Web Advisory Council meeting minutes

July 12, 3017

Project update

Dina provided general updates made to the web support website.

Membership

The WAC consists of a core membership. Anyone wanting to be added to the official list should seek a recommendation to be added via their Trustee (Vice President). The recommendation should be sent to the CIO.

Suggestions for Charter/Policy Procedures

No suggestions were given. The Policy and Procedures document and Charter can be found on the web support website. Steve Burrell has presented the policy to Dr. Cheng for approval. Any follow-up suggestions can be sent to Dina Barnese.

Presentation on roles of Unit Web Coordinator and Web Steward: Information for Unit Coordinators and Web Stewards is available on the web support website.

Items for review and recommendation

By consensus affirmation, any recommendations concerning changes to web design should be forwarded to the CIO and the CMO for evaluation and recommendation to the Trustees. Consensus may be derived through appropriate procedures determined by the Council (voting if necessary, or otherwise by affirmation).

A. Library would like to request removal of “Apply Now” and “Request Information” buttons from below the “Contact Us” box on their homepage.

Discussion
The sense is that the buttons will be highly confusing in relation to the services that the library offers. The concern is that students would confuse the “Request Information” button with requesting information from the library as opposed to recruitment efforts.

Development and Alumni engagement feel that this same issue would apply to them.

The group was in agreement that the buttons will be more useful if non-academic departments are allowed to customize them, as needed. Note that the “Request Information” and “Apply Now” buttons are persistent in the footer, so will still be present on the page.

Council Recommendation
We are seeking approval to be given the option to customize the buttons to meet the needs of units that are not academic units. Consider the area as a “call to action” area.

B. Student & Departmental Account Services has submitted requests for several changes to the menus on the NAU homepage.

Discussion
There was also a request to add appropriate information to http://nau.edu/admissions/tuition-and-cost/. After reviewing the requests to the menu, the group agreed that a change to content on the Tuition and Cost page is a better approach than adding items to the menu on the Marketing theme.

Council Recommendation
No recommendation to the Trustees. The Council agreed to not recommend changes to the menu structure for nau.edu and instead add appropriate information to the Tuition and Costs webpage. Tracie Hansen and Nick Kraft from EMSA will work with Jaime Smith from SADS to update the content and ensure the Student Accounts information is accurately represented.

C. Honors College has requested to be added to the Academics dropdown in the Marketing theme

Discussion

Honors College is already represented on the Colleges and Schools page under ACADEMICS.

Could be put into the promotional spot on the menu, but won’t show on mobile until we develop that functionality.

We can put the list of colleges at the top of the page with anchors to the colleges. This approach was well received by the Council and blessed by Disability Resources as a good change to the page for non-mouse users.

Council Recommendation

No recommendation to the Trustees. The Council agreed to not recommend changes to the menu structure for nau.edu and instead change the content on http://nau.edu/academics/colleges-and-schools/. The changes of the page will consist of an alphabetized list of colleges at the top of the page (underneath the hero image) with anchors to the college information within the page. In addition, Honors College will be moved to the top of the college content blocks. Marketing will take care of this change.

Follow-up items:

• Formalize the request process – Dina Barnese
• Add Student Accounts information to the Tuition and Costs web page – Tracie Hansen & Nick Kraft
• Add an alphabetized list of colleges to the top of the Colleges and Schools page with anchors, and move Honors College information block to the top of the content blocks – Jeremy Whisnant