Web Advisory Committee Meeting September 17 2014

Web Advisory Committee 

3:00p.m., September 17, 2014. MC 2018 a/b

Present:

Donald Duff-McCracken (Chair), Darren Bondy (Secretary), Daniel Allen, Tanya Balian Bedrossian, Kirsty Budd, Janice Cooke, Michelle Douglas-Mills, Chris Francis, Marlon Griffith, Dianne Inacio, Jim Johnston, Pat Lafranier, Andrew McAlorum, Lisa McAughey (guest), Amy Meredith, Liam Morland, Kevin Paxman (guest), Megan Saunders, Terry Stewart, Jeff Voskamp (guest), Heather Wey

Regrets: Marta Bailey, Cynthia Breen, Collin McIntyre, Mark McKay, Rose Padacz

Absent:

Amy Aldous, Dave Annable, Herbert Balagtas, Nigel Henriques,  Karen Jack, Paul Miskovsky, Elizabeth Rogers, Susan Shifflett, Andrew Smith, Andrea Sweet, Victoria Van Cappellen

1. Chair’s Remarks (Don Duff McCracken)

  • Dave Wallace will be attending the next meeting to provide an update on Web Steering.
  • The Redesign group that has been meeting on a regular basis (but summer holiday schedules have gotten a bit in the way). They hope to be able to report some progress next meeting.
    • We are looking for designers/developers to be a part of this group. If you or anyone you know is interested please contact Don Duff-McCracken.

2. Library Website (Andrew McAlorum)

Andrew McAlorum demonstrated the Responsive Web Design (RWD) beta site for the library homepage.

  • In 2014 a website should be mobile friendly and the current homepage was not.
  • For now, the approach was to build the homepage/front page for the Library outside of the WCMS.
  • 70% of the library web traffic is to the library homepage.
  • At the end of August they did a closed beta launch of the main site for usability testing and feedback gathering.
  • Hard launch is planned for December-January.
  • They have also upgraded to the new version of Primo (our Library catalogue) and it is also responsive.
  • There are lots of design changes including a mega menu and an integrated search platform.
  • Everyone is encouraged to visit the beta site at http://lib.uwaterloo.ca/beta and send us feedback.

Questions and comments

  • On the beta site, it seems that the Waterloo main site search and menu options are not there. Have they been moved?
    • They have not been implemented on the beta site yet. We will be using a “hamburger" icon for the menu and a search option in the top right corner eventually.
  • Are all of the Library’s pages responsive?
    • Currently just the front page; the long term strategy is to have a WCMS theme that is responsive for all of the Library pages but that is not possible at this time.

3. Approval of minutes of July 2014 meeting.

The minutes of the July meeting were approved as distributed.

4. Business Arising

None

5. Waterloo CMS Update (Heather Wey/Kevin Paxman)

  • Kris Olafson is no longer with the University; we are in a transition phase right now. Kris was an incredible asset to the University and we wish him well in his new adventures!
    • The position has been posted in HR and that process is ongoing; please contact Pat Lafranier if you have any issues, comments or concerns.
  • Technical update (Kevin Paxman)
    • Upgraded Drupal to 7.31 (latest version).
    • Upgraded the WCMS to version 1.8.8 from 1.8.5.
    • The WCMS had a brief downtime on August 8th due to an issue with a network switch.
    • Another brief down time on August 11th which was traced to a drive issue on the database.
      • Both of these issues were resolved.
    • We are working on getting the 1.9 release out (hopefully before the end of the month); this is a very big release. Some of the key features of this release include:
      • Site managers will be able to delete files.
      • Fixed print CSS so that users don’t have to select “fit to page”
      • Link checker will be able to find anchors on pages, where the href elements is improperly formatted (has spaces around the = sign).  
      • Now collecting first and last name for users in the system; will autofill from WatIAM on creation.
      • Will be introducing some protection to the home page to prevent certain behaviours including un-publishing and disabling.  
      • Additional filters for the “view all” content.
      • Will be introducing a global analytics code so we will finally have site wide analytics ability.
      • Bug fixes. 
    • Been working on heavily customized site for the “Strategic plan in action” site for IAP which is expected to launch at the end of the month.  
    • After we are done the 1.9 release, we are expecting at least one more “major” release including plans to upgrade to Google Analytics 2.0. After that we will begin to focus our resources on tasks for responsive design.
  • Training update (Heather Wey)
    • Some spots still open in SEW courses for September and October.
    • The Writing for the Web SEW course was cancelled for September and October.
    • Andrea Jennings has accepted the position of WCMS Training & Support coordinator.
    • Carly McLeod has accepted a 1 year contract starting September 1, 2014 as WCMS Training & Support specialist.
    • Michael Tjendra accepted a 1 year contract starting September 1, 2014 as WCMS Training & Support specialist.
    • We have 1 co-op this term and will have 1 in the Winter term.
    • We have reached another milestone and that is 400 sites now on the WCMS.
    • Reminder for site managers to review permissions for their sites for the new term.
    • There are more “how-to” documents on the web resources site and more will be added; the site has also had a design makeover.

6. Other Business

None

7. Adjournment

Adjournment at 3:40pm.