I'm meeting with Garrett this Thursday and he's also supposed to meet with the rest of the college cooordinators. I'll be sure and bring it up. Our dean of the Fairbanks Center is really ready to have a permanent spot on the home page and will take it higher if I don't report back what action is being conducted.

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Cynthia Shade
Cy-Fair College Web Coordinator
281.290.3984
[email protected]

Agreed. I have a meeting this Wednesday with Garrett also. I would suggest we put forth a list of the things we want addressed.

From the looks of it, Estrada 2.0 is going to consume time and attention for the immediate future, so we must keep putting forth an effort for our concerns to be addressed timely.

Better for us to keep pressing than for them to be forgotten altogether.

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R. Bruce O'Neal
NHC Web Coordinator

My original post timed out and produced an error. Sorry for the redundancy.

I created a mock-up of a possible home page design. This is somewhat how I'd always envisioned adding these links to this page. I loaded it in the CFC College Relations Document Manager (http://www.cy-faircollege.com/Templates/content.aspx?pid=62173) if you'd like to take a look. This is just a draft. The images definitely need finesse. I hate the dark blue background on My Records. Thoughts?

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Cynthia Shade
Cy-Fair College Web Coordinator
281.290.3984
[email protected]

Apparently I'm encountering all sorts of problems with timing out. I've got too many things going at once. Anyway, the NEW URL for the home page template mock up is http://www.cy-faircollege.com/Templates/content.aspx?pid=62178. Sorry.

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Cynthia Shade
Cy-Fair College Web Coordinator
281.290.3984
[email protected]

Cynthia, that is super interesting. Unlike what i had imagined might happen. I really like it. The only issue i can see people raising is that the links still appear 'beneath the fold' when the page loads, at least in my browser. But i think it is great.

Yeah. I thought about that as well. I'm not sure how it is on other browsers, but on IE there is losts of room to tighten up some space. The rotating blocks have lots of height that could be removed.

OR... the links to eCampus, etc. could be moved under the main photo and above the rotating boxes. But I'd hate to do that since the rotating boxes contain timely info and the eCampus links are more permanent and therefore once learned are easy to find.

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Cynthia Shade
Cy-Fair College Web Coordinator
281.290.3984
[email protected]

I like where you positioned them but I don't like the shape of them. I realize that you're repeating the curve element from the top of the page but I think it creates some awkward white space.

Adding the links to the photo overlay was a "quick fix" recommendation. This particular quick fix could be accomplished in as little as one week. If we're going for a total home page redesign I think we need to consider a number of options. And, in fact, bring together a design team to look at the options.

For example: I've always thought that there should be 4 additional spaces exactly where you've placed them that were collapsed by default but could be expanded by the user. Each "space" would be able to titled whatever the college wanted and would have space for five or so links also defined at the local level.

This would give us the ability to add up to 25 college-specific links to our home pages without cluttering the look of the home pages.

In my opinion, a home-page redesign is a different kind of discussion than what we've had going here so far. I, for one, am up for the discussion...

I'm up for it as well. I just thought this might get the ball rolling.

I remember your collapsible boxes now that you mention them.

Also, I figured just adding the additional 4 boxes at the bottom would be a fairly simple fix as well. Maybe I'm naive. But a total redesign of the home page would take even longer... including figuring out how to do the collapsable boxes. I'm not sure I can hold off my folks much longer. They're already going to be disgruntled about the retraining.

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Cynthia Shade
Cy-Fair College Web Coordinator
281.290.3984
[email protected]

All good points and I'm so glad you did it. It helped to see something visual.

Garett said he'd follow up and try to get us some kind of meeting scheduled to talk about it. I'm willing to do a couple of mock-ups as well. Maybe if we all show up with ideas and/or visuals it will help push this thing forward.

I'll put some time into it on my end.

I like that you've used up some of that white space which to me has been wasted. I echo Elisa, not sure I like the curved look too much.

I think when we initially discussed this, we were looking for a quick fix that could easily happen in the overlay to quell those concerned about eCampus (and possibly MyRecords) not getting enough real estate. Also, can the height of the marketing boxes be decreased so that we could have more than three (3)?

Personally, I want my marketinig boxes back. We have 9 items rotating, but only ONE (1) box rotates, so many things go unnoticed on the site.

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R. Bruce O'Neal
NHC Web Coordinator

I discussed the "MyRecords and eCampus" issue with a few people and consensus was that moving them to the photo overlay is a great idea, but some approval will probably have to be made there. We will be looking towards a change like this when we move to the new Estrada because of the greater flexiblity of the template in the new system. Apparently a change like that has more difficulty then I thought. It was only discussed, but we might look at the possibility of more marketing boxes too (like six, two rows of three was just a brainstorm), but nothing official with that.

As for the meeting, could you all send me agenda items for the meeting and I will get with John and we will schedule a meeting.

Thanks Garett. Will do!!

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Elisa Burleigh
Web Coordinator
Montgomery College

Yes, two rows with three columns would be great.

As for the agenda, John already has my items and I 'think' Elisa's too.

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R. Bruce O'Neal
NHC Web Coordinator

Oh. Do you mean agenda items for a "special" meeting to talk about the home page. Or, the agenda items from our last meeting that we didn't get to talk about?

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Elisa Burleigh
Web Coordinator
Montgomery College

Just regular agenda items, if you sent some to John can you go ahead and send them to me too. If it was something we didnt get to hit last time, go ahead and send that too.

Perhaps as far as 'more marketing boxes, i.e. two rows of three' we might consider creating a few different templates from which to choose.

For example, a college may choose two rows of three, but, when there are slower periods and fewer things to advertise, they may switch to three boxes again.

Just as i worry about not having decent space to share meaningful items, i worry about having to fill decent space with meaningless fluff.

Thanks Garret. I'm sure we'll come to some consensus that meets all our needs. I look forward to our meeting.

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Cynthia Shade
Cy-Fair College Web Coordinator
281.290.3984
[email protected]

Garrett, I will get those agenda items to you today.

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R. Bruce O'Neal
NHC Web Coordinator