CFR Web Advisory Committee Minutes
November 20, 2007
Attending: Diemer, Mehlin, Morrison, Paul, West
Absent: Lutz, Moskal, Panza, Trudeau
1. Minutes for the November 15 meeting were approved.
2. Jon announced that he had created a web page for this committee at
http://www.cfr.washington.edu/internal/committees/committees/CFRAdvisoryCommi
ttee.htm. In addition to listing the members of the committee and links to meeting
minutes, this page also contains a mission statement. While not strictly applicable to
an ad-hoc committee such as this, it was agreed that this committee would most
likely continue to exist after the initial redesign of the CFR web site. Therefore, we
agreed on the following mission statement:
To oversee the CFR website to make it more appealing and relevant to prospective
students, to emphasize the College’s leadership role in research and education, and to
utillze the latest web development technology and standards.
3. We briefly discussed the UW’s Accessibility Guidelines, which Tracy had brought
to our attention. Jon will make sure the UW Publications Services (UWPS) designers
and developers follow these guidelines.
4. In addition to the design criteria agreed upon at the November 15 meeting
(Minutes, item 5), the following were added:
- (modified from 11/15 list) drop-down menus will be avoided, but if used will not
cover up any other content on the page
- (modified slightly from 11/15 list) colors should be light forest green and tan/beige
- minimize horizontal scrolling
- limit vertical scrolling, if any, to a maximum of 2 pages
- use miniature trees or other CFR-related graphics as separators on all footers
(rather than the double bars - ||)
- banner on all pages should have the CFR logo, UW and CFR hot spots, a search
box, and a long, narrow photograph, with the skyline of Seattle on the left and Mt.
Rainier on the right, symbolizing the wide diversity of programs, from urban ecology
to forest ecosystem management
5. We listed design and content criteria for our new home page, which Jon will pass
on to the UWPS designers, and ask for 2-3 design options from them for the
committee to review.
- centered, but not overly narrow - maybe 2/3 of the “typical” 17-inch display screen
- photographic banner, as described in #4 above
- 2-level menu bar under the banner, like the one UW Biology uses (Centers may
have to be an exception, since there are too many to fit on the second menu line)
- three relatively large photos, to change sequentially every 10 seconds, with each
photo representing one of the College’s undergraduate programs or graduate areas
of interests; the first photo that appears in each position will be selected randomly
- a section for News and Events
- a new Welcome message, perhaps interspersed with the photos mentioned above;
possibly shorter than the current message, depending on how much information we
can convey using the photos
NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, November 27, 10-11 AM, Anderson 107A
WACMinutes112007.doc
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