[38] in IS Home Pages
Re: New IS Home Pages
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dryfoo@MIT.EDU)
Wed Apr 8 15:40:36 1998
From: <dryfoo@MIT.EDU>
To: is-home@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 02 Apr 1998 11:52:44 EST."
<199804021652.LAA27586@psb-cwis2.MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 08 Apr 1998 15:40:12 EDT
Suz, et al.,
I'm looking at the old and new versions side-by-side. I like the
simplicity of the main page. Seems to cover everything, and I'm
guessing it'll be easier to find things.
The elegance carries over into the sub-pages. I like the new layout
with the sub-heads down the left side. Much easier to parse.
The "Views" page is a good cut at the info, and will probably be
helpful.
(It would be great to be able to closely track people who're looking for
something in particular, but I think you have to practically get CoHE
permission for human vivisection to be allowed to do that.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's a real test: I got a call a week or so back from someone who had
cut out a job listing and wanted to get in touch with the "Data
Operations Services Team" (as if I had a clue). How hard/easy would it
be for someone to just _find_ any particular team by name under the new
arrangement? Let's see:
Starting from the top page I select "About IS"
About IS -> Standing Teams (is it a "standing" team? I don't
know, and an outside caller certainly wouldn't)
At Standing Teams I do a search for "Data Operations" --> NOPE!
Not found.
Okay, so although an outsider wouldn't understand this, I can look
through the "Processes" (or is it the "Practices"?, or maybe
"Provisions"?, or "Precepts", or "Programs"? or what? With the new
layout, that bit of opaqueness is made more clear for me).
Anyway, I stay with that page and scroll down through Service (the team
has "Services" in its name) and I find a "Database Services Team" and a
"Datacenter Operations Services Team" -- neither one is exactly what was
in the job listing, but both are close and so we have a modified
success. And in much less time than it actually took me with the old
version.
Now I guess that the underlying page for the teams is still the current
version (//web.mit.edu/is/teams/) and not part of the dev re-formatting,
the new layout made it easier to get there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another test: I'll try to find my minicourse schedules.
From the top, I choose Training. Under Training I find Current
Offerings and Athena Minicourses, with a link to exactly the right page.
Also, I like the course locations guide. If that's a stable feature,
I'll add pointers to that from my materials as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm sure there's a lot more poking I should do at the new layout, but I
can say for now that given a choice of which one I'd want to use, the
new one is a clear win.
-- Gary
} Hi,
}
} For some time now, a team has been meeting to reorganize the web pages
} for Information Systems. We're now writing to ask for your feedback on
} what works and what can be improved:
}
} http://web.mit.edu/is/dev
}
} The focus of the team has been on structure and content rather than
} design, though we believe the new look is workable for now.
}
} Some of the documents in the IS Web tree are obviously outdated. Once
} the team receives feedback on the pages and information structure as a
} whole, we hope to be a resource for individuals and teams to discuss
} areas that need updating and maintenance issues, so please let us know
} if you have concerns or suggestions on that score.
}
} You can send your feedback to is-home@mit.edu.
}
} Thanks in advance,
}
} The IS Web pages team:
}
} Suzana Lisanti, Team Leader
} Danielle Aivasian
} Rocklyn Clarke
} Kevin Cunningham
} Robyn Fizz
} Janet Littell
} Rob Smyser
} Oliver Thomas
}
}
