Meeting 6/25/2009

Update on Design Process

• Official revision request has been sent to White Whale
• Second round of homepage design(s) should be finished by Tuesday 6/30

Sharing/Feedback of Revised Pages

Feedback for Gail

Gail shared 2 revised student services pages with us: Housing & Student Activities

File:Suggestions for Website Redesign, Housing and Student Organizations 6 25 09.pdf

Housing Page

• Good headings that guide the reader through the page
• We like the move from mostly bullet points to brief, conversational paragraphs
  • List of links to search for rentals could still be a bulleted list
  • Last 2 sentences of 1 paragraph could be combined (private housing database info + contact us link)
• Too many colors going on in the text makes it feel choppy (this doesn't really matter since font styles will be dictated by the CSS stylesheet)
• External links should open in a new window; internal links within the MIIS site should open in the same window
• Pages vs. PDF files: tips for housing should be a page within the site instead of a PDF file
• No elaborate introduction; gets right down to the nitty gritty -- we like it!
• Don't open with a negative statement ("does not have dormitories" seems like a bit of a downer, begin with a more positive statement)
• Timeliness of the videos may be a concern -- student in MIIS Casa has graduated and employee in advice video no longer works here

Student Activities Page

• Inclusion of RSS feeds = good, though it may not be good to use them exclusively
• An introductory paragraph would be a nice touch
• "Student Organizations" may not be the correct term --> Student Initiatives?
• Follies and International Bazaar may deserve more highlighting since in the RSS feeds, they will only show up once a year
• The Foghorn feed is not super active; may not deserve such prime page real estate

Miscellaneous

Resources

Rebecca Walters, web writer extraordinaire, thought that some excerpts from Made to Stick: Why some ideas die and others survive would be helpful when rewriting pages. She particularly likes the Six Principles of Sticky Ideas (towards the bottom of the page).

Members of our team all have dramatically different tasks. Some need to reduce heavy text, some need to reduce bullet points, some need more info, some need less. Always think to yourself “how is the best way to communicate this message?” rather than any “rules”. Video/bullet points/RSS feeds are not always better. Check out other websites and see what you like – Lynn likes Oberlin’s website, http://new.oberlin.edu/ so check that one out and share some you like as well.

Questions for Middlebury

• Will staff bios/profiles be linked to Banner? the directory?
• Can the Banner info that's fed to directory be manipulated to show adjunct faculty even when they are not on payroll?
• Can Drupal be set to send you an email "nudge" when your page needs updating? Can you set it to remind you when certain information may go out of date?
• Is there a database where we should be entering the stories we have collected?