web Steering Committee
Wed., Feb. 1, 2006 10:00 – 11:30

Old Business

a. Logos and linking - Clark to discuss corporate partner and funding level with CIE and to discuss policy again at next Web Editors Forum

b. BEDP status - Edits done. Get wireframes from Wil for mock up.

c. Vanity URLs - Issue of vanity urls is outstanding. Revisit at next meeting

Web projects review (Ann)
a. CIE - Discussion of requests including vanity URL TBD. Request for staff profile. Decision: All school programs will use a version of the Faculty Profile page adapted for staff. Ann to ask Rick to create template.

b. MBA- Student survey results coming in. Intangibles (mission, philosophy, student life ) are important in addition to app checklist and program details. Usability testing starting Thursday.

c. Events calendar - Consensus that outside events should not appear on school calendar. Discussion to be cont’d; Mick working on a solution that might allow programs to enter additional events on their sites, without having to do it manually, i.e. by some added module that might be developed for Events engine.

d. RMP

Marketing presentation (Steve & Paul)
a. Microsites- Paul and Steve demo’d these; very effective for direct marketing.

b. MBA messaging - Redo of MBA brochure scheduled for summer will allow for parallel development of MBA site redesign and for leveraging of content. Ann asks that Paul create a database of quotes and photos as the brochure is developed that can be used o n the Web, in addition to the full profile stories

Home page discussion - Web Steering send list of top ten content items for home page BY FEB. 8. Ann to bring various mock ups to next meeting.

In the Blink of an Eye

2006-01-18T08:53:00.000-08:00

A new Canadian study reports that users give Web sites a thumbs up/thumbs down assessment in less than the blink of an eye. Read it here.

Web Editors Forum Jan. Minutes

2006-01-17T13:23:00.001-08:00

IT Update – Mick: Happy to report that because headers are more effectively coded, UW Business School is now turning up tops in Google with search for "UW Business School."
Photo Update – Clark: Clark will convene a meeting of Rick, Drew, Paul, and Edgar, and any others interested to begin development of a tool and a template for the display of photo galleries on our pages.
Web Update – Ann: Overview of what is expected of a Web Editor; summary of what's happening in Web Steering Committee (policy on student sites; developing draft of policy on logos and linking); status of MBA project - underway with Dan's approval!
Newsletter template demo – Rick: New tutorial and new aspects of style guide to be posted on intranet cover how to do branded emails and e-newsletters. Rick will schedule a workshop on same and also will confirm how template works on handhelds.
Google Analytics code demo - Drew: All editors please make an appt. with Drew (after lunch, any Mon, Tues or Fri.) to review headers, meta tags and to insert Urchin code for Google Analytics. Please do this before next Web Editors Forum!

More on Google Analytics and Miscellany

2006-01-11T11:46:00.000-08:00

Google Analytics Update
Thanks to Paul Gibson as the out-in-front leader on this. With Google's recent addition of profiles, our capacity for getting data from Google Analytics is increasing (as soon as we have IP addresses we'll be able to create reports that exclude internal traffic.)

Before any of this happens, though, we need each of you editors to insert tracking code at the top of every page in your sub-site, which will record hits to the pages. I will send you a Word document that includes the instructions and code.

DOOR PRIZES at next Web Editors Forum (Jan 18) for all the editors who've completed the coding! Don't miss out!!

Word from last Web Steering Committee Meeting
A couple of evolving policies...

Student sites (e.g. clubs) will now be hosted off of our servers. If you'd like to provide links to these sites, this can be done at the discretion of your program or department. The look of the sites may not be brand-compliant but Paul Gibson is creating a suggested template that will help them to adhere to brand and work well as a flexible format. Stay tuned.

URL procurement and vanity URLs. Committee decision: Permission for any new URL or vanity URL will be given by Mick Westrick, IT Director. Contact him with questions. mwestr@u.washington.edu

Agenda for Web Editors Forum 12/21

2005-12-20T08:05:00.000-08:00

1. Communications Update: Photos, Logos, Linking
2. Web Update: Google Analytics, Priority Project, New Tool
3. Workshop: Why CSS with Dreamweaver Can Be Too Easy
4. Showcase: CIE

Web Projects Update

2005-12-14T15:17:00.000-08:00

Web Projects Update

Rick and Drew are doing a great job staying up on the Suggestion Box fixes and doing the ongoing work on big projects such as the Events Calendar and Intranet 2.0.

For 2006, the Executive Committee has taken the recommendation of the Web Steering Committee and designated as a top priority, the renovation of the full-time MBA Web site. Barby, Paul and Ann are doing the pre-planning for the project which kicks off at the start of January. Content changes will continue but in the meantime, we’ll take a “4 x 4” structured approach to reviewing the existing site and recommending changes. More on this later.

Other projects in the queue include a revision of the BEDC (formerly P) site. Reflecting its new name, and a new site map, BEDC will remove much old content and reorganize along the lines of the common navigation/IA that all centers and programs adopted last spring. Clark McCann has offered to work with BEDC on the editing of the wireframes that Ann did based on the new structure. Stay tuned!

Announcement

2005-11-28T09:15:00.000-08:00

Just to let you know that we've signed on to Google Analytics and are testing their new statistics tracking program (they bought Urchin.) More on this at the next Web Editors Forum.

Web Standards

2005-11-17T12:26:00.000-08:00

W3C Members work together to design Web technologies that build upon its universality, giving the world the power to enhance communication and commerce for anyone, anywhere, anytime and using any device.

—Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

As we move toward developing Web sites and technologies that enable us to reach more users on more devices, freeing us from the static page concept of the current Web, WC3 is setting widely adopted standards. Their info on Accessibility and CSS alone provide strong direction for moving our site forward. Don't get bogged down in the detail, but do scan for helpful tidbits.

Web Editor Forum Meeting Notes

2005-11-17T10:56:00.000-08:00

Summary of Web Editors Forum
Wed, Nov. 16

Best dressed award: Paul Gibson
Cutest newcomer: Tracy Dittman, CIE
Site remodel survivor award: Lauren Witt
Next target for site remodel: Watch out! Wil Tutol
Quote of the day: We’re thinking great literature and they’re thinking ‘billboard at 90 mph.’ – Steve Krug

Wednesday’s Forum took place around a grand table in the Douglas Forum.

We heard from Mick that IRM is underway, and got an update on recent CIE remodel.

Ann presented an overview of seminars on usability by Steve Krug (www.sensible.com) and on IA by Lou Rosenfeld (www.louisrosenfeld.com/) on IA. This was followed by an overview of the Higher Ed Web Dev Conference and excerpts from the presentation Ann gave at that conference, which can be viewed at http://bschool.washington.edu/training/HEWebDev.ppt. (Caution: very slow to load). The presentation summarizes how far we’ve come since 2000 with our site and describes the evolution of our distributed model for Web management.

Drew went over training schedules and an impromptu discussion on CSS led to the suggestion that Drew (and Rick, we trust) will give a presentation on selfsame topic at next meeting which is.......

Classroom 310 in BAEEC Wednesday, December 21st, 10 – 11:30

Using Research to Inform a Web Strategy

2005-11-15T10:27:00.000-08:00

Using Research to Inform Your Web Strategy
Doug Tschopp, Augustana College

Secondary Research (research that others do and you use)
• Pew study on Internet and American Life
76% of youth look on the Internet for schools or job training
• First Click – Stamats 2004 – Teens Talk
31% looking for academic majors
11% looking for admissions info
11% looking for ??
8% looking for cost
• Nielsen 2005
Teens like interaction: online questionnaires, feedback forms, blogs, forums
Teens don’t like small fonts any more than adults do
• Usability Problems – GVU – top problems never change
Load speed
Broken links
Inaccessible info

Qualitative Research: “soft” and more subjective.
o Focus groups
o Universities seldom do “real” focus groups, i.e. where a trained facilitator, who can manage a group (groups always have one or more who dominate and skew the results), leads a very structured experience in a lab-like setting.
o Doug – a former marketer trained in focus group facilitation - is suspicious of this as a way to inform Web strategy in higher ed.
o An informal test of design: Poster board with 5 prospective designs put at Admissions Office. Get reactions from students (and parents, if undergrads – millennials still very dependent upon parents)

Quantatative Research:
• Card sorts (we’ll pilot this soon)
• Traffic analysis
• Survey

Born to Be Wired

2005-11-14T07:41:00.000-08:00

My notes from Rochester on Mark Greenfield's (Provost Office/Web Communications SUNY Buffalo) presentation

Emerging Trends
• 3G technology
• Mobile devices
• Broadband everywhere
• Convergence: iPOD, blogging, cell phones, all merge for delivery of content

The End of the Web as We Know It (or here comes Web 2.0)
• The read/write web fades - push instead of pull.
• Users will aggregate their own content. Won’t matter how great your design or IA is, they’ll disregard and build their own from blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, etc.
• Rich media for visual learners. Millenials do not read Web pages!
• Wireless n/w everywhere: Convergence of GPS, Inet, and radio frequency id tags. (Remind me to tell the Tokyo dating story)

Communication Millenial-style
• Good bye email – invites viruses, is asynchronous, spam filters block even msgs you want
• Millenials (duh) are IMing, not emailing – think about it: 30 seconds to set up a meeting vs. all the back and forth of email – it’s synchronous communication
• Gartner Group: IM will surpass email as standard for corporate communications

Blogs
• Millenials much prefer over discussion boards; must have frequent posts!
• Used in higher ed for student recruitment and information dissemination

Podcasting
• Leverage the power of RSS syndication
• TIVO
• Used in higher ed for course-casting
• Other uses? Unclear, undeveloped as yet

Wikis
• Collaborative trust
• Supposed to be able to accelerate projects by 25%
• I’m imagining this works better for some projects, e.g. writing policies, than others

Core traits of Millenials
• Special
• Sheltered
• Confident
• Team-oriented
• Conventional
• Pressured
• Achieving

20% of Millenials in US today have one immigrant parent

RSS
• An engine driving the read/write web
• Power of syndication of content
• User is in control – not the hassle of having to subscribe/unsubscribe to enewsletters
• A way to surf the Web yet deal with info overload (user in control)

References:
Educating the Net Generation (download from Educause)
The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman
The Death of Distance
Cluetrain Manifesto (This is also highly recommended by Kari Chisolm, a great presenter on the Millenials topic)
Millenials Go to College
Permanent White Water
All Marketers are Liars
Naked Conversations

Don't Make Me Think! (again)

2005-11-09T06:15:00.000-08:00

Steve Krug, author of Don't Make Me Think, and the working person's avatar of Jakob Nielsen (aka usability god) delivered the keynote at Higher Ed Web Dev this year. Some highlights:

No imposing instructions above forms

Don't diminish the good will of people using your pages by making them work hard to find content

Higher ed the only arena in which navigation tailored to audience groups makes sense

Notes on good navigation:

Easy to spot, top bar entries should be bigger, left should be smalleer, and sub-lists even smaller (no more than 7 items in any nav - like my rule of 5 to 7)

Must have unique selling proposition on home page: 20 words (!) or less. Why should I want to go to your school? (20 words might include tag line plus the selling prop)

Always distinguish visited and unvisited links by color

My 20 word brainstorm: Seattle, friendly, community, experiential, global, rankings, outcomes/jobs, 3 pillars (?/?). What are some of the key words that you think highlight your program at the UW Business School? Maybe we'll find some commonalities that Communications and Marketing might work with.

Launching Our Blog from Rochester

2005-11-08T12:51:00.000-08:00

Hello Web Editors All

Here's a new way we might keep in touch and share ideas - a blog for our Web Editors Forum. I'd like to start up by posting my notes from the Connections Conference sponsored by Higher Ed Web Dev in Rochester. This may take me a few days but if you're an early adopter, go ahead and post a comment and let me know if you're on board with this blog.

Ann