Minutes (Nov. 7, 2007) Web Advisory Committee

Present: Alan Miller, Kat Myers, Dr. Keith Krolick, Debbie Valle, Lydia Leos, Katie Prentice, Roseanne Hurst, Dr. Ivon Foster, Doug Hartzler, Dr. Christine Burke, Tim Presley, Mary Yanes and Jim Barrett.

Katie Prentice, substituting for the chair, called the meeting to order. Committee members approved the Oct. 11 minutes.

Jim Barrett presented the webmaster's report. He said:

• Traffic on the two institutional servers rose 39 percent in October over the same month in 2006.
• A mailing list has been created for "hands-on" web developers to relay information about the university web redesign.
• The switchover of the Campus Calendar to new software could be possible as early as January.
• The Faculty Profiles project to incorporated eCV data had progressed in the past year, and would soon be released for evaluation by on-campus users.
• A parent had sent email asking where to find the academic calendar. Mr. Barrett said the calendars for the schools are available, but are not prominently displayed. He asked the group for its opinion about the need for more prominent links or locating links on specific pages.

In new business, Doug Hartzler asked the members whether they would be willing to evaluate the usefulness and design of the university portal in conjunction with the web redesign project. Mr. Hartzler said January or February would be good timeframe, and that the portal itself would soon have more capabilities because of software upgrades under way. The committee members expressed interest in helping.

In old business, Mr. Barrett presented a report on the usage of two Spanish-language pages added in August 2006. He said the committee agreed at the time to create the pages with the understanding it would review how often the pages were used. Usage over the past 15 months totaled 258 page views for one page, and 1,425 page views for the other. He asked whether the usage supported keeping a link to the pages in a prominent position on the home page. After brief discussion, the committee agreed to reduce prominence of the link but keep it on the home page.

Mr. Barrett introduced a new member of the committee, Dr. Christine Burke of the Office of Technology Ventures. Dr. Burke gave a brief overview of the office, and said it was expanding its scope to help market research technologies developed by several regional entities, including the Health Science Center and The University of Texas at San Antonio.

Before adjourning, the committee listened to updates on any web-site redesigns in progress. Ms. Prentice said the library had begun usability testing for its planned new site. She said library personnel had employed a method of testing how people associate word descriptions with services, and how they should appear on a web page. The committee discussed usability concepts, and testing methods. Mr. Barrett asked whether the library might be able to demonstrate its testing methodology at another committee meeting.

There was no other business, and the meeting was adjourned.

-- Minutes prepared by Jim Barrett

-- Approved Dec. 6, 2007