Present: Dr. Bob Badgett, Bonnie O'Connor, Elaine Demps, Kat Myers, Alan Miller, Georgina Perez, Wayne Loftus, Mike Runnels, Anna Maloy, Jim Barrett
The acting chair, Bonnie O'Connor, opened the meeting, and received approval of the minutes from the Dec. 21 meeting. She asked Jim Barrett to give the webmaster's report. Barrett reported on the upcoming web effectiveness study, and the addition of Wusage 8.0 as the statistical logging software for the two institutional web servers. Barrett also presented a report he compiled that showed 50 percent of the university's 153 web sites meet minimum standards for accessibility. There being no new business, O'Connor moved to old business, and asked for comments about proposed changes to a draft of the Health Science Center web accessibility policy. Barrett said he had removed a reference saying web pages would be viewable in what was termed "older browsers." Members had asked at the Dec. 21 meeting whether browser versions could be specified. Barrett said the goal of accessibility law is to make information viewable on any browser. The group agreed on striking the reference to "older browsers," partly because it was vague. The group also reached consensus to remove a statement that web pages would be built so they could be used by browsers that do not run scripts. The committee agreed to pass the remaining draft to the Computing Resources Committee for its approval. O'Connor then presented an introduction to web usability principles as part of a demonstration of Camtasia, software that tracks how test subjects navigate web sites. Wayne Loftus of the library showed the group how to operate the program, and he recorded a sample web-site visit and played it back for the group to see. The library used Camtasia to test its resdesigned web site last year, O'Connor said. O'Connor said Camtasia would be used in upcoming usability testing of the institutional web site along with interviews of Health Science Center students and employees. They will be asked about their preferences in educational and health web sites. O'Connor distributed a list of possible questions, and invited suggestions from the group. She said she hoped the interviewing would be finished in February. Dr. Badgett suggested asking about the value of links to content about faculty members' specialties, and health information of special interest to South Texas. Barrett said he would like to add some interview subjects who are not employees or students. The group agreed to schedule its next meeting for 10:30-11:30 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 15. The acting chair adjourned the meeting. -- Minutes prepared by Jim Barrett-- Approved 2/15/02