Subject: Re: UWired Usability Committee - May 14 Meeting



NEXT MEETING:  Friday, June 11, 2:30 to 3:30pm, at the offices of UW
               Educational Outreach, 5001 25th Ave NE. Bill Corrigan is 
               host.

Some quick notes:

Attending: Doug Brock, Bill Corrigan, Rick Ells, Scott Macklin, 
           Connie Missmer, Kathryn Sharpe, Helene Williams 

Welcomed Doug Brock, Assistant Professor in Dept. of Medical Education, to
the committee.

Projects people are working on:
  Bill - Working on RealNetworks streaming media test site. Will send 
         everyone evaluation forms for the site.
  Rick - New design for C&C Computing Training class pages based on
         files. Example is at 
            http://www.washington.edu/computing/training/519/
         Description of how to create a class site is at
   http://www.washington.edu/computing/training/instructors/devclass.html
  Connie - Evaluating UW NetID Web pages
  Helene - Libraries Web catalog
  Doug - Medical education learning sites
  Scott - Working on redesign of UWired site along a service based
         structure and navigation scheme. Trying to achieve 
         "particularity with integration"
  Kathryn - UW NetID Web pages and services, visual display of information
         and concepts

Usability Aspects of the UWired Web Site:
  o Need to "bust loose" from old model
  o Increasing, Web browsers are becoming a tool to DO SOMETHING,
    not just read something.
  o People use the Web with tasks and goals in mind
  o Need to do something with information
  o Can a site be developed that has user defined (or selected)
    paradigm, so that user can engage site the way they want to
    use it?
  o Current UWired site has a lot of dead stuff - things that have not 
    changed with the times or are outright wrong.
      - Whether or not an area is being maintained can be a good 
        clue that it is not needed. 
  o Speed is important - sluggish graphics kill interest
  o Current design is a bit too complicated, repetitive.
  o Current design wastes top of page - large UWired logo on every 
    page. Should not squander prime real estate
  o Use of graphics should closely integrate with content, 
    indicating what is what, what can I do here. Graphics should not
    just be for decoration
  o Graphic design in the context of a hypermedia environment is not
    well understood - Allen Woodard is working with Undergraduate 
    Education on a new "identity" for them and is interested in ideas
    on how to integrate the design well with usability and technology.
  o The key to the approach is to think nodally and interconnect the 
    nodes. Each node might be a task, a service, a process, etc.
  o Dealing with a fundamental tension between providing step-by-step
    or checklist task oriented pages versus comprehensive structured
    information pages.

Future Discussion:
  o Usability of educational sites. Connie suggested people read
      "Hypermedia Learning Environments, Instructional Design and 
       Integration" by Piet Kommers and Scott Grabinger

Other:
  o Scott recently met with Cynthia Atman, Associate Professor of 
    Industrial Engineering and Director of the Center for 
    Engineering Learning and Teaching in the College of 
    Engineering. They recently received $70,800 in Tools for 
    Transformation funding.
  o Scott talked with Larry Leifer, Director of the Stanford 
    Learning Lab and Sheri Shepard, Mechanical Engineering 
    Associate Professor at Stanford, about their Computer
    Supported Collaborative Learning project. Information about
    the project can be found on Stanford Learning Lab site:
      http://learninglab.stanford.edu/
  o Bill shared brochure for upcoming conference on Web design:
      Web Design World: Publishing for the Next Millenium
        put on by Thunderlizard Productions
      Information available on the Web:
        http://www.thunderlizard.com/tlp/wdworld.html

To Dos:
  * Bill will send everyone an evaluation form for his RealNetworks site
  * Everyone should send their list of important services and tasks that
    should be on the new UWired site